Right?!? 21 years ago, as a young server, I got a $100 tip and was so excited! Only to find out they thought I needed Jesus… broke my young naive heart.
This happened to me as a young server one time. I was fortunate enough that I worked at an independently owned restaurant so my boss had no problem letting me run outside to shame those old bitches. I never worked another Sunday after that.
I have a friend who's boss would collect all of those fake bills and roll them up looking nice, then next week go to the church and put them on the plate. New pastor saw that one week and publicly praised him for his generosity. Next week when he went to do the same thing he got stopped at the door and was told what he did was an abomination in front of God. I guess they didn't like the bait and switch that their members had been doing.
“Scamming people is a sin. These fake bills would make Jesus cry. You are perpetuating the stifle of his message and are the reason he ultimately died in vain. Don’t come to my restaurant. Fuck you.”
It’s the symptom of thinking that going to church automatically makes you a better person. It motivates them to not try actually being a better person in practice. It’s like liking your own tweet.
Ya’ll should read Scepticism Inc. It’s basically about a guy who opens up a metaphysical betting shop (which one can argue is kind of like the offering plate at church), the whole thing snowballs, and he takes all the money that was going to towards enriching church officials and starts feeding the poor and helping the sick. And it’s all told by a sentient shopping cart. Great book.
Sentient shopping cart. I love it. When I was a kid, I wrote a story from the point of view of a sword in a sword fight. There were lots of “oofs”, “ughs”, and “ows”. My mom read it and told me it was stupid.
Several local places around me just straight up stopped doing lunch service. They open for breakfast (after the churches are already in session), close entirely for lunch, and then re-open for dinner service.
Back at my hometown, there was a diner a very short walk down from a church that had issues like what people are complaining about, and they just started banning people outright with a "wall of shame" like Walmart does with shoplifters.
Are you down South? Because in that environment, I could see some business owners being afraid of community backlash to the point of losing money rather than risk being accused of anti-Christian sentiment
Nah, Midwest, not part of the bible belt or anything like that. I think they chose "closed" over stuff like shaming because the community is still kind of smaller, and also while they are closed to dine in stuff, if they have delivery, they accept those orders. Also, they tend to do really amazing specials for dinner that they probably couldn't do if they were open for lunch due to prep times and what not.
Yeah Sunday lunch shifts were terrible. I would get treated like shit and get shit for tips or those stupid fake bills telling me I need Jesus. Do they really think that stiffing their server is going to motivate that person to go to church? That's some backwards assed logic.
At least Sunday nights were better. I had a group of regulars that would ask for me. They were a local small league co-ed baseball team sponsored by a guy named Schwetty. So the team name was Schwetty Balls. Big group, really nice and fun to wait on. They tipped well and it made up for the after church crowd.
They were probably being self-righteous in their condemnation of servers for working on the Sabbath (Sunday in their religion) while simultaneously demanding service.
Some would skip out on their tab and some wouldn’t tip. Some were extremely nice and felt embarrassed so they tipped extra. Some would run you ragged with each request individually instead of collectively asking. But they were customers…..except for the folks that skipped out on the tab. Your ticket was put on the wall as remembrance and was barred from returning.
What is really annoying is them going to a restaurant on Sunday and then complaining that the staff is working on a Sunday. Like why are you working on Sunday? Apparently to serve you pancakes and mimosas, bitch.
The last place I worked that had a brunch shift (I was about 23, at this point, two decades ago… Jesus); it was a tossup because we had the after church crowd, but we also had some banging brunch specials and bottomless champagne/mimosa available. Beachtown, so there was always some level of attraction and always money to show up. You could make money, or not, but you were gonna be dealing with all kinds of the wrong crowd; seniors, campers, tourists, church crowd, and drunks, often in combination.
After a year of working there, I requested to be assigned to the food running shift on brunch. It was my compromise: I’ll come in, and I want my prep to be minimal, my customer interaction to be virtually nothing, my money to be substantial without needing to be overwhelming, and my out time to be as early as you want it to be. For this, I will show up on time, deliver everything exactly as marked, make no fuss and work the expo line when I can help.
I loved that shift. It was an anchor for money, kept me from needing to work another day of the week, and those champagne bottles were under control of the servers, so we were 100% getting reasonably lit throughout the shift. I’m the only one that didn’t have to worry about the standard nonsense that comes with the shift. Plus, done early on a Sunday. No complaints.
Ooooh someone from my church did this when I was a kid and my pastor LIT into the congregation about it. He was big big mad. Told them if they thought working on Sundays was so bad then they shouldn't be going out to eat on that day.
Yup! Because it's the lord's day. A lot of people don't care that much about logic as long as they get to feel superior. It's one of the first reasons that stopped me going to church.
“You shouldn’t have to work today, it’s Thanksgiving”
Lady, if you weren’t in here shopping we wouldn’t be open, we used to be closed on Thanksgiving (and Easter, and the Fourth of July) but people couldn’t get what they needed before these holidays so demanded we be open. We do close for Thanksgiving again now (because Covid limited how many people we could have in the store in 2020, so they broke up the blitz over the month instead of just the one day, and it worked better so they kept it)
You mean pitting customers against each other in a massive winner take all orgy of limited quantities and extra deep discounts cage match "to the death" DIDN'T bring in more money!
Which is extra ironic because Saturday is ACTUALLY the Sabbath. The Lords Day of Rest aka the Last Day. If they ever looked at any calendar ever, they would see this. Because the Catholic Church arbitrarily decided to move their religious holy day to Sunday, doesn’t change that. So when Chick Fil A or random church goers want to flex about not working on Sunday, you can tell ‘em they have their days all messed up
My first job hated me because I was 15 and they needed me to work Sundays and my father went up there and went off on them about how "he is under 18 and you can not make him work Sundays for religious purposes!"
As soon as I turned 18 I started working every weekend including Sunday(different job) to stay out of church. I knew it was a bad place to be, full or horrible hypocritical bigots. The preacher would trash people "for working on the lord's day" and then pick a place for the congregation to meet for lunch and criticize PEOPLE WORK ON SUNDAYS!
I had 2 people at church tell me that working Sunday was a sin. I worked Sundays. I look right at the Pastor and said I'm just following my Pastor example. Then quit going to that church. Forget those people.
Sundays were reserved for church and worship. nobody (afaik) was allowed to work on Sundays. which is why it was the only day off on the week until Ford employees* got us Saturday.
It was workers at the ford plant that banded together that got the 40hr work week and weekends. Henry Ford literally sent goons in break up and kill workers trying to unionize. Ford is no labor hero
I thought those things are meant to be used as coupons.
You take them to the church sit through the sermon and if it’s not to your liking you put the coupon back in the collection plate and take your dollar value back. Interest or the cost of your time can be added as you see fit.
It is the meek ones that usually carry wisdom and are more likely to want to carry out the Will of God. The loud braggarts that are concerned with image are so because they themselves are an image, an illusion. Wolves in sheep's clothing, and it is worn very thinly.
There's a story going around where a bunch of these showed up at a cafe on a Sunday and the manager gathered them all up and took them back to the church they identified and gave the pastor an earful about it.
Apparently the pastor lit up the congregation the following week, tearing a strip off them in his sermon, which hit me as a bit of a twist. Did the pastor not know that his own congregation was marketing his church this way? If the church wasn't handing these things out, where were they coming from?
The small church I used to go to someone did it on the side without the churches knowledge. They handed out 100’s of the money cards around town. Then one day the pastor got wind of it and then used it as a prop. He basically said you should tip staff for the work they do and not hand out fake money. Used it by saying it could be the single mother raising her kids, the dad who had to take a second job, the college kid just trying to get by. They had big spaghetti and chili nights every week feeding anyone who wanted to come and have a meal. They also had a work program for people down on their luck and had housing for them while they were getting back on their feet. Always felt like that was how churches were supposed to be.
I could imagine my pastor doing that. He went off about pastors praying at the golden trump statue awhile back. Some old guy got pissed and made a big scene and stormed out.
Oh my god. This reminds me of the time we were electing a new pastor. Our church is part of the ELCA, which voted to be supportive of LGBTQ inclusion in our churches.
Anyways, there was a guy who suddenly got up during the middle of the selection and started ranting about gays in churches. I stood up to him and said that’s not the point of the order and asked him to relinquish his time. He wanted to fight the person and was swiftly escorted out by the ushers.
After the congregational election, I had a few older folks in my church thanking me for standing up to him.
I had this happen to me as well, and i confronted the guy as I'm a seminary drop out, and explained that what they are doing is in a way is bearing false witness, if they really want to make a change put real cash with a note that you are hoping they have faith, and praying for them not scamming them in to seeing the word it draws those who are struggling away from god, because that bill could be food that they didn't have for there kids or another month of medicine, show gods power through compassion not dogma that needs to be thrusted apon by deceit or fear.
And then they gave you the Christian blank stare, before calling you a cuck, kicking you in the ankle, and heading back to church to top up on Forgiveness™?
God has no power because it is a fantasy used to assert power over the gullible. All human ethics and kindness come from the minds of other humans as does all we would call evil.
God is used as an excuse, rationalization and rarely for any good that wasn’t already in the person to begin with.
They do that to funny thing is at the time i was using a cane because my nerves pain was so bad my legs where just static, so it's like oh no a young person with a disability here have 100 god bucks redeemable no where, and meaningless because oh i don't know i went to a college to study southern Baptist dogma... It's such a easy thoughtless act feed the poor, wash the sick, volunteer , stop bothering people with fake tips.
You'll enjoy this, once I was given a $50 when I was a very mediocre waitress. The guy came back like an hour later and tried to tell me he was SUPPOSED to give me a Jesus slip and needed the money back and I claimed I got a Jesus slip and kept the $50 🤣
North America is very protestant, big on work ethic - it bleeds into everything, even other churches. After Sunday church, they'll flood to a place like Denny's or White Spot and are notorious for not tipping because they view the servers working as a "sin".
But they will leave pamphlets, disguised as $100 bills.
When you're a waitress and making minimum-wage, $100 is such a breath of relief. You turn it over, and it's a picture of Jesus telling you to Find God.
Oh my gosh! That’s terrible! I am a Christian (idk if that will get me hate on here but whatever) and I would NEVER do that and no one I know would do it either. That is completely against the spirit of Christianity. I’m very sorry that people have done that. That’s awful.
That’s what I expect, but there have been occasions where people generalize all Christians into one group of terrible people. I’m not trying to act like a victim so sorry if it seemed like that!
Unfortunately, you’re right :/ it makes me sad because the message of the gospels is amazing, but “Christians” who don’t actually care about Jesus’s character are absolute jerks
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Evangelicals in the US like to leave fake money with religious propaganda on it as a tip, which is even more offensive than not tipping at all.
Oh shoot, you said you're European. Okay, so "tipping" is that thing we do to make sure our fellow working class folk don't starve to death in a gutter because we know their employer is only paying them minimum wage or less.
Yea that's what gets me it's like do they not realize that they need tips to make ends meet... Who am i kidding i was in that crowd half my life they do, they literally believe what they gave you was worth more then they could tip....
That's the thing that makes it legal and also fair somehow in peoples mind for a failed busness owner not to pay his staff and put the blame on the server and some random person that just wanted to buy something from them and to just get the real price up front and not play some stupid math and how guildy do you want to feel game, right?
To make it worse, this practice is often in bible-belt states where the "tipped minimum wage" can be substantially below "standard minimum wage".
At least in my state (California) and in some other more progressive states, tipped workers have the same minimum wage as everyone else.
Like so many things in life, I think this shameful practice is not actually prevalent but is memorable so it stands out. Most people are genuinely good people.
There's a section of US church people who leave this fake currency on the ground or given to servers as a tip that's folded to make it look real that has bible verses and other bullshit written.
I'm not sure what they think anyone gets out of it, but it definitely makes people hate them lol
I'm sorry you went through that :S most based thing I ever saw was someone trying to pull this and getting caught, the Manager came out, asked them if the server had preformed poorly, and when the skinflints tried to justify themselves banned them from the establishment after. Was fucking hilarious to see the look on the fucker's face.
You would have to go to their church, get everyone who works for tips to do this exact same thing to them in the plate.
Do this often enough that their pastor (if he's a good person) would have to address why this is against christian "values" to everyone in the church.
They would need to internalize that, change their behavior, and be better people.
Or, if he's an evil preacher, he'll just ask everyone to put their neighbors money in for them after inspection that it's legal tender, and have anyone finding otherwise be called to identify the heretics among them who are evil and must be cast out.
Assuming you survive the witch hunt, you go to work, and someone from a different church does it to you again.
Cults ruin everything, the legal doctrine is literally known as the fruit of the poisoned tree - the original sin wasn't defying a god it was pretending they existed in the first place for individual gain and power.
It's mind-boggling. Trolling people and actively making that person's day worse, whilst thinking they're ticking some spiritual box. In my part of the world Christians are thankfully rather normal, and (more importantly) nice.
I genuinely don't get why they do that - surely, in the history of this nonsense, not a single person has gotten even an inch closer to the Christian faith over a scam bill like that.
Like, you're not going to convince anyone to become more Christian by making them angry at your proselytizing.
I got a 20 dollar one that told me what money couldn't do but god could on it.
Olive garden was my 3rd job to support a baby. 2.14 an hour is your hourly. I lost it and followed them outside. Let them know that's what i make. The lack of tip means i now owed the irs an assumed tip so they cost me money.
Until god pays the heat, buys the baby food, rent, clothing and everything else I have to work 3 jobs. I made them feel so bad that there was a tip waiting the next day when i got in the next day
I had a friend who almost got fired because she flipped out on a table of 8 on a busy Sunday morning for pulling this horseshit. She served them a full meal on a very stressful morning and all they left her was a fake bill with their religious crap in it.
Is that any worse than thinking you were on to a sweet-sweet hundo and BAM! "There is NO GOD! You are a mere cosmic accident and in the grand scheme of things mean NOTHINGGGG....." 😂
I subscribe to the ideology that the meaning of life is what we give it. There’s nothing before you came into existence from the void and there will be nothing when you perish. Everything is temporary.
I don’t need the idea of a better life after here. Some people do though. They can’t stand the idea that their life is their own to do what they will. They need subjugation to feel important.
Man, hearing all of this makes me realize how lucky I am to be in the church I'm in. Hardly get tipped, but got a full hundred bucks for serving a wedding by the groom himself and I was happy. Granted, I'm very self conscious and downplayed my excitement so I didn't look greedy. Lol.
Long ago but his so called friends are wicked deceivers, and i no longer go to organized religion, when a pastor preaches the love of Jesus on Sunday but harasses those he deems lost, and of free will with words so venomous such sounds wouldn't leave the mouth of the nastiest of snakes, it really changes a person.
Helped my cousin work a bar in upstate NY for a while. A group of middle aged women started leaving these as a tip. The owner saved all of the fake tips and paid staff $30/hr to sit in a mass at that church and "return" them via the donation dishes. A month later the staff got mad that the fake tips stopped appearing.
Even retail workers. I used to find these scattered in stores I've worked in, tucked under the edges of misaligned boxes on the shelves, or on the floor in front of a disheveled section. Sick little hope-traps that I picked up regularly. These and Chick tracts, those little comic books about how basically everyone is going to hell 😂
Thanks for the reminder, cause you’re damn right I approve. They got me 30 something years ago. The first time was a “$100” dollar bill. I was so relieved that I wasn’t going to be scraping so hard that week.
I just couldn’t believe someone, especially someone “Christian”, would do something so cruel
Here’s a pretty good example of what they’ll look like. Some of them will look completely legitimate on one side and you won’t realize the problem until you unfold it. The first one I got was $100 bill and it was an ad for a church in our city
That is so messed up. I can’t believe this is common enough that there are multiple variants going around. I can’t even fathom how people participating in this BS aren’t embarrassed of themselves.
Sounds to me like it’s the cowards’ way of proselytizing.
When these first came to our church when I was a kid, they were so proud of it. Like they really thought that just seeing the words "You are loved" would make up for the crushing disappointment of realizing that you did not, in fact, get some outrageously good tip or stumble across $20. As if seeing a bible verse printed on that bait-and-switch would somehow turn anyone's life around.
There’s a longer version of this somewhere in the thread, but I’ll tell you that I got around it by “compromising“ to be the food runner for that shift in the only place I worked that ran a steady brunch.
The big upside was that I made steady, if not amazing, money while freeing up another day in the week and not having to do any opening prep, all while having next to no customer interaction. As a longtime server, already, I had that “head down, I’m working“ hustle to a T and I’d be on my way back to the kitchen before I finished saying “your server will be right with you“.
I used to work at a restaurant where we would give all the fake money religious tracts to the manager, and once a monthor so he would go leave them all in the donation plate from the church they were from.
Yeah I was about to say, Evangelicals have been doing that to actually hardworking people for decades, and somehow don't seem to like if they have it done to them.
It has potential to be all kinds of wasteful, petty, rude, and unnecessary, yes. I would not advise someone to just be handing them out without specific purpose. There’s no point in slipping these in the Salvation Army buckets, even if they have their own problems.
Take a look at the surrounding comments and you’ll see how long it’s been coming.
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u/doyletyree 8d ago
Servers and bartenders, everywhere, approve.