URGE AMERICAN AIRLINES TO
ESTABLISH GUIDELINES,
STOP RELIGIOUS PROSELYTIZING
OF PASSENGERS
There are reports that an American Airlines pilot "terrified" passengers when he asked Christians on board the plane to identify themselves, and urged them to proselytize during the flight.
According to witnesses, the pilot of Los Angeles to New York Flight 34 last Friday used the plane's public address system and asked passengers to "raise their hands if they were Christian." He then said, "Everyone who doesn't have their hand raised is crazy... Well you have a choice: You can make this trip worthwhile, or you can sit back, read a book and watch the movie."
Flight attendants were so concerned that they contacted ground control, and had to assure passengers that they were not in immediate danger. Press reports, including a story in the NY Daily News said that passengers were "frantic," and feared that the pilot "might have some sinister plans for the flight."
The pilot had reportedly just returned from a missionary trip to Costa Rica. American Airlines says that the company has guidelines about "inappropriate behavior" and is looking into the incident.
But Friday's incident raises concerns about the growing problem of religious
proselytizing in the workplace. Now it is affecting the general public as well.
AMERICAN ATHEISTS urges you to contact AMR (the parent company of American Airlines) President and Chief Executive Officer Gerard J. Arpey with your concerns.
* Request that the airline review its corporate policies on employee training and, if necessary, revise its policies to ensure that religious proselytizing of this nature does not occur again.
* Ask that any employee or company officials engaged in this grossly inappropriate behavior receive whatever reprimand is called for.
Address your letters of concern to:
Mr. Gerard J. Arpey
President, CEO American Airlines
PO Box 619616
DFW Airport, Texas 75261-9616
You can fax your letter to Mr. Arpey at: 1-817-967-4162. You may also contact Customer Relations at 1-817-967-2000.
American Airlines' Investor Relations has an email address which may reach Mr. Arpey: Investor.Relations@aa.com. Put "Attn: Gerard Arpey" in the subject line and/or message body.
Tips on Writing
* Be brief and polite.
* Point out that such religious proselytizing is inappropriate for a major corporation, that it insults customers who are not religious, or may be members of a different religious faith.
* Employees and customers often constitute a "captive audience." Passengers cannot leave the plane, employees need to stay on the job and earn a living. Religious proselytizing in the workplace is not about free speech, but rather coercing a 'captive audience" to listen to a sectarian message in an inappropriate environment.
* Request that American Airlines review policies and act to ensure that such an incident does not occur in the future.
* Ask for a reply to your letter.
Send us copies of your letters, and we will post a selection of them on this web site. Replies from American Airliens can also be sent and posted.
(AMERICAN ATHEISTS is a nationwide movement that defends civil rights for nonbelievers; works for the total separation of church and state; and addresses issues of First Amendment public policy.)
Side of ReligionYou walk into a fast-food restaurant. You order a burger, fries, and a drink, and your server asks, "Would you like religion with that?" Sound impossible? That is essentially what is happening in the A&W in Frisco, where the owner, a Jewish Messianic Christian pastor, distributes leaflets on the "Jews for Jesus" movement and posts signs advertising chili fries, onion rings, and Jesus. Aren't people free to exercise their religion? Well, yes they are, although I doubt there is anything in the Jewish Messianic Christian religion about chili fries or restaurant advertising. That is not part of their religion. Nor is there anything in mainstream Christianity about needing to display large granite blocks of commandments. So free exercise is not the issue; people may freely exercise what their religion requires them to. The issue is public courtesy in a shared society.
This is the problem with all public expressions of religion, whether it is signs at A&W, commandments displays, or Hobby Lobby and Chik-Fil-A closing on Sundays to observe the Christian sabbath. Again, what can be the harm? Actually, plenty, as the Supreme Court has discovered. What if you are a Jew or Seventh Day Adventist working at Hobby Lobby, let alone Frisco A&W? You have to rest on "their" sabbath but you have to work on your own. This very problem led to the 1961 (Braunfeld v. Brown) case, where Jewish merchants complained about having to close on Sunday when their sabbath is Saturday, and the 1963 (Sherbert v. Verner) case, where a Seventh Day Adventist was fired for refusing to work on her sabbath. And sabbaths are just part of the problem. Courts have had to hear cases about marriage (Reynolds v. United States) on Mormon's "freedom to exercise" their polygamy), the Pledge of Allegiance (Minersville School District v. Gobitis) on Jehovah's Witnesses right to abstain), mandatory school attendance (Wisconsin v. Yoder) on Amish rights to absent themselves from public education), peyote use (Oregon Employment Division v. Smith) on "freedom to exercise" Native American religion), animal sacrifice (Church of the Lukumi Babalu Aye v. City of Hialeah) on "freedom to exercise" santeria), and many others. And the future holds more such complaints in store. What if a Muslim employee wanted to take the month of Ramadan off? Or wanted to take five breaks a day to pray? Or what if a Muslim or Jew or Buddhist or Hindu or anyone else was offended by Jesus signs at A&W? They could just eat or work at another restaurant, right? So we would have Christian restaurants and Jewish restaurants and Muslim ones, etc., each hiring and serving their own kind. In other words, we would have a religiously divided society Bush administration's "faith-based initiative" makes explicitly legal. The problem is simple: there are many different religions but only one common public life. Best to keep religion out of it so we can all feel included in every facet of our society. |
Letters
February 9, 2004
Dear Sir,
I am appalled by the actions of your pilot who recently chose to “share his faith” with the captive audience aboard his aircraft. I am sure he terrified most if not all of the passengers aboard in the name of religion.
As an atheist I abhor people who pontificate, but this goes beyond the pale. Forcing one’s views on anyone is despicable. Forcing one’s view on people who are looking at you to preserve their lives and calling them crazy because they do not share your viewpoint is completely unbalanced, irrational and totally unforgivable.
Unless I hear in the press that this individual is terminated, I personally – and all of my family and staff will never fly American again. Given a possible repeat of these circumstances, we would prefer to walk.
Sincerely,
Eric A. Santos, CDP CCP
February 9, 2004
Dear Mr. Arpey:
I am very concerned about the incident last Friday on American Airlines flight 34, where the pilot subjected the passengers and crew to unwelcome and threatening religious proselytizing, and I would request some response back on any actions that American Airlines will take to insure that this does not happen again.
I will be taking a cross-country trip very soon, and if I fly on American as I have done many times before, I need some sort of assurance that policies and procedures are in place to prevent such insulting and unprofessional incidents from recurring.
To subject a captive audience to proselytizing against their will, especially in the wake of religious Muslim fanatics on 9/11, is beyond poor taste and bad judgement, it is active terrorism- as evidenced by the attempts by the crew to calm passengers. Can you imagine what might have been going through these people's mind, not sure if they are going to live, at the hands of another fanatic? To engage in such inappropriate and threatening preaching displays an extreme lack of judgement in an individual who holds these people's live in his hands by that same judgement. I will never board any plane flown by this individual, and as a company, I would ask that you take whatever measures are necessary to protect the flying public.
My experiences have thus far been positive with American Airlines, and I would ask that you act quickly to correct the problems caused by this particular individual.
Sincerely,
Wayne Aiken
NC Director for American Atheists
Recently one of your pilots put his personal religious beliefs where they don't belong -- on an American Airline public address system.
The pres reports of his words are extremely disturbing...He was not thinking of the safety of the plane nor the physica or mental well being of the passengers when he went on this rant. Let him proselytize on his own time and in his own plane, not on you passengers' time or on your plane. Your passengers have paid for a safe flight from point A to point B. Safe, without unwanted, frightening and offensive challenges to their individual beliefs. His freedom of speech ends when your payroll clock begins.
I need to learn what you are doing to make sure that this sort of person never again has control of an AA plane or its public address system. Until I hear back, I'll be flying with other carriers. Hearing that he is being fired for violation of your policy would be a nice start. Lacking that, hearing that you are changing your policy so that this behavior would be a firing offense in the future would be a reasonable second effort.
I look forward to your reply.
Steve Epstein
A former (and perhaps future AA passenger)
I am writing to you to express my feelings regarding the comments of an American Airlines pilot to the crew and customers on Flight 34 from New York to Los Angeles. I believe strongly that his statements were extremely inappropriate in such an atmosphere. There were customers on that plane of many different religions, and some with no religion at all. Being an American Airlines customer myself made this seem even worse to me. I would strongly request and advise that you review your corporate airlines on employee training, and if necessary change these policies to ensure that such religious proselytizing does not occur again. I would hope that this captain is reprimanded for his grossly inappropriate and offensive actions. When flying on a plane, neither employees nor customers have the ability to leave so as not to listen to the pilot's sermon, nor should they have to if they did have such ability. This is particularly true in the airline industry, which has been receiving subsidies from public tax dollars in recent years. Please reply to this message and tell me what your company is doing to correct this grossly inappropriate behavior by one of your employees.
Sincerely,
S.F.
Chicago, IL
I am appalled that a person in a position of responsibility, the pilot of an aircraft, would be allowed to proselytize his religion, ANY religion to a captive audience. This cannot be passed off as a simple case of a person innocently voicing an opinion - this action was stunningly inappropriate, and frankly, frightening. Everyone gets nervous when religious zealotry raises it's head on an airplane. Speaking for myself and my family, no one in this house will fly American Airlines again until Capt. Findiesen is fired and a public apology issued. Please bear in mind that not everyone is a Christian, and NO ONE likes having someone else's religion forced down their throat. And please recall that the last time you had religious zealots at the controls of your airplanes, the date was 9-11.
Rick Wingrove
Virginia State Director for American Atheists
P.O. Box 650186
Sterling, VA 20165-0186
703.433.2464
rwingrove@atheists.org
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