Interview: Discrimination Against the United Church of Bacon

[the internationally known magician and outspoken Atheist] . Bacon is real. If you’re a skeptic, you can prove bacon exists in a court of law. We view bacon as God the same way you could call your daughter or son, “my little god or goddess”, or your pet, my godly pet. Even though there are some religions that don’t like bacon because it’s pork, we make an exception for that. We say vegetarian bacon is fine. So is turkey bacon.

SPI: You don’t take donations, but you do raise money for others?

John Whiteside: What I do is I go to conventions and sit at a table next to an organization that’s taking donations. I say, “I’ll give you a free t-shirt if you give money to, say, the Secular Student Alliance, which is the last one we did at TAM. And so people give money to the Secular Student Alliance. Then I say, “I’m also going to match whatever donation you give to them!” So at this particular convention it was TAM, [ The Amazing Meeting, each July in Las Vegas ], so between the James Randi Foundation and the Secular Student Alliance we raised close to $25,000. The same thing happened at the American Atheist convention with the Secular Coalition for America.

SPI: It’s so rare for an incident of religious discrimination to be well documented, blatant, and out in the open. Tell us what happened in April 2014.

John Whiteside: The United Church of Bacon was recognized as a church that does weddings… Nevada is very strict about becoming a wedding officiant. An official in the church says, [ written in an affidavit which must be notarized ], “this person is in good standing”, and they authorize this person to do officiant services. Then the State of Nevada does a background investigation.

SPI: So you brought an affidavit for a new officiant into Wells Fargo, because that was your personal bank, and you were looking for a notary.

John Whiteside: Correct. As long as I show my bank card and ID, I’ve never had a problem getting anything notarized at Wells Fargo. Never. I’m making a sworn statement, and they’re the state’s witness. And that’s the only job of a notary. The notary has to verify who you are and understand the contents of the documents.

John Whiteside: The notary, the only question she asked was, “Where is your church banking?”

John Whiteside: And I said, “Are you asking if we have a Wells Fargo bank account?”

John Whiteside: She goes, “No, anywhere. The church has to have a bank somewhere.”

John Whiteside: And I said, “No, our church is set up to never take donations. We pay taxes as a church, but we don’t claim taxes so there’s no reason for a bank account anywhere.”

SPI: I understand that she refused to notarize your document, because she claimed she needed proof that you actually ran the church. But that isn’t the job of a notary, to act like a lawyer or government official. You had your ID with you, and that’s really all a notary needs to check. But you played along, offering her proof that you run the church?

John Whiteside: I sat there, directed her, trying to show her proof, but she’s refusing to do anything to verify that I am the founder and leader of this church. I asked her to google my name: John Whiteside Las Vegas. Not gonna do that. So after 20 minutes of this, with my explaining to her, “You’re just a witness for today. Here is my website. I’ll show you my personal membership roster, with 4,000 members…” Nothing worked!

John Whiteside: After 20 minutes of this, I finally said, “This is a real church. And I’m starting to smell like this is religious discrimination. I suggest you go get a legal opinion.” So she left, and while she was gone I thought that the only thing that she can really claim is that she thought that maybe my license is fraudulent.

SPI: But she didn’t claim that. In fact, you cashed out your personal Wells Fargo account, so she must have believed it was you.

SPI: What are you hoping Wells Fargo will do? Are you looking for an acknowledgement and apology?

John Whiteside: Yes. I am. Absolutely. I’m asking Wells Fargo to address this.

John Whiteside: This wasn’t every Wells Fargo employee. This was an individual in a Wells Fargo. And I proved that the next day. I had it notarized at 9:05 am, by a person who had the same position, a customer service manager, at another Wells Fargo location.

John Whiteside: So it’s not discrimination by Wells Fargo. It’s the tolerance of discrimination by Wells Fargo by not even starting an internal investigation. And Wells Fargo is doing nothing about it, even though they have a zero tolerance policy towards harassment and discrimination. So the issue now is with Wells Fargo and also the State of Nevada. When I contacted the State of Nevada, they never even talked about what her actual duties were as a notary. All they said was, “She said she couldn’t verify that you had authority in the church to do this.”

SPI: But that’s not the job of a notary. If you have your ID, you are good to go. Notaries don’t vet transactions. They notarize identities.

John Whiteside: Even if she did, I had the proof. I’m the pope of the church. I am the church. All she had to do was google John Whiteside Las Vegas. When I told her to go get a legal opinion, she went and came back, and said, “I’m not going to do it.”

John Whiteside: So I said, “Well then, I want you to close my personal accounts here at Wells Fargo.” She did close my checking account and instantly gave me a check, so she knew who I was. This was religious discrimination. This is the State of Nevada and Wells Fargo ignoring an individual employee that did discriminate religiously… We have the right to believe what we want to believe. This is about freedom of thought and the ability to go into some place and not be treated on the same level as rapists. There’s a recent survey, [ a 2011 study by the University of British Columbia and the University of Oregon, published in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology ] that shows that people trust atheists at the same level they trust rapists. And that’s just wrong.

SPI: Now you have a petition up for people to sign. Do you think you can get a response from Wells Fargo or the State of Nevada if you get the 50,000 signatures you’re looking for?

John Whiteside: Yes. I’d like to get at least 50,000 signatures and I think it can be done.

For more, visit the United Church of Bacon website and watch their 2-minute video with a petition to sign! What’s better than a rally? The United Church of Bacon is planning two rallies! They are tentatively scheduled for Wednesday April 15 and Saturday April 18, 2015. Contact John through the website to help.