I came across this blog the other day, and thought it was worth sharing with you:
Margaret Downey, successful businesswoman, atheist and social activist, was recently on a flight from Hawaii to Los Angeles on American Airlines. As the plane was coming in for landing, she awoke to Christian music playing over the plane's sound system.
In a letter to American Airlines, Ms. Downey writes,
In total we had to listen to three songs about a religious doctrine we find disturbing. I'm sure that a Jewish family, a Hindi family and nontheist people such as my husband and I were equally offended that American Airlines was promoting the Christian doctrine in a space that could not be escaped from. We were a captive audience!
I expect my airlines to remain neutral in matters of religion. This is why I will not fly Alaska Airlines. They promote and proselytize Christianity at ever opportunity.
Please confirm that this type of religious incident will not happen again when I use American Airlines. Please also explain who was responsible for the religious promotion on this flight -- the pilot and/or the staff.
As a Christian, even I notice when Christian music is being played in public places. I hear Chris Rice all the time in the grocery store; his last hit single, "When Did You Fall In Love" made the mainstream charts.
But those kind of benign love songs are quite different than actual worship music apparently piped into the cabin of Ms. Downey's plane.
Then again ...
How many songs with completely religious lyrics do we hear every day on the oldies radio stations and in public places where muzak is piped in? The Byrds' "To Everything (Turn, Turn, Turn)" is taken directly from the book of Ecclesiastes. "Jesus Is Just Alright" became a hit in 1973 when it was covered by The Doobie Brothers. Norman Greenbaum's "Spirit In The Sky."
And that's not even beginning to talk about artists with Christian themes in their music, from U2 to Bob Dylan to Johnny Cash to Van Morrison to a lot of country music.
So is hearing a worship song about the "glory and power of God," as Ms. Downey noted in her letter was playing in the plane's cabin, any different than hearing "Jesus Take The Wheel?" over the same sound system?
Surely, atheists shouldn't have to listen to preaching in public places where they're held captive - like the cabin of an airplane. Nor should Christians have to listen to music they find equally offensive to their religious beliefs in similar situations - perhaps Katy Perry's "I Kissed A Girl".
American Airlines responed to Ms. Downey, apologizing that she was offended and assuring her that "that your feedback is being shared with appropriate managers who oversee the areas of Flight Services and Inflight Products."
So when does the music cross the line? When it's sung by a Christian artist? Should Carrie Underwood be banned from being played? Would one song been tolerable but three too much? How does a public company respond?
I'd love to know what you think!
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In your post you failed to provide a link to the full source of the information, only a selected segment.
It is therefore very difficult to evaluate her comments in the context of the article she wrote. Therefore many people are speculating and trying to figure out why she was offended.
Her letter as quoted here also makes assumptions about other people's views, for which she has made an assumption. As an "Atheist" I find there is some religious music which is quite pleasant and some that just irritates me. Equally there is "secular" music that is pleasant and some which is irritating.
This whole post is speculative and subjective from what little facts are presented here.
I think the letter was completely appropriate to let American Airlines know that this made the last remaining minutes of the flight uncomfortable for her and her husband, as well as possibly offend or upset other passengers of differing faiths.
But I also would have done something before I wrote the letter so that I wouldn't have to ask in my letter who was responsible, I would have been able to tell them.
At the end of the flight as we are deplaning, the pilot is usually standing right at the cockpit door, along with the co-pilot and a steward or 2, and I would have made a point to ask who chose and played those 3 songs, instead of saying thank you/good-bye like everyone does.
Would it have held up the line of people to deplane? Well maybe for a minute, but deplaning always takes so long anyway, 1 more minute to ask to try to get an answer wouldn't have been so bad.
Or I would have deplaned and instead of rushing straight to baggage claim, I would have sent my flying partner there and I would have waited for the pilot to deplane and come down the hallway, and then ask him.
I would have wanted the name of the person responsible for choosing the music, and also for deciding to play it.
On every flight I have taken, usually with Jet Blue, Allegiance Air, or Delta, there has never been any type of music being played while boarding or deplaning, they always give out headphones so that passengers can choose their own music or watch the tv (in the case of Jet Blue with tvs in every seat).
I would have wanted to know the name of person who chose the music and decided to play it so that when I wrote my letter, I could include that information along with my flight information so that AA could specifically look up that flight and speak with the persons responsible for making the last 10-15 minutes of my flight uncomfortable.
Some asked if 1 song is ok or is 3 songs too many? Is there a number of songs that would have made it ok or worse?
Personally, even 1 song of this type would have upset me and made the last minutes of what was, a pleasant flight, now turn bad.
Instead of remembering a good flight, I would have been focused on that 1 song and how it made me feel, uncomfortable and wondering about the people on the plane of different faiths and how it made them feel.
I would have truly felt bad for the people of different faiths on the same flight.
People like all kinds of different music, no matter what type of music the airline played, it would have upset at the very least 1-5 passengers on any given flight, so this is why, in my opinion, that airlines should choose not to play any music at all at any time during any flight.
If they refrain from playing any music, then not a single passenger would have cause to be upset.
Airlines are in the business of transporting people in basically, captivity, we are a totally captive audience, we have no choice but to listen to anything that may be played or spoken at any time during our flight, so if an airline wants to keep all of it's passengers happy and continuing to choose to fly with them on all future flights, they should choose not to possibly offend even 1 single passenger, and choose not play anything at all.
This is of course, just my opinion, other people are obviously entitled to theirs and I've read them, but now that I know there is a possibility, even the very remote possibility, of American Airlines playing christian music during flights, even just the last 10-15 minutes of a flight, even just 1 single religious based song be it preachy or poppy like Jesus Take the Wheel, it has already made my decision of which airline to NOT fly with much easier.
I will not fly with American Airlines because of the possibility of christian music being played.
I really hope that whomever was responsible for the music was told that it was a bad idea and to refrain from doing it in the future, but I highly doubt the person responsible will stop.
Christians are supposed to share the word of their god with whoever they can whenever they can, they are supposed to share the message, so unless the person's job was on the line, they will probably, sadly, continue to do this on more flights in the future.
Am I being overly sensitive? Am I being intolerant?
No, I don't think so because this issue goes far beyond just me being upset or offended, this is about every single passenger on the flight with me and how they would be feeling about 1-3 songs of ANY religiously themed music being played.
I care about my fellow human beings, I care about their well being and their feelings, and it would upset me to know that someone, perhaps right in the next seat or behind me, was upset because of this type of thing.
In case it wasn't obvious, I am an atheist.
Robert ede, when I saw on the blog that the letter was from Ms. Downey's Facebook page, I contacted her via Facebook and asked for more information. She didn't respond to me. I did see, however, that she has asked her followers to weigh in her. So I could only use the letter to launch a discussion about when Christian music crosses the line.
Thanks!
Joanne
host of the Gospel Soundcheck blog
Kat, if you are making a decision to not fly on an airline because someone else heard 3 worship songs, then yes, you are intolerant and overly sensitive. Just like the reader who commended AA for playing worship songs and was going to write to congratulate them for playing Christian music and only fly AA.
Too often we make decisions based on other people's experiences instead of making our own decisions based on our own research. If for some reason American Airlines came back and said "Screw you, we'll play what we want," then sure, that would be a company policy that may not be customer-centric. But they seemed genuinely willing to address Ms. Downey's concerns.
Joanne
host of the Gospel Soundcheck blog
I just looked up the lyrics of I Kissed A Girl. They are not religious..why are you saying Christians might not like it? I suspect her audience is probably made up mostly of Christians..maybe some atheists. But since the majority in this country consider themselves Christian, her audience would reflect that.
Are you saying atheists are lesbian friendly and Christians are not? If so, sad, bad, intolerant Christians.
Actually the lyrics are not really about lesbians since the singer talks of having a boyfriend. She liked kissing a girl. No biggie, everyone knows sexuality has fluid boundaries - at least most people know. Maybe "the Christians" are still in denial (although with all the Christians who get caught with same sex lovers you might think they got the message by this time)
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