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/
@Shelter I generally only offer prayers (online in posts) if I know the person is religious or if they specifically ask for them. Otherwise it seems presumptuous, like you wrote in your example of bad interaction. When unsure, I write ‘best wishes’ or ‘thinking of you’, phrases like that. I recently had a lady follow me & my daughter (wheelchair user) to my van…she went on about how God has a plan blah blah blah. 🙄 so weird!
@Shelter yeah, it was super awkward. I just kept loading our stuff and my daughter into the van while she talked at us. We were just at the bakery getting a donut so it was very unexpected.