(August 30, 2019 at 2:52 pm)Denverguy Wrote: I don't know how to handle this. I have two religious friends, and whenever I go out to eat with either of them this is a problem. I meet one only at restaurants. He always says a prayer before eating. It makes me feel awkward, as though by waiting until he's finished I am in agreement with the prayer. I'm not.
I have another friend who I met for dinner at someone's house. Before we ate she said a prayer, while we all waited. (Several of us are non-believers).
Again, the awkwardness while waiting for her to finish the prayer. This is just me, but I find that to be a little rude and self-serving.
I am tempted to eat before she finishes the prayer, but that would be construed as rude.
I wish I knew how to deal with this problem. Any suggestions?
Speaking of praying at meals, when I was in the 1st grade I went to a private Quaker school. At one snack time, it was my turn to do the prayer but I messed it up. I said God is good, God is great, let him thank us for our food. It was supposed to be let us thank him for our food. I got reamed by the teacher in front of everyone for a couple of minutes. I was told that God doesn't thank us, we thank him and how disrespectful and sacrilegious I was being. I look back on it now and think what a repressed and hateful monster that woman was to do that to a kid who just misspoke. I was always in trouble at that school, always sitting in the backroom by myself and my mother was always getting lectured when she came to pick me up. But I'm an introvert and I enjoyed my time in that room all by myself. Their punishment was actually a reward. Take that you dried up old hateful harridan.
