Uncomfortable religious situations you were forced into

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I'm a Muslim woman, and I wear my scarf proudly. Last year, I went to attend our office manager's husband funeral at a baptist church. There were few people who seemed to be all related to the deceased man. The priest started his speech calling for non- believers to convert, and went on saying if you think your Muhammad will save you from hell you are wrong and you will burn and that is okay to feel shy and not raise your hand to accept Jesus as your savior, but you should think about it.. It was an ackward situation, I felt the entire speech was directed at me. I was the only Muslim in that funeral so Duh. I still remained calm, although I was tempted to raise my hand and correct some of his facts about Islam- but I decided not to out of respect for the family of the deceased. I had to remind myself that I chose to be in that church so I just have to zip it till end of service. At the end, I went and gave my condolences to our office manager and she was shocked to see me and asked if I were present during entire service- I smiled and said yes but don't worry about it.

I'm so sorry you went through that. Just. Wow.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I am a nurse. Every morning at 0700 during a mandatory morning huddle, I have to listen to a prayer (or pray, that's the other option). The prayer varies by the day and is never a generic "lord, let us do good, amen" sort of affair. Always very long, detailed, and packed with extremely reverent and humble offerings to a specific deity.

I cannot opt out of morning huddle and I cannot just pop in and out for the prayer part because it's sandwiched in between concrete medical information I must have for the day.

This is at a hospital that is VERY loosely affiliated with a particular religion and so my recourse is to quit. If it was a state hospital — say, the Univ. of Maryland Medical Center in Baltimore — I'd take a different approach to this uncomfortable situation. But because a particular religion founded this hospital 140 years ago, that's their basis for forcing prayer in 2016 although nothing in their mission statement, etc, has anything to do w. religion at this time.

Can you pull out your smartphone and check your email during this time? Might as well do something useful during that tim. Or would that be held against you?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Which part of "why did her mother send her over there for three days in the first place" is such an alien language to such militant anti-religious people?

This is hysterical.

Having someone's kid in your house does not give you the right to force your religion on them, period. A mom should be able to trust a family friend to watch her kid for a few days without having to explicitly say, "Don't try to force your religion on my kid, please. These are basic rules of polite society, like keeping a roll of toilet paper in the bathroom, or washing your hands before a meal, or remembering to do your laundry.

If you are a Christian family who is doing a favor by hosting a non-Christian kid, and if the kid looks like he's able to be at home alone for 2 hours a day (like the PP, a teenager, was clearly capable of) then give him a cheery good morning on Sunday, show him where the cereal is, tell him not to open the door for strangers, and whisk your Christian family off to church. Your guest can stay at home.

Because that is a basic expectation of polite, secular society. You're welcome.

Tagging along to church twice is not forcing religion on them, lol. I'm not even religious.

+1. The level of hysteria here from people who were taken outside their normal routines is, well, sort of hysterical. Especially the nurse who chose to work for a religious hospital and is surprised about the prayer.

Some of these stories are shocking. I agree completely.

But some of you are big babies playing victim. Grow up, you people. It's a big world out there, and you can't expect everybody to be just like you.

Taking a teenager you are watching for a few days to church with you is one thing. Making teenager actively participate In and talk about what they learned in a bible study that contradicts their own beliefs is clearly another. Then after OP said to said family that she was uncomfortable they took her again. I think you are thinking about this from an adult perspective. As an adult if I feel uncomfortable in a situation like that I can simply leave without any real problems. In this particular situation I can see how that would be difficult for the OP-because causing too much problem would have more than likely made the subsequent time with the family extremely awkward. Someone mentioned waiting outside. Well let's talk about that. What if the family got offended and acted rudely to her for the rest of the time? Maybe you should remember what it's like to be a teenager and look at the situation through those eyes. How is it ok that the host family gets to push all their beliefs on the OP but then when she stated she was uncomfortable her beliefs don't matter just because she is staying with them? No, everyone doesn't have the same beliefs-true and both parties should have been respected.

I still say this is all OP's mother's fault, and the blame lies there. She didn't mind asking these people to watch the daughter for a few days while she went out of town. If OP was going to be so traumatized by being asked to participate in another family's rituals and family discussion about it, then she shouldn't have been there in the first place.

You have no idea what the situation was. This was a single mother who apparently couldn't rely on family to help out when she went out of town. Maybe she had asked others to watch her daughter and this family was the only one that could. Maybe the mother had no clue this family was so religious and would insist not only on taking her daughter to church but also to bible study and try to get her to talk about religion. Maybe she did know but was so desperate to have someone help her out she felt she couldn't say, please don't proselytize.

Use your imagination to empathize with others.

[Anonymous]

You have no idea what the situation was. This was a single mother who apparently couldn't rely on family to help out when she went out of town. Maybe she had asked others to watch her daughter and this family was the only one that could. Maybe the mother had no clue this family was so religious and would insist not only on taking her daughter to church but also to bible study and try to get her to talk about religion. Maybe she did know but was so desperate to have someone help her out she felt she couldn't say, please don't proselytize.

Use your imagination to empathize with others.

Your rationality is lost on these folks, PP. Don't waste your breath.

[Anonymous]

The funny part of this whole took-the-teenager-to-church fiasco thing is that these are the same people that love diversity and inclusion and would be so happy to have little Larla visit a Buddhist temple and talk with the nice monks, but if you are a Christian they'll dump their kids with you for three days and freak out that you don't want to leave their kid unsupervised in their house as you go about your normal life.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The funny part of this whole took-the-teenager-to-church fiasco thing is that these are the same people that love diversity and inclusion and would be so happy to have little Larla visit a Buddhist temple and talk with the nice monks, but if you are a Christian they'll dump their kids with you for three days and freak out that you don't want to leave their kid unsupervised in their house as you go about your normal life.

Well, I mean, a fundamental difference between Buddhism and Christianity is that Buddhism isn't evangelical in nature. There's no culture of proselytizing, no exclusionary attitude ("our way is the only way!"), and no...pushiness. You'll notice that none of the stories in this thread involved a Buddhist person trying to preach at a non-Buddhist person, but there are pages of stories, not just from the OP, about Christians trying it. So no, there's nothing "funny" about people noticing that uncomfortable religious situations arise from intolerance...instead of, you know, allowing you to paint other people as intolerant for not allowing uncomfortable behavior.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The funny part of this whole took-the-teenager-to-church fiasco thing is that these are the same people that love diversity and inclusion and would be so happy to have little Larla visit a Buddhist temple and talk with the nice monks, but if you are a Christian they'll dump their kids with you for three days and freak out that you don't want to leave their kid unsupervised in their house as you go about your normal life.

Well, I mean, a fundamental difference between Buddhism and Christianity is that Buddhism isn't evangelical in nature. There's no culture of proselytizing, no exclusionary attitude ("our way is the only way!"), and no...pushiness. You'll notice that none of the stories in this thread involved a Buddhist person trying to preach at a non-Buddhist person, but there are pages of stories, not just from the OP, about Christians trying it. So no, there's nothing "funny" about people noticing that uncomfortable religious situations arise from intolerance...instead of, you know, allowing you to paint other people as intolerant for not allowing uncomfortable behavior.

So you've never met Buddhists, often converts, who want to tell you all about why their way is the best. You need to get out more.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The funny part of this whole took-the-teenager-to-church fiasco thing is that these are the same people that love diversity and inclusion and would be so happy to have little Larla visit a Buddhist temple and talk with the nice monks, but if you are a Christian they'll dump their kids with you for three days and freak out that you don't want to leave their kid unsupervised in their house as you go about your normal life.

Well, I mean, a fundamental difference between Buddhism and Christianity is that Buddhism isn't evangelical in nature. There's no culture of proselytizing, no exclusionary attitude ("our way is the only way!"), and no...pushiness. You'll notice that none of the stories in this thread involved a Buddhist person trying to preach at a non-Buddhist person, but there are pages of stories, not just from the OP, about Christians trying it. So no, there's nothing "funny" about people noticing that uncomfortable religious situations arise from intolerance...instead of, you know, allowing you to paint other people as intolerant for not allowing uncomfortable behavior.

So you've never met Buddhists, often converts, who want to tell you all about why their way is the best. You need to get out more.

+1. Really sick of "Buddhist" being this stand-in for aloof perfect religion among liberals. Buddhists can be, ahem, "pushy" too.

http://content.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,2146000,00.html

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The funny part of this whole took-the-teenager-to-church fiasco thing is that these are the same people that love diversity and inclusion and would be so happy to have little Larla visit a Buddhist temple and talk with the nice monks, but if you are a Christian they'll dump their kids with you for three days and freak out that you don't want to leave their kid unsupervised in their house as you go about your normal life.

Amen.

[Anonymous]

First Holy Communion. Early 1980s. Forced to wear thick, uncomfortable rollers in my hair the night before so my hair would have more "body" and I would like just the way my mother wanted me to for professional photos in the morning. Those rollers may have been a crown of thorns they hurt so much. And then the little wedding dress. Yikes. Felt like one of those little Irish Traveler brides.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The funny part of this whole took-the-teenager-to-church fiasco thing is that these are the same people that love diversity and inclusion and would be so happy to have little Larla visit a Buddhist temple and talk with the nice monks, but if you are a Christian they'll dump their kids with you for three days and freak out that you don't want to leave their kid unsupervised in their house as you go about your normal life.

Well, I mean, a fundamental difference between Buddhism and Christianity is that Buddhism isn't evangelical in nature. There's no culture of proselytizing, no exclusionary attitude ("our way is the only way!"), and no...pushiness. You'll notice that none of the stories in this thread involved a Buddhist person trying to preach at a non-Buddhist person, but there are pages of stories, not just from the OP, about Christians trying it. So no, there's nothing "funny" about people noticing that uncomfortable religious situations arise from intolerance...instead of, you know, allowing you to paint other people as intolerant for not allowing uncomfortable behavior.

So you've never met Buddhists, often converts, who want to tell you all about why their way is the best. You need to get out more.

+1. Really sick of "Buddhist" being this stand-in for aloof perfect religion among liberals. Buddhists can be, ahem, "pushy" too.

http://content.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,2146000,00.html

Ahem, that was my post about "So you've never met Buddhists...", and I'm liberal. I've also had Muslims tell me why their religion is so much better, including how Christians misunderstand Jesus. Proselytizing, to the point of making someone uncomfortable, isn't limited to any one religion.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The funny part of this whole took-the-teenager-to-church fiasco thing is that these are the same people that love diversity and inclusion and would be so happy to have little Larla visit a Buddhist temple and talk with the nice monks, but if you are a Christian they'll dump their kids with you for three days and freak out that you don't want to leave their kid unsupervised in their house as you go about your normal life.

Well, I mean, a fundamental difference between Buddhism and Christianity is that Buddhism isn't evangelical in nature. There's no culture of proselytizing, no exclusionary attitude ("our way is the only way!"), and no...pushiness. You'll notice that none of the stories in this thread involved a Buddhist person trying to preach at a non-Buddhist person, but there are pages of stories, not just from the OP, about Christians trying it. So no, there's nothing "funny" about people noticing that uncomfortable religious situations arise from intolerance...instead of, you know, allowing you to paint other people as intolerant for not allowing uncomfortable behavior.

So you've never met Buddhists, often converts, who want to tell you all about why their way is the best. You need to get out more.

+1. Really sick of "Buddhist" being this stand-in for aloof perfect religion among liberals. Buddhists can be, ahem, "pushy" too.

http://content.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,2146000,00.html

Ahem, that was my post about "So you've never met Buddhists...", and I'm liberal. I've also had Muslims tell me why their religion is so much better, including how Christians misunderstand Jesus. Proselytizing, to the point of making someone uncomfortable, isn't limited to any one religion.

Well I'm liberal, too, but that doesn't mean liberals don't do annoying things!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

You have no idea what the situation was. This was a single mother who apparently couldn't rely on family to help out when she went out of town. Maybe she had asked others to watch her daughter and this family was the only one that could. Maybe the mother had no clue this family was so religious and would insist not only on taking her daughter to church but also to bible study and try to get her to talk about religion. Maybe she did know but was so desperate to have someone help her out she felt she couldn't say, please don't proselytize.

Use your imagination to empathize with others.

Your rationality is lost on these folks, PP. Don't waste your breath.

Rationality? What's wrong with you. PP herself admits to using her "imagination" not reason. PP is "imagining", to use her own words, an entire scenario that fits her dearly-held notion that the religious host family was to blame and the mom is blameless. Someone else could "imagone" that mom shunned her relatives' offers if help because she secretly wanted her daughter to be exposed to that religion. Just because she poses her "imaginary" scenario as hypotheticals doesn't make any of it true.

You two are irrational. Put succinctly, you're both nuts.

[Anonymous]

What's sad is that all the rest of us with stories got buried under the arguing. This thread had promise and was ruined by bickering.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:What's sad is that all the rest of us with stories got buried under the arguing. This thread had promise and was ruined by bickering.

Yeah, the angry evangelicals got a little bit defensive.