Prudhomme's Lost Cajun Kitchen under investigation for discount given to patrons with church bulletins
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Prudhomme's Lost Cajun Kitchen via MSN
Video: Annoyed atheist files complaint over restaurant with discount for church bulletins.
Thanks to a complaint filed by a retired electrical engineer, the Pennsylvania Human Relations Commission is investigating Prudhomme’s Lost Cajun Kitchen in Columbia.The reason? The restaurant offers a ten percent discount to patrons who present a church bulletin on Sundays, and that annoys atheist John Wolff, the man who filed the complaint.
“I did this not out of spite, but out of a feeling against the prevailing self-righteousness that stems from religion, particular in Lancaster County,” he said.
“I don’t consider it an earth-shaking affair, but in this area in particular, we seem to have so many self-righteous religious people, so it just annoys me.”
Pennsylvania law says that restaurants are not allowed to discriminate based on religion, but business owner Sharon Prudhomme says she is not discriminating against anyone.
“What freaks me out is the state of Pennsylvania is basically agreeing with this guy,” she told Fox News Radio. “We’re just a mom and pop. We’re not some big chain like the Olive Garden.”
Todd Starnes of Fox News wrote Thursday:
Prudhomme said the trouble started in April of 2011 when she received the first of several letters from the Freedom From Religion Foundation. The FFRF is a Wisconsin-based organization of “more than 17,000 freethinkers, atheists, agnostics and skeptics,” according to its website.The organization demanded she stop giving the discounts, but Prudhomme said she just "filed it and blew off the other letters."
“I said I have no intention of taking it off the website,” she said.
But last Friday, the restaurant owner was served with a 16-page complaint from the state of Pennsylvania accusing her of discrimination.
State spokeswoman Shannon Powers said that Wolff alleged "he was offered different service based on his religious creed," but according to the Lancaster Online, Wolff never went to the restaurant.
“It’s not a big deal in itself and I have no animosity towards Prudhomme’s, but I do bear a grudge against a religious right that seems to intrude on our civil rights,” he said.
Prudhomme, however, said she does not go to church, and felt the discount was simply a marketing tool, not a religious outreach.
“This is America. This is my business and we’re not breaking any laws,” she said, adding that she had no intention of stopping the program that has been in affect for over a year.
"She said she has offered all kinds of discounts or incentives at various times, including some to senior citizens, early-bird diners, children under 12, people who shop at certain other Columbia businesses and even Columbia High School students," Cindy Stauffer wrote.
Prudhomme told the York Daily Record that religious leaders in the area told her that anyone "can walk in a religious building and obtain a bulletin, without attending services."
But that's not good enough for the state, or the atheists.
According to Prudhomme, the state suggested she sign an agreement offering discounts to any civic organization in town.
“I said, ‘Wait a minute – you’re asking my husband and I to give anybody coming through my door a discount?’” she recalled.
“They said yes.”
“This is our business,” she told Fox News. “We’re the ones paying the taxes. We need the people coming in. Our life is in this – and then to have someone come along and tell me what I can do and what I can’t do?”
Prudhomme wondered what other discounts could get her in trouble - like the Tuesday night discount where children under 12 eat for free, or the senior discount.
"If the commission determines there’s enough evidence to support the complaint, it could be referred to a public hearing," Starnes wrote, but Prudhomme isn't worried.
"I'm an American," she said. "This is an independent restaurant. I can do as I wish and I'm going to continue to offer the church-bulletin discount."
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