Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
I'm disappointed in my non-religious friends that being invited to church assumes your Christian. That's like saying that being invited to a dance assumes you know how or like to dance. That's simply weakness and people need to cut that out. I lived in the middle East once and got asked to go to the Mosque plenty of times. If I met a stranger who asked, I didn't assume anything. Anything to the idea that being asked is being forced or assumes anything or is akin to being forced is just plain silly.
I for one didn't say it assumes anything. I said it was considered a rude question in my region. Why? Because it has a lot of potential for debate, emotional response, attempts at persuasion, and other divisiveness. If I start a job somewhere, it's the first day and I have to tell them I don't agree with their basic life philosophy?
The fact that some people don't get this shows why there's a problem. And blissfully it doesn't come up in my region.
I for one didn't say it assumes anything. I said it was considered a rude question in my region. Why? Because it has a lot of potential for debate, emotional response, attempts at persuasion, and other divisiveness. If I start a job somewhere, it's the first day and I have to tell them I don't agree with their basic life philosophy?
The fact that some people don't get this shows why there's a problem. And blissfully it doesn't come up in my region.
I think most people disagreeing with you is your first post saying that Southerners who ask this expect you to be religious. Out point is that, while that may be what people do in the PNW, in the South, people ask what church you go to with no care for whether or not you are Christian or religious. I don't understand why you don't get it.
Quote:
Originally Posted by mhays25
I'd rather be culturally expected to recycle than culturally expected to be religious.
Tough one..... I prefer the cities and culture of the PNW but I really don't do well in cloudy weather for long periods so I prefer the weather in the SE and it's proximity to the NE and being much closer in flight duration to alot more international destinations.
At the end of the day I think the local culture would probably grind my gears more on a daily basis so if I needed to choose I would live in the PNW.
Ok, I meant those as independent statements, and the first a generalization, but that could be read as the question makes that expectation.
As for whether it matters, the intent behind the question isn't the point. It's a loaded question with a lot of potential baggage.
Further, that baggage isn't just a perception...plenty of polls talk about strong feelings against agnostics, Muslims, and other groups. People shouldn't be forced to talk about stuff like that with new coworkers for example.
I for one didn't say it assumes anything. I said it was considered a rude question in my region. Why? Because it has a lot of potential for debate, emotional response, attempts at persuasion, and other divisiveness. If I start a job somewhere, it's the first day and I have to tell them I don't agree with their basic life philosophy?
The fact that some people don't get this shows why there's a problem. And blissfully it doesn't come up in my region.
And I lived in your region and in my experience religion did come up. Maybe it was the people we met there. Without fail it came up at work with people who didn't know me asking the afore mentioned questions regarding Christmas. It never turned into any of the bad things you describe at all. Many times it opened up curiosity and questions about my religion because for most of my co-workers I was the first Jewish person they had ever met.
I don't understand why you put open dialog regarding religion in such a negative light. You make all PNW people sound like bigots who are intolerant of religion which is simply not true.
If you count Christmas then sure, but I don't count that as a religious question.
As for religious bigotry, what an bizarre claim. I've said nothing about judging anybody's religion. Not wanting to be asked
is a very different concept.
Wow. I did expect to see some lazy stereotypes when I opened this thread, but not quite so quickly.
Yes.Usually it takes a few pages to get there.
You can be sure that the same old usua suspects of the self righteous, fake socially aware types who generally are very liberal but live in or prefer mostly white areas.
They tend to be more hateful and biased toward anything with "South" in it .Instead of just stating a preference,they show and abnormal sense of hatred towards a region that they wont even try to acknowledge the positives of
And yet I keep hearing about prayers before football games, people being asked about religion at work (anecdotally), and of course a lot of state policy that would never fly on the West Coast.
At the policy level, it doesn't matter that 40% or 45% don't vote that way, or that the core cities are more normal. They're not in power in those states, so a lot of disturbing religious-type stuff happens.
I try to avoid dealing with you because it always winds up being a nasty exchange of words but here again as usual its YOU and you condescending tone that turns what could be a normal exchange of ideas and different ways of thinking into a nasty exchange of words.Its exhausting but you are so wrong.
You seem to go out of your way to just be nasty and hateful.
Im far from religious but I respect it as means to to good worksl and for the people it helps in hard times.
Like anything,there are negative effects of it too.
Many of those negatives are why Im not a church going person like I was growing up.
However I think as equally as those people who push religion on people exist,its even worse with people like you who try to guilt people who have strong religious beliefs.
Your open disdain is no different.Its condescending..
Its ok if that bothers you but your wording is so condescending you open yourself up for warranted attacks.
Im serious when i say can you find a better way to not be so offending or is that what You feel you have t do?
I really want to know.Im not being sarcastic.I just think it would get exhausting to be so combative on a forum with people you dont know/Perhaps you like this?
Interesting. I don't think of TN when I thing of the SE. I think of the coastal states. TN, due south of Indiana, is still the Midwest, to me.
Say what????lol
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
