A little prayer seems to go a long way—especially if you're about to eat at Mary's Gourmet Diner in Winstom-Salem, NC. Traveling for business, Jordan Smith received a 15% discount off her bill there because she prayed before eating, NPR reports. Smith posted a pic of the receipt on Facebook (including the discount of "15% Praying in Public ($6.07)"), and it went viral after being reposted on a Christian radio station's Facebook page this week. Some questioned its authenticity until the diner confirmed that "yes, if we see you praying, you get 15% off your bill." The discount has triggered an online debate, including posts like:
- "Prayer discounts? Do you give prayer discounts to people who aren't of your religion? like Sikh's or Hindus or Muslims or Jews?"
- "Thanks, Mary's Gourmet Diner, for giving 15% off to people who pray for their food. The Lord deserves our thanks. If I'm ever in WS, NC I'll be sure to stop in."
Others note that the New Testament frowns on public prayer in Matthew 6:5, or that a restaurant policy benefiting only religious people could be considered discrimination based on the Civil Rights Act of 1964. (The
Inquisitr runs down similar past cases.) Judging by Smith's quote to
HLN, however, she has no complaints: "The three of us at the table talked about how wonderful that is and what a cool thing it is that they do as business owners," she said. (More
prayer stories.)
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