Aimco has found Jesus

okay folks, this one is for the record books. Aimco is now, honest to goodness, changing its strategic direction to be a "Christian" company.

Forget your personal religious affiliation and think about this for a minute. The CEO, Terry Considine, in cahoots with J Landis Martin, questionable acquisition of HUD properties, a former Senator, and the guy who is kicking out hundreds of old ladies from Lincoln Place is now promoting his personal brand of Christianity.

I now understand why the Divisional and Regional leadership has gone so "dogmatic". They are just responding to pressure from above (its a shame they don't have a little backbone to just say NO to the religious right).

Aimco is actually advertising for new employees on a Christian website. Go to jobopenings.net and see for yourself.

I don't know about you, but my personal religious beliefs, along with my other constitutionally protected rights should not be fodder for the boardroom. Why don't they just stick with running their properties? Weird. I hope this drives their stock into the ground.

I agree with you but in almost the opposite way. To me, putting up some cult character like Jesus as a God seems more business strategy than religion.

The two should not mix in my opinion. Don't have church where you work and don't turn a church into a business. Obviously I am in a very tiny minority on those ideas, but if you forget your personal business strategy and think about this for a minute you will see the same thing goes on in most churches.

In that respect why not use it? If name of Jesus draws people to donate tons of cash at the church, why not use the name to draw business from those bleeding heart liberals as a marketing strategy?

Charlie -

I'll tell you why religion and god should not be used as a marketing strategy and why Aimco is evil for attempting to do so (if that is truly their motivation)

1. Aimco is required to operate under "Fair Housing Law" if they start touting Christianity, they are discriminating against their residents by selectively staffing their properties with individuals of the Christian faith.

2. They are violating Title VII law (not the first time they have done this of course) in which individuals are protected from employment discrimination based upon the same criteria as fair housing.

3. Their operating processes contradict Christian principles and teachings thus making them hypocrites.

4. They are a governmentally regulated industry (in their capital (low income) division. This could be considered a church and state separation issue. They even have high end expensive apartments that are HUD financed (through a loophole in former HUD law that says that if a certain percentage of the population within a geographical area is low income, that a high end building can also qualify for HUD financing- trust me, they know ALL the loopholes (christian, right???)

5. They are too stupid to realize that their main shareholders are primarily of the Jewish faith. (the big banks)

6. Its just bad business to mix personal fairy tales with business. If i believed in the Wizard of Oz as the creator of the universe, i certainly wouldn't start seeking out followers of the movie as my employees.

As usual, Aimco violates rights, breaks society's rules, and generally operates in a culture of insanity - this latest development proves it.

Without quoting what you've said, allow me to refer by your numbering alone?

1- and 2 - I'll give you that point because I have no idea whether AIMCO may be also advertising on Jewish, websites or not, nor whether they actually are biased in their hiring practices. They certainly must be held to the same standards as everyone else, but no matter the company's religious views, it may not affect their decisions in doing business. I figure it is just a tactic to attract Christian customers much the same way Home Depot has all their products and signs in two languages to attract the Hispanic crowd. I mean this is a predominately Protestant country so why not cater to them? Kosher foods have long since catered to the Jewish population in every grocer in America.

3 - No more contradiction than a guy who sells new Chevrolet's everyday and drives his Mercedes to work and back. What's wrong with that?

(cont'd)

(cont'd)

4 - I disagree. the separation of church and state refers to the government itself forcing the citizens to adhere to certain religious beliefs. AIMCO isn't a State run organization. When it gets to the level of a private business, all they are required to do is adhere to the law. As for Christian principles, you could also view it as AIMCO cleverly discovering a loop hole in the law that allows a poor Christian to have a better house and a better life. That is no worse than a clever lawyer getting a criminal off the hook due to some similar loop hole.

5 - I'll give you that point as well if that is the actual truth. I will add, though, that the source of money should not dictate the adherence to the religious views of the lender. It is a classic example of the saying "Everybody's money is green.

6 - I agree with you on that point. I don't believe it is a good idea to mix religion with significant business decisions but I do believe when it gets to the area of advertising, a business does no wrong by using religion to attract customers as long as those are not the only customers they will cater to.

I personally believe in God but shy away from any church organizations mainly because they run themselves as businesses.

On the other hand, even US currency says "In God we trust" so you can't really fault a business for recognizing the inference in my opinion. After all, even Christians can buy Kosher foods.

In short, my opinion is that churches should not be businesses and businesses should not be churches but churches can have businessmen in the congregation and businesses can have religious customers.

At this point Aimco will hire anywhere it can people dont want to work for companies with there rep.