Dealing with religious customer requests.....

So could use some advice....

I'm a glass artist...and I sell my work to a lot of different people from all over the world.(mostly chicka stuffs, hearts, jewelry, roses ect)

I figure its best not to get into religion politics ect with my customers, right?...course not chickfila here.

BUT I keep getting custom work requests for crosses, angels.....religions symbols. Which while I could make them...I really dont want to make them.
About every other week I'll get an email requesting this.

Hubby thinks I am being silly...money is money and this is a biz.

Plus turning them down is always a flopper... not that I go "no, your insane im atheist and dont make silly crosses"...but have yet to find the words. That turn it down and keeps them reasonably happy with me. :(

Thoughts? suggestions?

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Permalink Reply by Colleen on September 29, 2012 at 8:44pm

Consider this - the more we avoid something, the more we give it power.

You can also consider that art is symbolic, and the bible is a story that many people know (or think they know), nothing more. That aside, these symbols have been used in a number of ways, not just for religions. Making this art is a far cry from actively supporting a church or religion.

If you'd still rather not do it because it bothers you (which I can understand), maybe you can try advertising for more specific genres to decrease the requests and subsequent denials?

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Permalink Reply by Mo Trauen on September 29, 2012 at 9:57pm

No one can really decide this but yourself. As others have said, the big question is how much you need the money. I can suggest one compromise, however. You could raise your prices for special orders of religious art. That might motivate you to accept the orders. Just a suggestion.

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Permalink Reply by Donald S. Chase on September 29, 2012 at 10:01pm

I've always been guided by Hamlets' soliloquy "this above all, to thine own self be true". If you feel they are insane and you are an atheist and don't make silly crosses, then just say "no, your (sic) insane i'm atheist and don't make silly crosses." Only cowards fear their bigotry.

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Permalink Reply by archaeopteryx on September 29, 2012 at 11:20pm

Actually Don, that was Polonius' advice to his son, Laertes, as he sent him off to college, but the play was indeed, Hamlet,

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Permalink Reply by Doug Reardon on September 29, 2012 at 10:19pm

email? just don't respond and add them to your spam list.

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Permalink Reply by Strega on September 29, 2012 at 10:22pm

Actually, Doug, that's quite good.

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Permalink Reply by archaeopteryx on September 29, 2012 at 11:18pm

Breanna, obviously I'm an atheist or I wouldn't be here, but I'm also a Pisces. Yes, I agree that astrology falls into the same supernatural category as religion, but as legend goes, Pisces see things from more than one point of view, and so do I, so one explanation for that is as good as any other.

As an artist myself, I truly understand your dilemma, but I have read much recently about those who work in pharmacies, who, though they may be Catholic, or otherwise believe that we have no business interfering with the reproductive process, are being asked to sell birth control pills.

I. of course, am not one of those - in fact, I owe eternal thanks to birth control pills, I simply stress that there are others, on the other side of the coin, who may well feel the same as you do about violating their principles. How about you inform your client of your own beliefs, then agree to make the piece for them if they still insist?

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Permalink Reply by Heather Spoonheim on September 30, 2012 at 12:45am

Every dollar given to you by a Christian is a dollar they aren't putting in the collection plate.

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Permalink Reply by James Cox on September 30, 2012 at 1:19am

Yes, but does this mean that special Theist accounts should be created for the wonderfil boat?

Nah.

If you feel bad about taking the money, send part of it to ThinkAtheist!

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Permalink Reply by archaeopteryx on September 30, 2012 at 1:23am

Or to me --

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Permalink Reply by archaeopteryx on September 30, 2012 at 1:23am

I had that same thought myself - great minds DO think alike!

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Permalink Reply by SteveInCO on September 30, 2012 at 8:25am

I remember someone I know, very anti-religious, who said if she owned a bookshop, she *would* sell bibles. But they would be in a dark corner of the shop and, somehow, that dead lightbulb over head--or perhaps the fluorescent tube that is flickering enough to make one fear an epileptic seizure--would just never get fixed.

I guess an analogous tactic is to take the commission--but no money up front!--and slowroll it, make it a bit frustrating on their part to deal with you without making it obvious that you are doing so deliberately, or why you are doing it.