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When u r at ur table at a restaurant and at the table next to u see 8 ppl holding hands and bowing their heads and reciting prayer ; how do u respond , u just shake ur head?

Greenheart 7 Sep 3
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0

I hope you mind your own business & not react in Any way!

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I did shake my head at your typing style and how you are butchering the language. Of course I am saying this with love, ok? As far as people doing their thing, I couldn't care less.

1

I think it’s horrible, but alas is legal.
IMO, There are only two places that should be done. In the home and at church. If I saw it, I would complain and ask for a refund and leave (I have never witnessed anything like it, ever.)

Sometimes people can’t see the hypocrisy of what they are saying. I would bet my life on the people commenting below would change their answer if a family of 8 Muslims threw down prayer mats and started saying evening prayers in a restaurant. Or a family of 8 covered their heads lit candles and did a Shabbat? Perhaps a group of Satanists could bring in a pentagram and say a prayer to Baphomet and dedicate the 3 course feast before them to his image.

If any of the above happened I am sure no one below would say - “i’d Ignore it, it’s their right.”

The answers below show our tolerance only goes one way - towards Christians. They get away with things other religious people do not.

For me a restaurant is a SECULAR public place of food and entertainment. It’s not for worship. If you need to say grace, say it before you go to the restaurant.
If Jewish and Muslim people to start doing prayers in restaurants, we will soon find there would be an uproar, and probably a change in the law.

And Christians have the temerity to say they are persecuted????? They are given carte blanche in the USA.

Livia Level 6 Sep 3, 2018

@maturin1919
Being a non-American, I do find continual public displays of faith here, quite bizarre and disrespectful to those around them. It’s a multicultural country but the tolerance of religion in secular space is weighed in favor of one religion only.
There is sacred space, personal space and public space. Prayer is for sacred and personal space. Thinking prayers are acceptable anywhere and everywhere really shows how the Puritan values are still very much present in the USA. I have even had people grab my hand in prayer, which is so assumptive, it makes me angry.
Public spaces should be secular and neutral. No prayers before meetings, no prayers in schools and certainly no prayers in a restaurant. End of. I am so pleased that I have had very little exposure to this kind of behavior in a restaurant. It would very much be an alien thing to witness, it’s cringeworthy, and ruin my dining experience that I am paying for.

@maturin1919
I find it disruptive. It does affect me. What part of my comments did you not understand? As I said. I would leave - that is essentially minding my own table.

@maturin1919 I live in down town Chicago, and people seem to be quite happy chowing on their food without a prayer circle. I in 4 years i have not seen “grace” said in a restaurant.

It must be a rural, small town, family restaurant thing, which I would never attend, being a more of a bar / food and booze person with other single women and gay men.

At home, religion is a personal thing and worship is done in a church. Not over a pie. It’s one of those things where culture is different.

I love Americans but there are just somethings here that are just an abuse of freedoms- like permitting Westbro Baptists to disrupt military burials? Where does someone’s freedom end and respect for appropriate timing and respect for others begin!

@Livia I think that prayer with meals has increased over the years! I feel a little uncomfortable even though I know they have every right to express themselves any way they please! For me, praying, was like bargaining with God...and at some point, that simply made no sense as I didn’t need to constantly remind myself that God wanted my attention and was keeping tabs on me! Then I gave up that God and realized that I live all my moments with a grateful reflection, not because some God is watching and expecting it (nor a need to please people), I do it because it benefits me and the world that I live in. I find the prayer thing, not offensive but suspicious. An outward display of...I am a good person, because I worship God, etc! Even the Bible, says ‘go into your closet to pray.’ Things DO look different when we are on the other side of the ‘God thing’ and what the Bible says! And, it appears to me that as this country has become more religious, over the last 30 yrs...it is less excepting and caring toward people and even the environment! So that kind of praying does nothing for me!

The Deep South is worse...the Bible Belt!

1

I remember the days when people could smoke in a restaurant and, no matter where I was seated in relation to the smokers, it would always drift my way. That was far more offensive that a group at a table exercising a small ritual that gives them comfort and a modicum of satisfaction that they're allowed to exercise their faith among themselves.

2

It's their right.

gearl Level 8 Sep 3, 2018
2

I do nothing. It’s their right to pray.

UUNJ Level 8 Sep 3, 2018
2

Nope. Especially when they are loud.

They really do bother me so I bother them back.

Last few times time that happened I LOUDLY struck up a conversation with the person/s I am with including:

"Can you believe some people are so childish they actually still believe in an invisible magic sky daddy? When will these children grow up and realize, like the tooth fairy, such silly beliefs have no foundation in reality. I mean really, faith, belief without evidence, as a methodology to establish truth, what kind of a fool uses faith to establish truth? Can you imagine being so deluded? So gullible? etc. . . . the person/s I am with are usually not happy (scared - thinking they will be beaten up)). The theists are usually equally annoyed with my vocal analysis but they quickly become less noisy in the god affirmation after hearing my analysis of their behavior. On one occasion a person from the other table came over and we had a fun (seriously I had fun) discussion about their faith based belief system. He left with his tail between his legs.

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I tend to focus on what is happening at my own table because watching some people eat is tantamount to slopping hogs & it just turns my stomach. Unless there is a big production going on, it doesn't phase me.

2

Yeah, it's none of my business as long as they aren't like super loud or asking me to join.

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