I have to wonder why it bothers some people so much that some of us find this phrase objectionable. So much that they write multiple long screeds to push their point of view about how we should be feeling.
So what exactly is bothering y’all so much, that we aren’t more welcoming of religious expressions in everyday life? What is getting under your skin? Look inside yourselves, and answer that, if you can.
We’re upset that you’re not a good Christian like all real Americans should be.
I rather think that the people who are upset by the phrase are dealing with different issues than the people who aren’t. When someone says something like that to me, it’s almost always either a meaningless phrase (like “good bless you” after a sneeze) or it’s a genuine expression of good wishes from a religious person who sees the world in those terms. And neither of those is especially upsetting to most of us.
But other people are dealing with moderately overt proselytism from cultural Christians, but which i mean, people who are trying to define “good Americans” as “Christian”, whether or not they actually buy into the hard parts of Christianity (like loving your neighbor and turning the other cheek.) And the folks who run into that, who aren’t themselves Christian, are naturally peeved by it.
And i suspect most of us know which we are dealing with when it actually happen to us, because there are a lot of social clues (tone of voice, body language, etc.) that accompany the words.
I dunno. I see a lot of churches closing down. And the buildings make great micro breweries.
There’s two different things going on here.
Yes, church membership and professed belief among Americans have been declining for decades. That’s particularly the case among “Mainline Protestant” denominations, which tend to be more moderate to liberal politically and philosophically.
At the same time, conservative Christian denominations (mostly Evangelicals and Fundamentalists) have not been declining as rapidly – and those are the churches and members which are now subscribing to the “Christian Nationalism” ideology. They are the ones who are fighting to break down the Constitutional barriers between God and State in the U.S., who believe that the U.S. needs to be an overtly Christian nation, and who have been fighting against laws and societal movements which they oppose on religious grounds (e.g., same-sex marriage, transgender rights, abortion, etc.). They are also the ones who cry “stop them from taking the Christ out of Christmas,” want to put prayer back in public schools, and so on.
Exactly^^
I’m gonna suggest if you are a clerk or cashier or just a random person say “Have a productive day” if you must say something, other than “bye”.
I mean, I guess it’s better than hollering at the departing individual “don’t let the door hit you in ass on the way out”.
That means ‘[go] with safety’, which is a secular non-religious way to say bye. Almost sounds like salām ‘alaykum ‘peace be upon thee’, which is religious. The two words salām ‘peace’ and salāmah ‘safety’ are closely related but still different.
I understand your point but I’ve never been cut off in traffic by a member of the Jesus fish crowd. I’m just not put-out by a suggestion of hope for a nice day. If religion gives them hope I’m not going to pee on their cheerios because they wished me well.
No problem. Some folk in this thread apparently believe:
I trust all the good atheists in this thread agree it’s absurd to get upset when someone says “Happy Holidays”, right? Getting upset about “have a blessed day” is precisely the same thing. It’s seeing someone exchanging a pleasantry and just instantly knowing that it’s more than that, they’re purposefully pushing a cultural agenda.
While it’s understandable that in this cultural moment, people see a phrase spreading and assume it’s associated with other troubling phenomena that are also spreading, I can say I’ve been hearing people use this phrase for 30+ years. Maybe it’s new to you, but it’s not new at all. Language changes, idioms drift. These are troubled times, and we would all benefit from striving not to see threats behind every bush.
If someone wished me a blessed day, I’d probably say, “Thanks - I could use the bonus to my attack rolls and saving throws!”
Thank you for saying what I was trying to formulate in my head.
I would find the expression a bit strange because it’s not something British people use, so would sound particularly evangelical, as opposed to ‘Merry Christmas’ which we all use here without feeling the need to convert our casual religious language to ‘Happy Holidays’. Despite the fact that most of us are non-religious.
But I’m certainly not going to get upset by it. Some people are religious, it’s important to them, and it’s a kind expression. They’re not trying to convert me.
I find it interesting to consider what happened when I was wished “Merry Christmas” by a retail merchant and replied “Happy Hanukkah.” Her face screwed up in distaste and she replied. “That’s a Jewish thing!” So her statement was generic and not to be reacted to as if it has a religious valence, but mine was different? Because her statement was congruent with majority culture but mine reflected a minority identity? Hmm.
As to “blessed,” I don’t like it, but nod acknowledgement.
And again, i observe different life experiences. There was a period when i replied, “happy Hanukkah” when i was wished “Merry Christmas”, and i occasionally got a slightly surprised reaction, but i never got a negative reaction. The same Christian friends who said they’d pray for my husband and wished me blessings often proactively wish me a happy Hanukkah during the holiday season.
So i believe the people I’m running into actually are wishing me well (or mouthing a meaningless platitude) and not attempting to push their normative religion on me. And i believe that others in this thread are experiencing something different from what i am experiencing, and we both can tell what’s going on.
My experience in the Northeast has differed from thr Northwest in this regard.
The employees at the local bakery have recently taken to saying, “have a great day” - all of them, so they’ve clearly been instructed to do it. I feel like saying, “just for that, I’m determined to have a miserable day.”
Backing you up here with an article: Sip Craft Beer Beneath Stained Glass at These 12 Churches Turned Breweries
I assume you understand that taking our your annoyance on the employees who’ve been instructed to say that would be unfair.
While doing nothing gives the owner the idea that it is a great thing to do. What should one do instead?
Does a retail clerk saying, “have a great day” bother you so much that you need to do something? Then politely ask one of them to tell management that it bother you. And expect management to file it with the customers who are offended the clerk isn’t saying “Merry Christmas”, since after all, it’s between Thanksgiving and New Year, so that’s the “correct” greeting.
It’s such a weirdly un-English thing to do. Like they’d suddenly been absorbed by the Borg collective of American corporate management.