Uncomfortable religious situations you were forced into

[Anonymous]

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.

Lol what a weirdo.

Then when the kid burns your house down or injures themselves when you are at church, you can be the bad guys! I swear this thread should be titled “Tell me you don’t have kids without telling me you don’t have kids.”

Apparently the atheist families were too busy to take a kid in. The religious family felt as if they should help a single mom, and get slandered by op for decades. SMH.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I'm Jewish and have spent time with Catholics and people of lots of other religions. It's mostly gone swimmingly. We used to host a Passover seder and we fell into an unintentional habit of always inviting someone who wasn't Jewish. Once it was my Italian friend in high school, once it was my brother's Indian friend in college, etc.

When I went to college, I didn't drink (not for religious reasons) and all the other girls on my floor were big partiers. The RA hated me - I think they all thought I looked down on them? But she scheduled a mandatory floor meeting at a dining hall during Yom Kippur, when I was fasting. I went to her and said due to religious reasons I wouldn't be able to attend, and she made a big deal about "You may only be a freshman but you should learn in your English 101 class what mandatory means, you're going to get in huge trouble and possibly kicked out of school if you don't show, etc."

I got so worried I went to the RA in another building - he was really cool and we'd become friendly - to talk with him about it. He laughed and was like "Come hang out with me that day. So we sat on his bed all day on Yom Kippur talking and listening to Janet Jackson. I did NOT get kicked out of school for missing the meeting and my RA never said a word about it to me.

Later, before winter break, she had a floor meeting. She called each girl's name one by one and handed each girl a Christmas card. Towards the end, she called my name. I went up, and she said, in front of everyone, "You know, I had a Jewish kid last year who I gave a Christmas card to, and she got all bent out of shape about it, so I didn't get you one so you wouldn't be offended." Everyone laughed as I sat back down.

I haven't thought of that in DECADES! Damn, she was ignorant!

This is so so terrible. I’m sorry.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'm Jewish and have spent time with Catholics and people of lots of other religions. It's mostly gone swimmingly. We used to host a Passover seder and we fell into an unintentional habit of always inviting someone who wasn't Jewish. Once it was my Italian friend in high school, once it was my brother's Indian friend in college, etc.

When I went to college, I didn't drink (not for religious reasons) and all the other girls on my floor were big partiers. The RA hated me - I think they all thought I looked down on them? But she scheduled a mandatory floor meeting at a dining hall during Yom Kippur, when I was fasting. I went to her and said due to religious reasons I wouldn't be able to attend, and she made a big deal about "You may only be a freshman but you should learn in your English 101 class what mandatory means, you're going to get in huge trouble and possibly kicked out of school if you don't show, etc."

I got so worried I went to the RA in another building - he was really cool and we'd become friendly - to talk with him about it. He laughed and was like "Come hang out with me that day. So we sat on his bed all day on Yom Kippur talking and listening to Janet Jackson. I did NOT get kicked out of school for missing the meeting and my RA never said a word about it to me.

Later, before winter break, she had a floor meeting. She called each girl's name one by one and handed each girl a Christmas card. Towards the end, she called my name. I went up, and she said, in front of everyone, "You know, I had a Jewish kid last year who I gave a Christmas card to, and she got all bent out of shape about it, so I didn't get you one so you wouldn't be offended." Everyone laughed as I sat back down.

I haven't thought of that in DECADES! Damn, she was ignorant!

This is so so terrible. I’m sorry.

Blah Blah Blah. My Catholic friend married a Jewish girl and her Dad made him get circumsized at 25!!!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I mean, were they all child molesters at this church, op? Did they force you to handle snakes?

I would have been uncomfortable, too. But unless you feared for your safety, so what? You were uncomfortable for a few days. I dont understand why you think this was such an unacceptable thing for them to do. Bringing a friend to church while they were under my parents care is exactly what my own parents did and what most other parents I knew did. Uncomfortable, sure. Egregious, not really.

Would they ask the friend first? I think there is a difference when a child is a certain age. Like if the child is 6-10 I don't even think you would ask-but I think after that its at least polite to ask if they are ok with it. I also think church is one thing, making a teenager go to the "teen bible study" is going too far and then making the teenager go again on a different day after they said they were uncomfortable is taking it WAY too far.

Insert a different religion and see if you respond with such support to the OP.
If this post had been OP sharing how she had stayed with a Muslim family and they had “forced” her to go to their mosque (because they felt responsible for her while she was staying with them for the weekend and didn’t feel like they should leave her alone) and then OP went on and on about how she was super uncomfortable with all the kneeling in the direction of Mecca and praying and such, would you be responding in the sane way or would you be chastising OP for not being open-minded enough to spend a couple of hours outside her comfort zone in appreciation of someone else’s faith traditions? Is it do very hard yo expect a house guest to simply be polite and go along and experience a faith tradition with which thru are unfamiliar? Or is this only
Objectionable when it’s Christianity as the target?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I mean, were they all child molesters at this church, op? Did they force you to handle snakes?

I would have been uncomfortable, too. But unless you feared for your safety, so what? You were uncomfortable for a few days. I dont understand why you think this was such an unacceptable thing for them to do. Bringing a friend to church while they were under my parents care is exactly what my own parents did and what most other parents I knew did. Uncomfortable, sure. Egregious, not really.

Would they ask the friend first? I think there is a difference when a child is a certain age. Like if the child is 6-10 I don't even think you would ask-but I think after that its at least polite to ask if they are ok with it. I also think church is one thing, making a teenager go to the "teen bible study" is going too far and then making the teenager go again on a different day after they said they were uncomfortable is taking it WAY too far.

Insert a different religion and see if you respond with such support to the OP.
If this post had been OP sharing how she had stayed with a Muslim family and they had “forced” her to go to their mosque (because they felt responsible for her while she was staying with them for the weekend and didn’t feel like they should leave her alone) and then OP went on and on about how she was super uncomfortable with all the kneeling in the direction of Mecca and praying and such, would you be responding in the sane way or would you be chastising OP for not being open-minded enough to spend a couple of hours outside her comfort zone in appreciation of someone else’s faith traditions? Is it do very hard yo expect a house guest to simply be polite and go along and experience a faith tradition with which thru are unfamiliar? Or is this only
Objectionable when it’s Christianity as the target?

Bingo. You've discovered the whole purpose of this thread from the very beginning.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I mean, were they all child molesters at this church, op? Did they force you to handle snakes?

I would have been uncomfortable, too. But unless you feared for your safety, so what? You were uncomfortable for a few days. I dont understand why you think this was such an unacceptable thing for them to do. Bringing a friend to church while they were under my parents care is exactly what my own parents did and what most other parents I knew did. Uncomfortable, sure. Egregious, not really.

Would they ask the friend first? I think there is a difference when a child is a certain age. Like if the child is 6-10 I don't even think you would ask-but I think after that its at least polite to ask if they are ok with it. I also think church is one thing, making a teenager go to the "teen bible study" is going too far and then making the teenager go again on a different day after they said they were uncomfortable is taking it WAY too far.

Insert a different religion and see if you respond with such support to the OP.
If this post had been OP sharing how she had stayed with a Muslim family and they had “forced” her to go to their mosque (because they felt responsible for her while she was staying with them for the weekend and didn’t feel like they should leave her alone) and then OP went on and on about how she was super uncomfortable with all the kneeling in the direction of Mecca and praying and such, would you be responding in the sane way or would you be chastising OP for not being open-minded enough to spend a couple of hours outside her comfort zone in appreciation of someone else’s faith traditions? Is it do very hard yo expect a house guest to simply be polite and go along and experience a faith tradition with which thru are unfamiliar? Or is this only
Objectionable when it’s Christianity as the target?

In both cases, I would say the kid has to go and be respectful, but should be able to opt out of religious things (i.e., sit in the lobby or waiting room with a book).

And for all the Christians that think this is no big deal and OP is a whiner - would you like it if your 14-15 year old Christian believer child was told for hours that God didn’t exist? Got sent to a class to study why God isn’t real and then was asked what she learned? Or do you think some Christian children might feel justifiably uncomfortable with 3 days of that?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I mean, were they all child molesters at this church, op? Did they force you to handle snakes?

I would have been uncomfortable, too. But unless you feared for your safety, so what? You were uncomfortable for a few days. I dont understand why you think this was such an unacceptable thing for them to do. Bringing a friend to church while they were under my parents care is exactly what my own parents did and what most other parents I knew did. Uncomfortable, sure. Egregious, not really.

Would they ask the friend first? I think there is a difference when a child is a certain age. Like if the child is 6-10 I don't even think you would ask-but I think after that its at least polite to ask if they are ok with it. I also think church is one thing, making a teenager go to the "teen bible study" is going too far and then making the teenager go again on a different day after they said they were uncomfortable is taking it WAY too far.

Insert a different religion and see if you respond with such support to the OP.
If this post had been OP sharing how she had stayed with a Muslim family and they had “forced” her to go to their mosque (because they felt responsible for her while she was staying with them for the weekend and didn’t feel like they should leave her alone) and then OP went on and on about how she was super uncomfortable with all the kneeling in the direction of Mecca and praying and such, would you be responding in the sane way or would you be chastising OP for not being open-minded enough to spend a couple of hours outside her comfort zone in appreciation of someone else’s faith traditions? Is it do very hard yo expect a house guest to simply be polite and go along and experience a faith tradition with which thru are unfamiliar? Or is this only
Objectionable when it’s Christianity as the target?

In both cases, I would say the kid has to go and be respectful, but should be able to opt out of religious things (i.e., sit in the lobby or waiting room with a book).

And for all the Christians that think this is no big deal and OP is a whiner - would you like it if your 14-15 year old Christian believer child was told for hours that God didn’t exist? Got sent to a class to study why God isn’t real and then was asked what she learned? Or do you think some Christian children might feel justifiably uncomfortable with 3 days of that?

The short answer is I wouldn't randomly pawn my kid off on the hardcore atheist family that visits the local atheist society two or three times a week to begin with.

That being said kids are exposed to atheistic thought period so its not that big of a deal. I suppose it would depend on whether it was an exposition of the works of Nietzsche or David Hume who are historically significant figures or whether it was just lowbrow Dawkins-style bigotry.

Being ignorant of the Bible is to be ignorant of the most influential book in the development of Western Civilization (and all modern civilization really). At least people like Nietzsche and Hume were smart enough to realize that. I find it odd you would want your kid to be purposefully shielded from such a historically significant work, but if you feel that strongly about it then of course you are always welcome to, say, look after your own children?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I mean, were they all child molesters at this church, op? Did they force you to handle snakes?

I would have been uncomfortable, too. But unless you feared for your safety, so what? You were uncomfortable for a few days. I dont understand why you think this was such an unacceptable thing for them to do. Bringing a friend to church while they were under my parents care is exactly what my own parents did and what most other parents I knew did. Uncomfortable, sure. Egregious, not really.

Would they ask the friend first? I think there is a difference when a child is a certain age. Like if the child is 6-10 I don't even think you would ask-but I think after that its at least polite to ask if they are ok with it. I also think church is one thing, making a teenager go to the "teen bible study" is going too far and then making the teenager go again on a different day after they said they were uncomfortable is taking it WAY too far.

Insert a different religion and see if you respond with such support to the OP.
If this post had been OP sharing how she had stayed with a Muslim family and they had “forced” her to go to their mosque (because they felt responsible for her while she was staying with them for the weekend and didn’t feel like they should leave her alone) and then OP went on and on about how she was super uncomfortable with all the kneeling in the direction of Mecca and praying and such, would you be responding in the sane way or would you be chastising OP for not being open-minded enough to spend a couple of hours outside her comfort zone in appreciation of someone else’s faith traditions? Is it do very hard yo expect a house guest to simply be polite and go along and experience a faith tradition with which thru are unfamiliar? Or is this only
Objectionable when it’s Christianity as the target?

In both cases, I would say the kid has to go and be respectful, but should be able to opt out of religious things (i.e., sit in the lobby or waiting room with a book).

And for all the Christians that think this is no big deal and OP is a whiner - would you like it if your 14-15 year old Christian believer child was told for hours that God didn’t exist? Got sent to a class to study why God isn’t real and then was asked what she learned? Or do you think some Christian children might feel justifiably uncomfortable with 3 days of that?

The short answer is I wouldn't randomly pawn my kid off on the hardcore atheist family that visits the local atheist society two or three times a week to begin with.

That being said kids are exposed to atheistic thought period so its not that big of a deal. I suppose it would depend on whether it was an exposition of the works of Nietzsche or David Hume who are historically significant figures or whether it was just lowbrow Dawkins-style bigotry.

Being ignorant of the Bible is to be ignorant of the most influential book in the development of Western Civilization (and all modern civilization really). At least people like Nietzsche and Hume were smart enough to realize that. I find it odd you would want your kid to be purposefully shielded from such a historically significant work, but if you feel that strongly about it then of course you are always welcome to, say, look after your own children?

No shit. I wouldn’t leave my kid with a hardcore Christian family either. But that’s not the point. The point was that people think the OP should not have been uncomfortable. Do you still think that if the religions are reversed?

[Anonymous]

Tell you what, if I'm watching my neighbors kid for several days, FREE, and they object to me participating in my place of worship, with your free loader kid in tow, then just come pick your kid up and watch your own kid.

Ammirite?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I mean, were they all child molesters at this church, op? Did they force you to handle snakes?

I would have been uncomfortable, too. But unless you feared for your safety, so what? You were uncomfortable for a few days. I dont understand why you think this was such an unacceptable thing for them to do. Bringing a friend to church while they were under my parents care is exactly what my own parents did and what most other parents I knew did. Uncomfortable, sure. Egregious, not really.

Would they ask the friend first? I think there is a difference when a child is a certain age. Like if the child is 6-10 I don't even think you would ask-but I think after that its at least polite to ask if they are ok with it. I also think church is one thing, making a teenager go to the "teen bible study" is going too far and then making the teenager go again on a different day after they said they were uncomfortable is taking it WAY too far.

Insert a different religion and see if you respond with such support to the OP.
If this post had been OP sharing how she had stayed with a Muslim family and they had “forced” her to go to their mosque (because they felt responsible for her while she was staying with them for the weekend and didn’t feel like they should leave her alone) and then OP went on and on about how she was super uncomfortable with all the kneeling in the direction of Mecca and praying and such, would you be responding in the sane way or would you be chastising OP for not being open-minded enough to spend a couple of hours outside her comfort zone in appreciation of someone else’s faith traditions? Is it do very hard yo expect a house guest to simply be polite and go along and experience a faith tradition with which thru are unfamiliar? Or is this only
Objectionable when it’s Christianity as the target?

In both cases, I would say the kid has to go and be respectful, but should be able to opt out of religious things (i.e., sit in the lobby or waiting room with a book).

And for all the Christians that think this is no big deal and OP is a whiner - would you like it if your 14-15 year old Christian believer child was told for hours that God didn’t exist? Got sent to a class to study why God isn’t real and then was asked what she learned? Or do you think some Christian children might feel justifiably uncomfortable with 3 days of that?

The short answer is I wouldn't randomly pawn my kid off on the hardcore atheist family that visits the local atheist society two or three times a week to begin with.

That being said kids are exposed to atheistic thought period so its not that big of a deal. I suppose it would depend on whether it was an exposition of the works of Nietzsche or David Hume who are historically significant figures or whether it was just lowbrow Dawkins-style bigotry.

Being ignorant of the Bible is to be ignorant of the most influential book in the development of Western Civilization (and all modern civilization really). At least people like Nietzsche and Hume were smart enough to realize that. I find it odd you would want your kid to be purposefully shielded from such a historically significant work, but if you feel that strongly about it then of course you are always welcome to, say, look after your own children?

1. all atheists do not believe in god - "hardcore" or not.

2, Richard Dawkins is hardly lowbrow. He was an Oxford professor of zoology and finished his academic career there as the Charles d Simonyi Professor for the Public Understanding of Science

3. The Bible has certainly been very influential but that does not mean that its contents reflect accurate history or religious truth.

4. people can look after their children very well, while occasionally leaving them in the care of others.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I mean, were they all child molesters at this church, op? Did they force you to handle snakes?

I would have been uncomfortable, too. But unless you feared for your safety, so what? You were uncomfortable for a few days. I dont understand why you think this was such an unacceptable thing for them to do. Bringing a friend to church while they were under my parents care is exactly what my own parents did and what most other parents I knew did. Uncomfortable, sure. Egregious, not really.

Would they ask the friend first? I think there is a difference when a child is a certain age. Like if the child is 6-10 I don't even think you would ask-but I think after that its at least polite to ask if they are ok with it. I also think church is one thing, making a teenager go to the "teen bible study" is going too far and then making the teenager go again on a different day after they said they were uncomfortable is taking it WAY too far.

Insert a different religion and see if you respond with such support to the OP.
If this post had been OP sharing how she had stayed with a Muslim family and they had “forced” her to go to their mosque (because they felt responsible for her while she was staying with them for the weekend and didn’t feel like they should leave her alone) and then OP went on and on about how she was super uncomfortable with all the kneeling in the direction of Mecca and praying and such, would you be responding in the sane way or would you be chastising OP for not being open-minded enough to spend a couple of hours outside her comfort zone in appreciation of someone else’s faith traditions? Is it do very hard yo expect a house guest to simply be polite and go along and experience a faith tradition with which thru are unfamiliar? Or is this only
Objectionable when it’s Christianity as the target?

In both cases, I would say the kid has to go and be respectful, but should be able to opt out of religious things (i.e., sit in the lobby or waiting room with a book).

And for all the Christians that think this is no big deal and OP is a whiner - would you like it if your 14-15 year old Christian believer child was told for hours that God didn’t exist? Got sent to a class to study why God isn’t real and then was asked what she learned? Or do you think some Christian children might feel justifiably uncomfortable with 3 days of that?

The short answer is I wouldn't randomly pawn my kid off on the hardcore atheist family that visits the local atheist society two or three times a week to begin with.

That being said kids are exposed to atheistic thought period so its not that big of a deal. I suppose it would depend on whether it was an exposition of the works of Nietzsche or David Hume who are historically significant figures or whether it was just lowbrow Dawkins-style bigotry.

Being ignorant of the Bible is to be ignorant of the most influential book in the development of Western Civilization (and all modern civilization really). At least people like Nietzsche and Hume were smart enough to realize that. I find it odd you would want your kid to be purposefully shielded from such a historically significant work, but if you feel that strongly about it then of course you are always welcome to, say, look after your own children?

No shit. I wouldn’t leave my kid with a hardcore Christian family either. But that’s not the point. The point was that people think the OP should not have been uncomfortable. Do you still think that if the religions are reversed?

The honest answer is that it would depend on the particular type of ceremony or speech. There are some ceremonies and speeches I would be OK with and some I wouldn't. Similarly there are different Christian denominations and even as a Christian I'd be more comfortable exposing my kid to some denominations rather than others. But the person obviously at fault in OP's story is her mother. I'm not going to attack the host family because I don't know the content of the Bible study and exposing a nonreligious kid to the Bible, or Qur'an or Bhagavad Gita for that matter, is not by itself objectively unreasonable.

[Anonymous]

OP's mom asked a favor of a neighbor to watch OP for several days. What was the neighbor supposed to do - pay a babysitter herself when she had to go to church? This makes zero sense people. Wake up. The neighbor was helping a single mom in need. This was not a $15-20/hour babysitter where you get to make the rules as payor.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I mean, were they all child molesters at this church, op? Did they force you to handle snakes?

I would have been uncomfortable, too. But unless you feared for your safety, so what? You were uncomfortable for a few days. I dont understand why you think this was such an unacceptable thing for them to do. Bringing a friend to church while they were under my parents care is exactly what my own parents did and what most other parents I knew did. Uncomfortable, sure. Egregious, not really.

Would they ask the friend first? I think there is a difference when a child is a certain age. Like if the child is 6-10 I don't even think you would ask-but I think after that its at least polite to ask if they are ok with it. I also think church is one thing, making a teenager go to the "teen bible study" is going too far and then making the teenager go again on a different day after they said they were uncomfortable is taking it WAY too far.

Insert a different religion and see if you respond with such support to the OP.
If this post had been OP sharing how she had stayed with a Muslim family and they had “forced” her to go to their mosque (because they felt responsible for her while she was staying with them for the weekend and didn’t feel like they should leave her alone) and then OP went on and on about how she was super uncomfortable with all the kneeling in the direction of Mecca and praying and such, would you be responding in the sane way or would you be chastising OP for not being open-minded enough to spend a couple of hours outside her comfort zone in appreciation of someone else’s faith traditions? Is it do very hard yo expect a house guest to simply be polite and go along and experience a faith tradition with which thru are unfamiliar? Or is this only
Objectionable when it’s Christianity as the target?

In both cases, I would say the kid has to go and be respectful, but should be able to opt out of religious things (i.e., sit in the lobby or waiting room with a book).

And for all the Christians that think this is no big deal and OP is a whiner - would you like it if your 14-15 year old Christian believer child was told for hours that God didn’t exist? Got sent to a class to study why God isn’t real and then was asked what she learned? Or do you think some Christian children might feel justifiably uncomfortable with 3 days of that?

The short answer is I wouldn't randomly pawn my kid off on the hardcore atheist family that visits the local atheist society two or three times a week to begin with.

That being said kids are exposed to atheistic thought period so its not that big of a deal. I suppose it would depend on whether it was an exposition of the works of Nietzsche or David Hume who are historically significant figures or whether it was just lowbrow Dawkins-style bigotry.

Being ignorant of the Bible is to be ignorant of the most influential book in the development of Western Civilization (and all modern civilization really). At least people like Nietzsche and Hume were smart enough to realize that. I find it odd you would want your kid to be purposefully shielded from such a historically significant work, but if you feel that strongly about it then of course you are always welcome to, say, look after your own children?

No shit. I wouldn’t leave my kid with a hardcore Christian family either. But that’s not the point. The point was that people think the OP should not have been uncomfortable. Do you still think that if the religions are reversed?

She should not have been uncomfortable. These people took her in and cared for her for free, the only family that would.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I mean, were they all child molesters at this church, op? Did they force you to handle snakes?

I would have been uncomfortable, too. But unless you feared for your safety, so what? You were uncomfortable for a few days. I dont understand why you think this was such an unacceptable thing for them to do. Bringing a friend to church while they were under my parents care is exactly what my own parents did and what most other parents I knew did. Uncomfortable, sure. Egregious, not really.

Would they ask the friend first? I think there is a difference when a child is a certain age. Like if the child is 6-10 I don't even think you would ask-but I think after that its at least polite to ask if they are ok with it. I also think church is one thing, making a teenager go to the "teen bible study" is going too far and then making the teenager go again on a different day after they said they were uncomfortable is taking it WAY too far.

Insert a different religion and see if you respond with such support to the OP.
If this post had been OP sharing how she had stayed with a Muslim family and they had “forced” her to go to their mosque (because they felt responsible for her while she was staying with them for the weekend and didn’t feel like they should leave her alone) and then OP went on and on about how she was super uncomfortable with all the kneeling in the direction of Mecca and praying and such, would you be responding in the sane way or would you be chastising OP for not being open-minded enough to spend a couple of hours outside her comfort zone in appreciation of someone else’s faith traditions? Is it do very hard yo expect a house guest to simply be polite and go along and experience a faith tradition with which thru are unfamiliar? Or is this only
Objectionable when it’s Christianity as the target?

In both cases, I would say the kid has to go and be respectful, but should be able to opt out of religious things (i.e., sit in the lobby or waiting room with a book).

And for all the Christians that think this is no big deal and OP is a whiner - would you like it if your 14-15 year old Christian believer child was told for hours that God didn’t exist? Got sent to a class to study why God isn’t real and then was asked what she learned? Or do you think some Christian children might feel justifiably uncomfortable with 3 days of that?

+1 Luckily, unlike church, there is no organized method for atheists to do that. Instead, atheists simply do not attend religious services (just like many"believers" ) and don't try pound their disbelief into others' head. They get no eternal credit for converting people to their lack of belief.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I mean, were they all child molesters at this church, op? Did they force you to handle snakes?

I would have been uncomfortable, too. But unless you feared for your safety, so what? You were uncomfortable for a few days. I dont understand why you think this was such an unacceptable thing for them to do. Bringing a friend to church while they were under my parents care is exactly what my own parents did and what most other parents I knew did. Uncomfortable, sure. Egregious, not really.

Would they ask the friend first? I think there is a difference when a child is a certain age. Like if the child is 6-10 I don't even think you would ask-but I think after that its at least polite to ask if they are ok with it. I also think church is one thing, making a teenager go to the "teen bible study" is going too far and then making the teenager go again on a different day after they said they were uncomfortable is taking it WAY too far.

Insert a different religion and see if you respond with such support to the OP.
If this post had been OP sharing how she had stayed with a Muslim family and they had “forced” her to go to their mosque (because they felt responsible for her while she was staying with them for the weekend and didn’t feel like they should leave her alone) and then OP went on and on about how she was super uncomfortable with all the kneeling in the direction of Mecca and praying and such, would you be responding in the sane way or would you be chastising OP for not being open-minded enough to spend a couple of hours outside her comfort zone in appreciation of someone else’s faith traditions? Is it do very hard yo expect a house guest to simply be polite and go along and experience a faith tradition with which thru are unfamiliar? Or is this only
Objectionable when it’s Christianity as the target?

In both cases, I would say the kid has to go and be respectful, but should be able to opt out of religious things (i.e., sit in the lobby or waiting room with a book).

And for all the Christians that think this is no big deal and OP is a whiner - would you like it if your 14-15 year old Christian believer child was told for hours that God didn’t exist? Got sent to a class to study why God isn’t real and then was asked what she learned? Or do you think some Christian children might feel justifiably uncomfortable with 3 days of that?

+1 Luckily, unlike church, there is no organized method for atheists to do that. Instead, atheists simply do not attend religious services (just like many"believers" ) and don't try pound their disbelief into others' head. They get no eternal credit for converting people to their lack of belief.

Ok, then don't ask a Christian neighbor to watch your kid for days, including their days of worship, free so you can leave town or whatever. Even if your a desperate single mother. You say atheism is so important. Keep your kid