Ohio Restaurant Ends Church Discount After Atheists Complain About Discrimination

A newly opened Ohio restaurant that offered a Sunday discount to churchgoers for several weeks was forced to end the offer after owners were warned by an atheist organization that the discount could be discriminatory under the law.

Justin Watson, who opened the Starters Cafe on Glenmore Avenue in Cheviot in June, said he was just trying to attract business from at least seven churches within a 1-mile radius of his restaurant when he decided to offer the discount, according to KCBY.

"What we did was make an offer on social media to give a 10 percent discount to anyone that gave a church bulletin to us on Sunday for brunch," Watson told KCBY.

For several weeks, the special pricing was welcomed by the community and no concern was raised about the restaurant discriminating.

"Nobody has said a word to me in any way, shape or form. So as far as you know, thinking that that was any type of discriminatory act or anything offensive to anybody seemed completely absurd to me," Watson explained.

He told 10TV that the discount wasn't even based on one religion.

"Any congregation, any religion, any area, whatever — as long as you brought me a church bulletin, I would give you 10 percent off your meal for the day. It seemed pretty simple and here we are," he said.

Someone reportedly complained about the special on Yelp, saying he was discriminating against non-religious people.

Then a letter from the Wisconsin-based Freedom From Religion Foundation followed.

"I realized there may actually be legal repercussions for this. So in the end, I ultimately (ended up) recanting the offer and also issuing an apology to the lady," Watson said.

Annie Laurie Gaylor, co-president of the FFRF, told KCBY that she was "shocked" at the lack of understanding people have about civil rights laws.

Read more about Ohio Restaurant Ends Church Discount After Atheists Complain About Discrimination on The Christian Post.