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How a Religious Sect Landed Google in a Lawsuit (nytimes.com) 111

A video producer claims he was fired after he complained that an obscure group based in the Sierra foothills dominated a business unit at Google. From a report: In a tiny town in the foothills of the Sierra Nevada, a religious organization called the Fellowship of Friends has established an elaborate, 1,200-acre compound full of art and ornate architecture. More than 200 miles away from the Fellowship's base in Oregon House, Calif., the religious sect, which believes a higher consciousness can be achieved by embracing fine arts and culture, has also gained a foothold inside a business unit at Google. Even in Google's freewheeling office culture, which encourages employees to speak their own minds and pursue their own projects, the Fellowship's presence in the business unit was unusual. As many as 12 Fellowship members and close relatives worked for the Google Developer Studio, or GDS, which produces videos showcasing the company's technologies, according to a lawsuit filed by Kevin Lloyd, a 34-year-old former Google video producer.

Many others staffed company events, working registration desks, taking photographs, playing music, providing massages and serving wine. For these events, Google regularly bought wine from an Oregon House winery owned by a member of the Fellowship, according to the lawsuit. Mr. Lloyd claimed he was fired last year because he complained about the influence of the religious sect. His suit also names Advanced Systems Group, or ASG, the company that sent Mr. Lloyd to Google as a contractor. Most of the Google Developer Studio joined the team through ASG as contractors, including many members of the Fellowship. The suit, which Mr. Lloyd filed in August in California Superior Court, accuses Google and ASG of violating a California employment law that protects workers against discrimination. It is in the discovery stage. The New York Times corroborated many of the lawsuit's claims through interviews with eight current and former employees of the Google business unit and examinations of publicly available information and other documents. These included a membership roster for the Fellowship of Friends, Google spreadsheets detailing event budgets and photos taken at these events.

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How a Religious Sect Landed Google in a Lawsuit

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  • the religious sect, which believes a higher consciousness can be achieved by embracing fine arts and culture

    There are certainly worse things a religious group could believe. Not sure how that's relevant to the issue though.

    • Creating a fake religion so you can deduct your leisure expenses as religious donations seems like a very programmer thing to do—and there is an XKCD that proves it.
      • Re:Hmm (Score:5, Insightful)

        by TechyImmigrant ( 175943 ) on Thursday June 16, 2022 @09:08PM (#62626698) Homepage Journal

        As long as they don't really believe in it and just want equal tax treatment with religions, I'm good with it.

        Better still, remove the tax exempt status for churches and people will not need to pretend.

        • Re: (Score:1, Insightful)

          Better still, remove the tax exempt status for churches and people will not need to pretend.

          The power to tax is the power to destroy, and the federal government (and, by "incorporation", the state-and-lower governments) is required to keep its hands off religion - neither supporting one in favor of others ("respecting an establishment...") nor suppressing any of them ("prohibiting the free exercise..."). The religious tax exemptions arise from this, and actually predate the Bill of Rights (which doesn't cr

          • Re: (Score:1, Insightful)

            by cpurdy ( 4838085 )

            The power to tax is the power to destroy...

            Don't you have bombs to be sending to professors or something?

            Seriously, get some education. Start with John Locke. And then Rousseau (Du contrat social ou Principes du droit politique).

            You are struggling to return to foolish monkeyhood, when as a species, we have already learned to think.

          • Re:Hmm (Score:5, Insightful)

            by Frank Burly ( 4247955 ) on Thursday June 16, 2022 @10:44PM (#62626798)
            I bet you have 6 justices who agree with you, but until they opine: do you have any authority for the proposition that treating all religious like everyone else (eg paying taxes) somehow per se "prohibits free exercise"? Because you seem to be implying that the government does not have the constitutional ability to tax religious organizations, and I don't think this is yet the case.
            • I am not a constitutional scholar. But *very* early in the history of the US, it was ruled that "the power to tax is the power to destroy" which is why states can't tax federal institutions and vice versa. There's no reason the same logic wouldn't be applied to religion. Tax codes have the potential to be used in discriminatory ways.
              • I think that the OP was thinking along the same lines, and I asked for an authority because there isn't one. Federal Supremacy is written into the Constitution, religious tax exemptions are not, and it would be quite a trick to claim that equal treatment under the law is a form of discrimination. Recently, the conservative justices sort-of pulled that trick wrt some of the covid/crowd requirements by ignoring the states' rationale. I also half-remember a case where some municipality discriminated against a

          • Re: (Score:3, Insightful)

            >The power to tax is the power to destroy,

            Try living in a country without taxes and see how attractive it is to inward investment.

          • Re:Hmm (Score:5, Insightful)

            by drinkypoo ( 153816 ) <drink@hyperlogos.org> on Friday June 17, 2022 @07:12AM (#62627410) Homepage Journal

            The power to tax is the power to destroy

            So?

            and the federal government (and, by "incorporation", the state-and-lower governments) is required to keep its hands off religion

            Bullshit. It's required not to treat any one religion preferentially.

            neither supporting one in favor of others ("respecting an establishment...") nor suppressing any of them ("prohibiting the free exercise...").

            Taxing their real estate the same as any other business in no way prohibits the free exercise.

            The religious tax exemptions arise from this, and actually predate the Bill of Rights

            And were actually wrong then.

            The government doesn't recognize every religion, and therefore doesn't give every religion tax exempt status, and therefore does give preferential treatment to some religions. The simple fact is that giving tax exempt status to recognized religions is supporting some in favor of others, so all of that stuff you wrote is either bullshit or besides the point since no effort is actually made to be fair.

            • If they fail to pay property taxes, and the government seizes the church, that burdens the free exeecise thereof.

              This was a concern in one of the few decisions to actually address the question.

              Best to remain in the fiction government voluntarily exempts churches. The above decision was in the context that exempting churches entangled government in religion, but the opposite, taxing them, entangled it more.

              • If they fail to pay property taxes, and the government seizes the church, that burdens the free exeecise thereof.

                If they do all the good stuff they claim churches do then it should be easy to apply for and receive a tax exemption. If they don't, then who cares?

      • XKCD while a clever comic. Is not a proof.
        Much like how people will often just use Rhymes and Old sayings (often from Ben Franklin) as reasons why such an idea is true.

        • XKCD while a clever comic. Is not a proof. Much like how people will often just use Rhymes and Old sayings (often from Ben Franklin) as reasons why such an idea is true.

          Or the bible or some other religious text.

    • I suppose "cult" is also the root word of "culture"?
    • They also believe in an impending distaster, which the leader has predicted since the start of the organisation in 1970, and that the leader is a conduit for teaching from angels, giving the knowledge necessary to plant a seed that can survive the distaster.

      I think maybe the wine and the fine arts appreciation is bait.

  • by bferrell ( 253291 ) on Thursday June 16, 2022 @08:27PM (#62626646) Homepage Journal

    When you hire people who are JUST LIKE "you"

    Ya get a techbro culture or "everyone" from a small set of schools with remarkably similar mindsets.

    Can ya say groupthink? I knew ya could.

    • by gweihir ( 88907 )

      Can ya say groupthink? I knew ya could.

      Yeah. Inevitably leads to failure. But that can take quite some time and can cause quite a bit of collateral damage.

    • That's not the failure here, is it? Most Google employees are not part of this explicit end-times cult. And if you are, you are probably breaking a dozen internal rules if you covertly help your fellow members get into the organisation.

      This seems to be a case of old-fashioned entryism. All remotely big and open organizations are vulnerable to infiltration by small but extremely loyal and coordinated groups.

  • Shit link (Score:4, Insightful)

    by hoofie ( 201045 ) <(mickey) (at) (mouse.com)> on Thursday June 16, 2022 @08:59PM (#62626686)

    Stop linking to paywalled articles FFS.

  • That's nothing (Score:3, Insightful)

    by suso ( 153703 ) * on Thursday June 16, 2022 @09:15PM (#62626706) Journal

    A radical group of fundamentalist christians have taken over the United States Congress.

  • That's what really landed them in this lawsuit.

    If they were a mom-and-pop store, no one (and especially no lawyer or disgruntled employee looking for a payday) would give a sh*t.

    • “You can please some of the people all of the time, you can please all of the people some of the time, but you can’t please all of the people all of the time”
      - John Lydgate

      If you are a small company, you can get away with a lot of quarks, As you have a small group of hires, and a small group of customers who want your unique set of services, and enjoy your set of quarks.

      If you are a large company, the best you can do is trying to please all the customers some of the time. those Quarks of y

  • by Applehu Akbar ( 2968043 ) on Friday June 17, 2022 @12:04AM (#62626916)

    First the Democrat and Republican parties were colonized by crackpots. Now it's the corporations' turn. It won't be long now before Chinese domination is complete.

    • That is the general Chinese plan. They show up and being seen the only responsible adult in the room, then people will gravitate to them as their best choice.

      Sure Chinese government gives little real freedom, too full of rules and regulations, and a miserable human rights record. However, with major persons in the the US Government, having a fit because they are movies with Strong Female leads, or Gays who not villains or comic relief. Or going nuts because someone used a word or did a thing that was on

  • Am I the only one who saw this:

    How a Religious Sect Landed Google in a Lawsuit

    ... and was pleasantly surprised to see this:

    a religious organization called the Fellowship of Friends

  • Perhaps I have got the wrong end of the stick? So Mr. Lloyds gripe is that there is an influx of workers with this particular religious belief? Everywhere I have worked, there happens to have been a predominantly Methodist workforce - I saw no need in taking offence at this. "The suit, which Mr. Lloyd filed in August in California Superior Court, accuses Google and ASG of violating a California employment law that protects workers against discrimination" - So he would prefer Google/ASG refuse to employ t
  • @#%$ cultists!!! Why can't they believe normal things like the rest of Google?

    (Like that wearing a dress turns you into a girl, through transubstantiation or something?)

  • Every major organization has their little cliques usually based around colleges.

    This seems unusually blatant.

  • We had an ABNORMALLY high number of hires at my last job from a re-something-christian (not sure if it was brand name or store brand) church.

    They were very nice to but tried to convert us "non-Christians"*

    *In my case, my brand of "non-Christian" was 'practicing Catholic' at the time . . .
  • OMG! Google employees are drinking CULT wine and receiving CULT massages.

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