Mother Jones Editor Blasts Alaska Airlines Flight Attendant Over ‘Blessed’ Night Remark: ‘Creeping Christian Nationalism’?

Clara Jeffery, editor-in-chief of Mother Jones which is often described as “left-leaning” or “far left,” took to social media to blast a union flight attendant at Alaska Airlines over their landing announcement where the editor complains that passengers were wished a “blessed” night prior to arrival in San Francisco.

Jeffery calls it “creeping Christian nationalism” though it’s an individual employee of a business – not government – offering a personal message. And indeed it’s hardly new and therefore creeping!

For over 30 years Alaska Airlines included prayer cards on meal trays, beginning in the late 1970s. They stopped serving meals on trays in coach in 2006, so the cards became a first-class only item (and eventually first class on flights of four hours or longer). They were discontinued from first class meal trays in 2012, with airline leadership explaining at the time that,

Some of you enjoy the cards and associate them with our service. At the same time, we’ve heard from many of you who believe religion is inappropriate on an airplane.

Ironically, the passenger complaining about this flight attendant regularly uses ‘bless you’ and “God bless” herself.

Called out over this, she digs deeper and argues it’s ‘off brand’ for Alaska despite its decades-long history with prayer cards and, for that matter, friendly and caring flight attendants. She says she is being disrespected:

As Thrifty Traveler‘s Kyle Potter put it “Scolding an overworked, underpaid flight attendant for showing a smidge of personality at the end of a long day is a choice, I guess.”

I’d simply offer to Ms. Jeffery, “bless your heart.”

About Gary Leff

Gary Leff is one of the foremost experts in the field of miles, points, and frequent business travel - a topic he has covered since 2002. Co-founder of frequent flyer community InsideFlyer.com, emcee of the Freddie Awards, and named one of the "World's Top Travel Experts" by Conde' Nast Traveler (2010-Present) Gary has been a guest on most major news media, profiled in several top print publications, and published broadly on the topic of consumer loyalty. More About Gary »

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Comments

  1. Left *leaning* is an understatement. Mother Jones is about as close to center as Alex Jones (they’re both absolute wastes of space).

  2. It’s fine if someone gets upset by an innocuous statement, but before this becomes a right-wing comment thread complaining about the left, remember this swings both ways. At the end of every year for the past five (ten?) years, the right loses its collective mind when people and companies say “Happy Holidays” instead of “Merry Christmas.” That’s also an innocuous statement.

  3. LOL, I was reminded of of those “meal prayer cards” on Alaska many years back (when I was living in Portland and traveled a bit), and thought they were quaint, and pretty harmless. As for the FA and her offering of a “blessed night,” once more, my skin would be a little bit too thick these days to be offended. I’ll take any “good-will” that I can, and without too much second-guessing of the motives of the giver. We all make our choices, and I’m well on the “Senior side,” and “choose my battles” accordingly.

  4. An editor for Mother Jones, that advocates for the abolishment of fossil fuels, is on a flight. Have a blessed day, hypocrite.

  5. “Blessed”, whole often paired with religious context, isn’t inherently religious.

    Now, “May God give you all a blessed night”, that IS religious and shouldn’t be allowed.

    That’s the difference. And while I very much support the freedom of religion, remember that also means “freedom to choose a different or no religion”. So, unless THE CORPORATE / BUSINESS is strongly supporting a specific religion (and employees do that same), then the employees shouldn’t be allowed to use their jobs to promote their own beliefs. Basically, it comes down to only promoting what the business stands for, including when that means nothing at all.

    As for the offended, this sort of thing is where you make customer service complaints. Then the company can decide if it’s a violation of policy or if they should simply tell the employees to refrain from that comment because it’s easy to take it as religious. At that point, the one making the complaint can decide, based on repeated negative experiences or how the company treats their complaining, whether or not to continue supporting their business.

  6. HYPOCRISY IS NOT A LOGICAL FALLACY – although it’s a bad look, there is no detriment to logic or reason in arguing against religious language when you use the same language yourself. There is no detriment to logic or reason in campaigning for the environment when you yourself take a high-pollution form of transportation.

    The press needs drama and controversy to remain relevant, otherwise they go out of business.

  7. Just a note to Mother Jones for future reference. If the Christian population of the United States can overlook and ignore the claptrap spouted every single year, all year long, by the Athiests who are mortally offended that someone else has alternate beliefs, please, in the future, breathe in, breathe out, and move on. Christians do not really care if you are offended.

  8. As left wing commie as I am …. Even I’d say ‘relax’ to this MJ writer. When someone tells me to have a blessed day I always respond ‘you too’ and I mean it too. I don’t see it as a sign of the dangerous abyss that this country finds itself at—there are a lot more obvious signs of that. Maybe I need to go back to my left-wing commie re-education camp? Hmmm

  9. It’s showing an ounce of humanity and empathy to fellow people. A tip to this MJ editor – take the complement and good wishes.

    If you are flying a foreign carrier and get a positive blessing from the predominant spiritual denomination there….you’d call it a very nice gesture and appreciated.

    This MJ editor/ writer is what is wrong with humanity right now.

    I will congratulate and appreciate this Alaska FA for thier positive mental attitude. I’m that much more happier being an MVP 100k on AS given this level of empathy and service by this FA.

  10. Aa an atheist, I find it annoying.

    For those who think that I’m wrong…
    * What if they wished you an Islam blessing in Arabic?
    * Or tell you that you might have a nice day, but you are all going to hell becase you are not Westborough Church?

    Different? Really?

    Why should she invoke her god before 250 captive people?

    Enough of that. Work is not for proselytism.

  11. Who’s it hurting? I’m not a Christian but I can appreciate someone’s good will when they say that. Why would I be offended if someone of ANY religion gives a similar type expression.

  12. The correct, normal, non-insane human response is always “thank you, I appreciate it”. And I’m an atheist.

  13. I can be sure when a Muslim prays in the aisle Clara will be the first to defend yet throw hate at well wishing

  14. OMG…Clara Jeffery sounds like a whiny MAGAt. Who cares if the FA said “Blessed”. She wasn’t trying to shove her religion down your throat! Get over yourself! I don’t know why Mother Jones would keep such a whiner on staff!

  15. Is it any more stupid then woke people getting upset when the pilot comes on to make his/her announcement and begins, “Ladies & Gentlemen may I have your attention”. The woke imbeciles that identify as part of the alphabet soup of letters get their panties in a twist over this znd want language sanitized and made into pablum to offend nobody! It’s all bull feces!!!

  16. Interesting…my Wiccan and pagan friends say ‘blessed be’ and ‘have a blessed day/night’ all the time. And there’s nothing white Christian nationalist about that crowd.

  17. It never ceases to amaze me at how certain types of individuals will get triggered over really trivial stupid stuff and ya wonder why our world is becoming so messed up and it’s because of all the Wokie/ Racist crybabies bitching over peoples not wanting to listen to their pathetic narratives any more. My advice to these Moronic crybabies is *Get Over yourselves* you dumb Dimwits, not everything revolves around you

  18. As a progressive, non-Christian, I’d say she needs to stop taking herself so seriously. I’ll gladly welcome someone’s good wishes.

  19. Everybody needs to understand that they are not in control of what others think, what they say, or what they believe. If I want to say God Bless you, then you have the choice to either get over it and move on, or get your shorts in a twist. But that is on you and not me. In short, breathe in, breathe out and move on.

  20. People wish me happy Eid or Diwali (as well as Merry Christmas) all the time My work setting is very diverse. The correct response is “Thank you, and happy (whatever) to you too!” The far left and far right have a lot in common – including intolerance.

  21. A white Christian theocracy with an orange, corrupt, morbidly obese, demented Orange King. ‘Murica! #Godsplan

  22. @ Gary — What exactly is wrong with using “blessed”. It is certainly much better than 99% of things one could say in this situarion. Ridiculous.

  23. Mother Jones? Not exactly what I’d call a publication of influence. Didn’t even know it was still around. But I suppose all of its dozen or so readers can boycott Alaska. The rest of us won’t ever notice.
    Have a blessed day!

  24. I hate proseltyzing as much as the next atheist and always found the AS prayer cards on F trays to be offensive (though I saw no point in complaining to management as clearly it was ingrained).

    But seriously what is wrong with “have a blessed day” – it is the equivalent of “Merry Christmas” or “Bless you” when somebody sneezes. I’d wager Mother Jones is desperate for page hits because nobody can have his head stuck this far up his ***

  25. “Blessed” and “blessing” can have many meanings, not all of them religious. Some think it’s a religious magical act bestowed from above by an animorphised deity. In the Christian New Testament, however, the original word root for blessing in Greek is “makarios” which literally means “happy.” So when someone says “God bless you,” they are literally saying, “May God make you happy.” And if you want to get further into it, the New Testament also says “God is Love, and those who live in Love live in God and God in them.” The Greek word used there for Love means “selfless love” which is the essence of God as a broader concept as opposed to some old geezer sitting on a cloud. (The Greeks used multiple words for specific different meanings that all somehow translate into “love” in English.) So it’s quite possible, for those who don’t care for the religious overtone, to retranslate (in your head) “God bless you” into the wish “May selfless love make you happy.” I.e., “Have a nice day.” So you can always appreciate the well-meaning sentiment and reply, “May selfless love make you happy, too!” and then watch them look at you in a manner not unlike your dog does when they can’t figure out what you’re saying to them. They do not hate you and actually want you to be happy. So be grateful and move one. There will probably be less-pleasant people for you to encounter during your journey.

  26. This whole episode is evidence that people some people need to get a life and stop taking offense at every single bit of life’s minutiae

  27. I completely agree with the Mother Jones editor. I worķ in government and we had a innocuous employee telling us ‘god bless you’ who was a Christian. A few weeks later, she was telling colleagues ‘we were all going to hell for denying Jesus’!
    Christofascist vibes from her always were present to me and I wasnot stocked at all.
    Now if I as a Muslim said ‘Allah bless you’ I’m sure the Christies would go nuts. They want religious freedom and tolerance for themselves but that’s it. Typical right wing hypocrites! Look at how they lose their minds at Happy Holidays ĺol!

  28. I had no idea that Mother Jones magazine was still around. What a waste of paper that is printed on. This editor needs to get a life. The Flight attendant was being sweet. Nothing more needs to be made out of it.

  29. It never fails to amaze me when someone is offended by the word Blessed. I suppose all the murders and violent crime on the left wing TV news is OK but the term Have a blessed day is considered to be offensive. The whole civilized world is slipping backwards due to the techno wizardry that has entered our daily lives. We don’t talk we text we don’t shop we order on line what will be next. I do not attend any organized church, friends actually say that the steeple will fall if I walk in the door. Yet if I was leaving a flight and the FA told to have a Blessed Day or Evening I would simply say “and you do the same”. Why be offended you are only making yourself angry for basically no reason.

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