Bitt, you've made me think of a point that I kept meaning to say in this thread...

In my posts about the fish-on-the-business-card, I was trying to glean the motives behind putting it there. I wasn't trying to say it's inherently bad. Whether the reason a person puts it there is pride, or an attempt to draw Christian customers, either way, it's a free country.

If a fish on a business card gets them more customers, then more power to 'em. That's capitalism. If they're doing it for pride only, okay fine. Seeing the fish makes me, a potential customer, think consciously about their motives for putting it there, so I don't know if that's what they want or not. Maybe it is.

Of course, if they also exclude all non-Christians from their employed staff, then that becomes a completely different question. But a fish on a business card? Go for it. You'll piss a few people off, but probably make buddies with others. The people who get pissed off, you probably didn't want as a customer anyway.

... wait, or did you? Hm.

Now we're into the question of... What reaction does it cause, regardless of the motive? And what if the result is a different reaction than they expected?

If the fish produces a negative reaction in some people as expressed by others in this thread (even if the reaction is an incorrect assumption based on prejudice), then is that really what they wanted to put on the card? Are these people even aware that it turns some people off? Do they know that it's going to change the response demographic?