RIP Kilted Liberal
Now this is the kind of bedtime story where the moral gets laid out in the front. Pagan blogrolls recorded the un-forewarned demise of Kilted Liberal this week, whose owner came into a nasty shock during employee review. One of his co-workers with whom he shared the existence of his blog, and there by his religion, history of addiction, and sexual interests, printed out pages and pages of juicy content to share with his boss. Who docked him from a 5% yearly raise to 3%.
That was just to make you all gasp. His evangelical Christian boss said it was nobody’s business about the content of the blog. But. But Andy had posted 6 times from work, and well, that is a issue of employee misconduct. I even had to sign statements against blogging when I started with Homeland Security, and I don’t even have access to a computer at work. So he gave Andy a slap on the wrist that totals to about $500 per $25,000 base salary. Kilted Liberal lies in its grave under the banner “You know who you are… and you suck.”
You can contact Andy for the location of his new blog, and I’m going to wait a little while to blogroll his new one so it’s not so obvious. (Though I will spoil that he’s on blogspot!) Reality exists somewhere between fearmongering and fluffy bunny love for everyone. I loved Kilted Liberal, but I really can’t get past the idea that someone with evangelicals in the office would share the addy of their pagan blog where they talk about a longing for a liquid lunch. Sigh. Best to remember that the world is full of Don Quixotees- adorned even in pearls and pumps.
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blogging, christianity, wicca, wiccan, witchcraft, witch, pagan, paganism
posted by omelas @ 1:36 PM
6 Comments:
I am absolutely horrified. Andy is such a wonderful, warm, lovely man whose blog I have frequented since before he had his own domain name and webspace, before his child was born. I am shocked.
Shocked, shocked, shocked. Horrified. Disgusted, definitely. I've never yet met an evangelical Christian who wasn't a conniving, wicked, deceitful, hypocritical, malevolent and pathetic yet dangerous excuse for a human being. Followers of Christ, indeed. He'd have knocked over their car boot sale tables, accused them from the pulpits of the churches and smashed all the recording equipment of their money-making TV shows.
This makes me so bloody angry to read. Poor Andy. Only in America could be be docked his wage, lose a percentage of his raise and face this kind of shit (excuse my language, but grr grrr double grrr!). x
Here I am, responding. Doesn't anyone else feel as though it was a mite unprofessional to direct people in his office to a blog where he's discussing material that he'd certainly never discuss at work?? He should have realized it would alter his coworkers' perceptions of him, and make for a more uncomfortable work environment. How much do we really need to know about our coworkers' personal lives?
He also broke office policy by blogging from work. The whole situation could have been avoided with a bit of forethought. At least he didn't lose his entire raise.
I don't know that evangelical Christianity had much to do with the situation. And I will concede that the petty actions of his coworker who printed out pages of the blog with malicious intent, make me ill. Sadly, maliciousness like that isn't confined to a religion. It's just the way some people are.
In any case, he has a new blog up and running, proving that it's impossible to keep a good blogger down. Let's hope he exercises better judgement in the future about separation of personal vs work life.
Andy- Ah, you missed the part of the story where the evangical Christian boss said he didn't care what was in Andy's blog, but that Andy was in trouble for blogging from work. Which is a big no-no everywhere. So he didn't turn out to be a bad person, just a stern boss. But the back-stabbing nature of co-workers..... who at least failed to set them at each other's throats. Poor Andy, but at least the woman flees whenever she sees Andy coming. Hi, btw, but I miss your little cauldron. :Sob: :)
B- hi! (just b?) What did evangelical Christianity have to do with things? Just the mix. The coworker obviously thought that she could "inflame" their boss' prejudices in order to get Andy in way more trouble then he ended up. And was she shocked when he didn't get fired. So it was like the surprising thing, the unexpected person who was reasonable.
Could it possibly be that Andy was writing about the personal lives of his co-workers in his blog? Could it be that Andy writes in his blogs that he hates the unprofessional people he works with and the unprofessional company he works for (along with this country, republicans, the president, etc.)on that company's computer during business hours? It seems to me that religion, alcoholism or kilts had nothing to do with it. More stupidity than anything.
I'm saddened by the assumptions of some people that all Christians are "conniving, wicked, deceitful, hypocritical, malevolent and pathetic."
Wicked, I might be from time to time, but I really don't think any of the other tags apply to me. Ok, maybe conniving now and then. But, you get my point.
I've met the Kilted Liberal once at a bloggers' breakfast and thought he was very nice despite our political differences. I don't have to talk politics with everyone and don't really care what a person's politics are if they are a decent human being. He was. I find that his coworker was despicable for doing that to him.
I also agree that it isn't wise to share your blog with your coworkers. I have made it a point to NEVER give my blog address to anyone I'm professionally tied with. I've had people stumble across my blog and figure out who I am, but I won't make it easy for them, to say the least.
I'm looking forward to stumbling across his new blog from time to time. He is a gifted writer.
army of mom: As you'll know now from the comment you left on my blog and my response if you read it, I don't think that of ALL Christians and a careful reading of my comment here will show that I did NOT reference ALL Christians as 'conniving, wicked, etc' but I was very, very specific to reference EVANGELICALS.
I was for three years an evangelical Christian myself in my teenage years and write from experience which tells me they are a breed apart from the more general Christian. Their focus is almost exclusively on condemnation more than good works, on attack rather than forgiveness. So please, read my words carefully before attributing them to a wholesale attack on all Christians which wasn't made and wouldn't be made.
Olive: I did know what the employer said but am disinclined to believe it necessarily the case if the boss is an evangelical Christian bearing in mind the many pronouncements from his ilk which cross the water and make occasional news here. I know it is not beyond the bounds of reason to say that evangelicals are not always the most honest people and if they can take an opportunity to do the work of God under disguise of following procedure, then they will take it.
It's not dissimilar to, say, as one example, the focus on the importance of 'caring for the little children' being used as a tool against gay or single people adopting. Of course I am prejudiced; I freely admit that but there's something about a past experience of being excommunicated from an entire evangelical community after a vicious and frightening enforced exorcism which at the time I didn't realise was a form of abuse that does that to a man.
That said, I have all the time in the world for decent Christians who recognise the basic tenets of their beliefs teach primarily love, forgiveness and certainly not condemnation, coercion and control.
Sorry I haven't been round for a while. Life has been busy and is full of sorrow right now as I've suffered bereavement - the death of my 19-year-old tabby cat and long-time best friend and confidante in this world. I can't blog on my own space at the moment and so am wandering my blogroll to see how my friends in virtual space are doing... x
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