Reply to POLL: Do you feel pressure to be religious?

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[quote=Anonymous]I'm Jewish and also somewhat atheistic (yes, it's possible), and as a previous poster said, omissions are a safety issue sometimes.

I've felt very pressured at my child's elementary school, where the PTA women are rather aggressively Christian and always inviting everyone to Bible study and talking about their churches.  They are bullies, and use their religion to band together against anyone they see as less of an upstanding Christian than they believe themselves to be.  Rejecting their advances without revealing my personal situation is a little stressful.

I have been forced to participate in Christian traditions a million times over, from having Christian religious symbolism be a part of my school day as a child to having to sit through the moment of silence that is very obviously a Christian prayer moment, to a million and one prayers at the beginnings of otherwise completely secular events, and of course all the dinner time prayers at friends' houses growing up.  So awkward.

I mean, what does one do when there is a prayer going on and everyone around you in a crowd is making little prayer hands and muttering to themselves and bowing their heads and you're just standing there, feeling torn between wanting not to stand out and be judged but also not wanting to pretend?

And can we talk about facebook and all the "sending prayers your way" comments?  Is it rude to express condolence or support and not mention prayers?

So yes, lots of pressure, lots of omitting.  [/quote]

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