(December 10, 2012 at 4:36 pm)Tnmusicman Wrote:(November 18, 2012 at 1:27 pm)Stimbo Wrote: If I were to say to someone "I pity you", I would be, and have been, considered condescending at best. But when someone says "I'll pray for you", in the sense that is intended here, that of addressing some perceived pitiable character flaw making that person inferior in some way, we're expected to be grateful.
How do you know how I meant it??
How do you know whether I care? That's right - by what I choose to share here. Similarly, what you chose to share was
(November 18, 2012 at 6:32 am)Tnmusicman Wrote: It's obvious you are either not capable of or unwilling to accept responsibility for you assininedness. I expected that from you. I shall pray for you (really I will) .
Announcing an intention to pray for a person can be a well-meaning if occasionally tactless and misguided act from one person to another that they believe might appreciate the gesture - a kind of supportive hug, an assurance that they aren't on their own, that there's people willing to be there for them. On the other hand, such an announcement in the context that you used carries with it, between the lines or right up there in lights, a statement of opinion upon that person's character. Otherwise there'd be no point announcing it; you'd just do it and whatever effect it is intended to have would just happen. It's shorthand for "There is something wrong with you, something which does not match up to my own standards, and I'm going to make damn sure everyobody knows about it". More generally, it can be used as a departing pyhrric middle finger to mean "Yeah? Well, fuck you". It's the equivalent of the irritating little git in the school playground, the one who squirts water (or worse) over you and then buggers off to hide behind the teacher; in this case, the teacher represents self-righteous religious indignation.
Does that answer your question?
At the age of five, Skagra decided emphatically that God did not exist. This revelation tends to make most people in the universe who have it react in one of two ways - with relief or with despair. Only Skagra responded to it by thinking, 'Wait a second. That means there's a situation vacant.'
