This has been bothering me since last night, so I want to talk about my issue with unsolicited prayers and the problem I have with, "Just be polite and say thank you- their intentions are good."
I am an atheist. I'm not simply Not Religious. But I spent my entire childhood in the Catholic Church.
Good - "Would you like me to pray for you?" "No, thank you." Interaction complete.
Bad - "I'll pray for you." You have now manipulated me into a position where I can either be "rude" according to - 1/
- y'all by saying, "Please don't," or I can deny my own truth by saying, "Thank you."
Either way this shows that the prayer is not truly about me. It's for the benefit of the person who is doing the praying.
In my case it makes me deeply uncomfortable, and I'm supposed to ignore my discomfort in order to be polite.
I don't find that to be fair.
Anyway - I wanted to explain how I felt about the situation last night and hopefully encourage people to ask people first
It's the polite thing to do 2/2
Being kept in someone's thoughts or being extended good wishes have absolutely nothing to do with religion.
In my opinion those are very welcome.
@Shelter Thank you for the reply & the clarification.
@Shelter I hear your boundary. If you don’t mind, I have a genuine question. May I clarify whether that is prayer only, or does it extend to things like “warm thoughts,” “sending virtual hugs,” “I’ll keep you in my thoughts,” etc. In other words, as an atheist, is this boundary around references specifically to prayer or does it extend to other unsolicited offers of support?