LJ-SEC: (ORIGINALLY POSTED BY swisscelt)

Looking back: This excerpt appeared on my journal on 14 October 2003. I'll discuss how this is now relevant after the excerpt.

http://www.usplastic.com/catalog/uspgodowns.asp

This is the company I may well be working for in a few short hours. More to the point, my boss will soon be "God".

Um... I'm going to be okay, right? If ever there were a time for external validation, this is it. Your prayers, ironically, will also be greatly appreciated.

Update: I kicked major ass at the interview. The people also seemed quite friendly. The bad news is, they still have interviews to go through... but I think I might be their prime choice at this point. Especially since I scored extremely high on the pop quiz of a pre-employment test they spring on prospects. (50 questions, mostly math, all SAT-type. 12 whole minutes to complete. I completed 45. After 12 minutes, they ask if you'd like to continue... sort of a psych mini-eval, I think. I said yes, completed all 50, and apparently scored higher than they can remember.)

Of course, I didn't get the job. As I recall, the company did all they legally could to ascertain if I were a Christian. Which, of course, violates the spirit of the law, but avoids violating the letter of the law just enough to avoid going to court for it. The interviewer even made a point of telling me-- repeatedly, and without being asked-- that Internet use was limited to break times. I wonder, given the overall tone of the interview and the result, if the company had done some research on my religious beliefs on the Internet. It's certainly not unheard of, and it's not hard to find me online.

Why did I interview with such a company? Well, I didn't directly apply for this position. I was sent there by a technical recruiter who was probably blissfully unaware of any potential religious problems with either the company or its candidates. Moreover, I was a bit desperate for a job in those days, particularly one that payed reasonably well for Lima, Ohio. (See previous post.)

Which leads me to today. Back in 2003, I was concerned with getting the heck out of Dodge as quickly as possible. This summer, though, I've been more contemplative. I want to know why this region is so bad, and what might be done to improve it before I go.

Anyway, that's a metatopic for another time. What I'd like to discuss here (and this would also be the reason why I'm crossposting this to dark_christian) is how Dominionism exploits poverty-striken areas, even if (as I mentioned in the previous post) Dominionists aren't responsible for the poverty in the first place.  My friend and fellow dark_christian contributor dogemperor strongly suspects (as I do) that US Plastics is a Dominionist front company, a company that exists to recruit for Dominionist churches and to provide Dominionism with operating capital, much as certain Muslim-run companies serve as a front for Islamist terror organizations.

By the way, for those of you who've driven through Ohio on I-75, you may have noticed US Plastics.  Theirs is the building on a curve near mile marker 128 displaying a huge sign on the side reading, "Christ is the answer." It's one of several evangelical landmarks along I-75 between Toledo and Atlanta (along with the 50-foot crosses in Tennessee, and the huge figure of Jesus emerging from the water at a church between Dayton and Cincinnati).