Would you mention your faith in your listing?

I wondered this too and it also bothered me because it shouldn’t be necessary. It’s a sad state of affairs but it is a good idea to put something. We have ‘We welcome all guests regardless of gender, national origin, or sexual orientation.’.

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You shouldn’t have to mention that you welcome everyone. I feel tho that you should mention that you are Christian, as this will send the GUEST the red flag of discrimination and judgement. People who excuse their predjudices by calling them religious choices or ‘their faith’ are, to me, scary. After all, you can apparently justify any ‘choices’ and your ‘faith’ will ‘stand beside you’. To me, hiding behind the writings of some folks who believed the sun rose and set on their center of the world, that attempted to explain their ignorances with fairy tales and the existence of a guy with a beard who lived right there in their area (wow what a coincidence that their valley was the center of the world lol) smacks of blind ignorance, and not ‘evidence’ of a moral code.

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So true. I just - welcome everyone; Straight, Gay, Atheists, Christians, heck even French people. LoL

@Barthelemy :wink:

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You’re so open-minded @Mearns :smile:

I refrained from posting here as I think that society as a whole is more peaceful when people keep their religious or non-religious beliefs for themselves, in the private sphere.

That’s the traditional french consensus about religions, which worked well for a century, but as some may have heard in the news, it has been somewhat challenged lately.

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So true, as one gets older one (hopefully) tends to realize our differences are really not that important.

I’m with you 100% there, on all points. To mention your religious or political beliefs in your listing automatically raises a flag. What that flag means is up to interpretation. It is every host’s choice to market themselves as they want, obviously. But when you raise that flag, know that it is a ‘marker’. It essentially says ‘this is my territory and only people who share my beliefs are truly welcome here’. Also know that you will miss the opportunity to meet many good people who will pass you by because you chose to raise a flag rather than just live truly by your beliefs.

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I agree heartily! For me this is a business, with a side helping of hard work and fun! My goal is to make money, and I do so by welcoming as much diversity as I can… I was raised a liberal Christian, and hold fairly left-wing views. However, I do not feel a need to broadcast that in my listing. Near my brochures, maps and menus, I leave an LGBTQ Directory out, a local church directory, several guides on recreational marijauna dispensaries (it is legal here) and in the bookcase; some inspirational books on Christianity, Buddism and other Eastern Religions. If any of these things helps my guests stay comfortable, then Yay!!
But, if listing your personal beliefs in your listing is what you need to feel comfortable, then that is your perogative. For me, I would avoid a listing that said the hosts were christian, just because of the “judgie” aspect. I was raised a Southern Baptist, and no thank you…

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brooks2adks - I did not mean to direct this comment to you - but in general. Sorry.

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Btw, it was so good to see the result today. Vive le France!

Well of course she wouldn’t, at least not knowingly if the couple didn’t divulge that info. Hmmmm. An interesting scenario could develop: “Oh I’m so sorry but we have children in the house and, well you know, the neighbors…” :)))))

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My only suggestion regarding your alternate working is that it would NOT be picked up when someone is searching for gay-friendly or LGBT.

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I am not a good judge on this issue, except from the point of view of a traveler. If I had to go to the Colorado Springs area, I would opt for Manitou Springs because I am leery of the Focus on the Family types. I was raised without religion and I am more logic based than faith based and I do not believe in the Bible. And, in no way in hell would I stay at a place designated as Christian. Is a negative for me. How sad, in this day and age, that we have to advertise LGBT. I don’t ask, my guests do not tell, so I have no idea if I’ve had any LGBT guests (and I don’t care – sex is private and wonderful and a part of life).

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@Xena - where is the original thread? Was it started by the same person?

@Xena - Oh, found it! It is “How to target the kind of guest you want – what I did”

Yeah, realizing this topic was essentially already brought up before by the same person … I have an strong opinion about that, but I guess I will hold my tongue.

Happy Monday, everyone!

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Yes, that’s something I had trouble with initially. I was wary, probably unnecessarily, about using LGBT. The reason was that there are lots of LGBT accommodations in this area and many are clothing-optional. I didn’t want potential guests to think that clothing is optional here :slight_smile:

Maybe I was overthinking? What do others think?

Since when is LGBT equal to Nudist?
I have gay friends (also hosts) and I never heard of the clothing optional thing for LGBT.

It is bad enough by itself that the hole LGBT thing needs to be used.

Never. But there are a lot of places locally that are my competition. Here’s an example.

I’m late to this conversation, but wanted to add a couple things.

First, I certainly would not mind someone stating in their profile (I think it’s more appropriate to put in the profile than the listing itself) anything about their religion/faith/spiritual path. I am all for people telling stories and presenting info about who they are and what they value. I think it’s unfortunate, and really unfair, that in many areas we’ve imbued “Christian” with a correlation of “anti-gay”. This correlation may hold more weight in some areas of the nation than others, but in general I think we should be careful not to make assumptions about people’s values based on their self-description. I’m gay, and would find it presumptuous if a person thought that since I was gay I wasn’t Christian (though I’m not) or that if I was Christian I wasn’t gay…etc. People need to not fall into stereotypes when they hear one thing about a person.

I disagree that stating one’s religion, spirituality, sexual orientation or anything else conveys that you as a host only want that same type of person to stay with you. I think there are ways of presenting yourself that way, but there are also ways of describing yourself that dont’ convey that this type of person you are is the only kind of person you really want around you.

When I am looking for a place to stay as a guest, I can probably discern more from the photos of the place than from the host’s self-description. If I had to select a place to stay among a variety of hosts who all happened to be Christian,and there were sufficient photos in the listing to get a good amount of info, my preference would be to stay at the home of the Christian who has a lot of art on their walls, paints their rooms in bold colors rather than a lifeless “off-white”, doesn’t have sentimental kitsch all over the house, and whose decor and garden/yard give indications that they have a meaningful relationship with the earth.

The second thing I’d like to add, since I’ve done a lot of study on discrimination laws in the US (largely because at least as regards rooms for rent in private homes, I oppose these laws, and think that people should be able to discriminate in their private home), and here’s some info that may be useful: https://www.craigslist.org/about/FHA

If you go down that page to the section stating, “examples of discriminatory advertisements” you will see that it’s actually considered an example of a “discrminatory housing ad” to describe the religion of the occupants of the home! I find this appallingly invasive of the government, to create laws that in effect, tell us that we can’t communicate to others about who we are. The examples given here of what kinds of things you apparently can’t say, are often having to do with being Christian – which I again find concerning, given that many people write in their ads about being Buddhist, or LGBT, or say they are Pagan Witches or what have you. I guess as long as they aren’t Christian they are allowed to say who they are.

I think there’s a problem there…anti-discrimination laws are becoming totalitarian and Big Brotherish and all of that is appalling to me.

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By the way…here’s a blog that I wrote on “Airbnb and Discrimination”, which might interest some:

@Forestsprite I don’t agree with almost everything you have said, but I do agree with one point: if you have to say it at all (and I really don’t think you should) it should be in your profile and not your listing.

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