possibly the most tramatic call i've ever taken

[smileyeagle1021]

Ok, this could have gone under the giving directions thread, but I think that given the circumstances on it, it probably warrants its own thread. So without further ado

me- you favorite smiling eagle in reservations
sbc- sucky bigoted customer (nothing against southern bell company)

we go through the standard reservation process, get his information, so far a relatively cool guest, until...

sbc- "hey dude, what bars are nearby" (i'm on a macro call so as far as the guest knows i'm onsite"
me- *answering honestly* "i'm sorry sir, but I don't know where any of the bars are"
sbc- "well, why not?"
me- "because i have chosen to abstain from alcohol"
sbc- "what type of fucking loser doesn't drink alcohol"
me- "sir, I'm LDS (entirely true, and something I don't take any shame in), it is part of my faith to show restraint and to abstain from activities such as smoking and drinking, if you really like though I can place you on hold and I'll check with some of my coworkers and see where they suggest"
now, most guests would be like, her that's cool, I don't understand it but that's the choice you've made and either say it's no biggie and we finish the reservation or yeah put me on hold and I either google it or call the hotel to ask someone there, but if this guy had done one of those two things i wouldn't be posting the story here, now would I.
sbc- "what, you're one of those fucking mormons"
me- "sir, there is no need for profanity, and yes, I am"
sbc- "damnit man, and to think, I thought you were cool for a while, you all should have gotten the hint when we killed your so called prophet 150 years ago, I hope Warren Jeffs burns in hell *(disclaimer, so do I, Jeffs is a heretic, the actual president of the Church is Gordon B Hinkley)* and you and your wives can burn in hell too"
me- "sir, at this point I am refusing service, nothing will be billed to your card, please do not call back"
sbc- "great, I didn't want to stay with a cultist anyway" *click*

ok, what the flip, I don't particularly agree with all religions, but I don't randomly attack people over the phone for it. That had to be one of my most traumatic calls i've taken, God bless my manager though, I logged off my phone, went to my TM and asked him to track me for 5 minutes, he asked why, I told him to listen to the last couple of minutes of my last call and he'd understand... he gave me 10 minutes after listening to the call.

[Zeeko]

Man, thats horrible!

I never bag religions even though my family does (Northern Irish heritage). I only disrespect a person for who they are, not who they allign to.

Not knowing much about LDS I must say the multiple wives thing sounds cool though!

[Finduilas]

I find it to be a little funny that your Irish Catholic family makes fun of other religions, considering that it was not so long ago that Catholics in America were thought of as little better than blacks (when such thinking was condoned).

For Latter-Day Saints, unfortunately, the polygamist branch makes the biggest splash because they are the most radical, so everyone thinks that all Mormons are like that.

Sigh.

[Pedersen]

Knowing more than I care to about LDS, I'll only correct the misconception: LDS practitioners frown on polygamy.

One of the Mormom offshoots (I forget if it's reformed or orthodox) allows and even encourages it, though.

From the sounds of the OP, the OP is a practitioner of the LDS group, which is the major group of Mormons.

Not wanting to get into a flame war here, I'll say this: I have some strong opinions on the LDS church and doctrine that I disagree with. Unfortunately, I would not be able to phrase those disagreements in such a way as to avoid sounding highly derogatory towards the practitioners of that faith. Since I don't want to do that, I will only correct any out and out wrong statements that I see, such as the multiple wives comment from above.

[Shengirl]

To anyone curious about Mormonism, I found Under the Banner of Heaven by Jon Krakauer to be edifying. Not sure how actual Mormons feel about it, but I think it mostly just angers the polygamist sects...who no one really cares about irritating. Since that's illegal.

Smileyeagle, I'm sorry you ran into such a complete, undiscerning jerk.

[smileyeagle1021]

Pedersen, to answer your question, the group that still practices polygamy is the Fundamentalist sect (pushing the boundaries of the site, that is the group that all others agree are heretics), there are only 2 others sects, LDS and Reformed LDS, also known as Community of Christ, the main difference between the 2 is that the reformed LDS believe that the leader of the church must be a living decendet of Joseph Smith and the LDS believe that any person called of God can lead the church (there is actually a very structured organization on that, but as I'm sure one of the mods will point out, this is not the place for that discussion), so I'll leave it to the nutshell version.

[Sliceanddice]

yeah....here my opinion unles you have actually read the religous material front to back and have gone to at least ten church sessions, you dont get to insult and be a bigot thank you and good night

[Spiffy McMoron]

Alright, just a friendly reminder to keep the discussion to talking about SC's. We all know how well religious posts seem to end here...

[smileyeagle1021]

Alright, just a friendly reminder to keep the discussion to talking about SC's. We all know how well religious posts seem to end here...

duly noted.
this actually happened about 2 months ago, i was reminded of it by the religious fanatics thread... my new TM isn't quite as cool, Sean was the coolest manager ever (he was really good about letting people take time off the phone when needed, my new TM would just tell me to grow a spine and get back on the phones)

oh yeah spiffy, this may be an oppurtune time to ask whether or not is ok to post other people's stories with there permission?

[gunsage]

Though my previous post involving the religious-ites accosting our table certainly isn't evidence of this, I tend to stay away from the religious debacle. By that, I don't mean that I bash it nor that I support it. I stay "vanilla." And I put it that way because...

- I haven't been to church in about 2 years.
- I'm not sure what I believe anymore. Life'll do that.
- My wife is/was catholic. THAT is a tough religion, or at least from what I experienced by sitting in a few times (I'm formerly baptist).
- I enjoy learning more about religions, but not to the point of devotion. Again, I'm relatively open to suggestion, but mostly in the form of learning.

In any case, I wouldn't deliberately tear into someone unless they were being a dick. In this case, well, that...uh...wasn't the case. That was him being an ethnocentric dickhead. Fun stuff, that. You handled it relatively well, though, given the circumstances. Kudos.

[Spiffy McMoron]

oh yeah spiffy, this may be an oppurtune time to ask whether or not is ok to post other people's stories with there permission?

Shouldn't be a problem. Just to make things clear in the post, though, you might want to mention that it's not your post, but someone else's.

[counterjockey]

You handled that a lot more professionally than I'd have done, I'll give you that. Crying shame sometimes that modern telephony can't accomodate beating people up even through a fiber-optic line. I know we can't, don't, and won't encourage violence here, but "reach out and punch someone" has a ring to it, don't ya think?

I've got nothing bad to say about any of the Mormons I've met thus far. Two stopped into my store one February day, mainly to warm up and grab a quick snack. They were gracious about turning down a free cup of coffee I'd offered them, although with the weather I gotta wonder if they weren't tempted...

[smileyeagle1021]

counterjockie, i'm sure they were... hell, I'm tempted by the coffee in the breakroom when i have to do some of my longer shifts... and the mantra of the call floor is "i don't drink but my job makes me want to"... then again it's better than the mantra over in guest relations which is "my job makes me drink".

[Seshat]

The caller was completely and totally in the wrong there. He asked why the OP didn't drink - and then he passed judgement on the answer. If he didn't want to know, he shouldn't have asked!

Seshat.
Who doesn't drink because it interferes with her medications, and her already wonky metabolism. So there. Nyaaah.

[Saydrah]

Oh, good grief!

I'm about the most militantly anti-organized religion person I've ever met, and even I wouldn't presume to insult someone for a religion they're not pushing on me. I'm even nice to the door to door missionaries, though I do admit to occasionally trying to talk them into staying and watching the movie 'Latter Days' with me. I have a large stockpile of reasons religion is bad, hypocritical, and outdated, but I never, ever START a religious argument. I just finish them.

Besides, on the polygamy front-

I'm polyamorous, and I'm most definitely not LDS!