# Ever had a boss who held prayer in team meetings? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [April 22, 2014, 6:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ever-had-a-boss-who-held-prayer-in-team-meetings/686703 "2014-04-22T18:29:37Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Sam\_Lowry](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e95f7d/32.png) [@Sam\_Lowry](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sam_Lowry)\ **Post date:** [April 22, 2014, 9:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ever-had-a-boss-who-held-prayer-in-team-meetings/686703/21 "2014-04-22T21:10:43Z")
> [@Skald\_the\_Rhymer](#): > > Which brings me to the thread question. Have you ever worked for or under someone who led any sort of prayer–grace or otherwise–at work functions? If so, how’d you handle it? The only time I can remember is last year at the company-wide Christmas lunch, one of the big bosses led a prayer before lunch. Nothing at any other company-wide functions or any other meetings I’ve been at here or other companies. And I’ve lived and worked my whole life in Texas. I didn’t mind the prayer before lunch (though I also wouldn’t be upset with anyone who complained about it) but I would be seriously bothered about a prayer in a team meeting. Or I would be bothered about it only after I was seriously confused, because I didn’t think anyone would do that except maybe at a church or other religious organization. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [April 22, 2014, 9:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ever-had-a-boss-who-held-prayer-in-team-meetings/686703/22 "2014-04-22T21:13:38Z")
I’ve had bosses (for suitable definition of “boss”; it’s complicated in academia) who made no effort to hide their religion, and did things like including religious quotes in their e-mail signatures. But even they haven’t led prayers with their group. Come to think of it, this is true even of the time when I was at Villanova, a Catholic college. ---
**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\ **Post date:** [April 22, 2014, 9:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ever-had-a-boss-who-held-prayer-in-team-meetings/686703/23 "2014-04-22T21:17:00Z")
> [@Oakminster](#): > > Yes, before I hung my own shingle, I worked for a non-profit where such was common practice. I just left the room while they did that sort of thing. No hu-hu. I could never be the “good” atheist that knew his place. I worked at a retirement home where the attendants were made to hold the hands of patients while the head of the (supposedly) non-denominational facility gave a distinctly Christian prayer. When I pointed out that I didn’t want to participate and that I knew that two of the patients were definitely Jewish, I was told that it didn’t matter because they didn’t know where they were anyway so it could only be to their benefit. ---
**Author:** ![randompattern](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/7993a0/32.png) [@randompattern](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/randompattern)\ **Post date:** [April 22, 2014, 9:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ever-had-a-boss-who-held-prayer-in-team-meetings/686703/24 "2014-04-22T21:25:53Z")
Hasn’t happened to me in 35 years or so. If it ever did I wouldn’t participate and, I would certainly say something about it. ---
**Author:** ![Yllaria](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/yllaria/32/3452_2.png) [@Yllaria](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Yllaria)\ **Post date:** [April 22, 2014, 9:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ever-had-a-boss-who-held-prayer-in-team-meetings/686703/25 "2014-04-22T21:39:08Z")
Never at work. Singing prayers at Girl Scout camp comes closest. ---
**Author:** ![Eva\_Luna](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/e495f1/32.png) [@Eva\_Luna](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eva_Luna)\ **Post date:** [April 22, 2014, 9:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ever-had-a-boss-who-held-prayer-in-team-meetings/686703/26 "2014-04-22T21:47:29Z")
Never once, even when I worked for a faith-based nonprofit where most of the employees and clients were members of the faith (at least nominally). ---
**Author:** ![AClockworkMelon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aclockworkmelon/32/10803_2.png) [@AClockworkMelon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AClockworkMelon)\ **Post date:** [April 22, 2014, 9:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ever-had-a-boss-who-held-prayer-in-team-meetings/686703/27 "2014-04-22T21:53:16Z")
Never. I’ve had (atheist) friends who’ve worked for actual Christian churches and I’m pretty sure that even there they weren’t led in prayer by their employers. ---
**Author:** ![Skywatcher](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/skywatcher/32/254_2.png) [@Skywatcher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skywatcher)\ **Post date:** [April 22, 2014, 10:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ever-had-a-boss-who-held-prayer-in-team-meetings/686703/28 "2014-04-22T22:03:45Z")
> [@Sicks\_Ate](#): > > I have encountered it; at annual staff meetings, and events like the summer BBQ or winter chili cookoff. > > This is at a government agency, by the way. I haven’t done anything…I decided I’d had enough of it about a year ago, and inexplicably haven’t experienced any more inappropriate praying. Next time, though, I’ll raise a stink. Civil servant here, too. No prayers that I recall but the boss prior to me being transferred to my current position continually invoked God in some way or another. Pretty much the whole office included bible passages in emails and those “do this x times for a miracle” chain letters came around about once a month. Even though chain letters are part of “don’t do this” in the annual IT Security Training. I just smiled and nodded. ---
**Author:** ![C3](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/c3/32/3108_2.png) [@C3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/C3)\ **Post date:** [April 22, 2014, 10:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ever-had-a-boss-who-held-prayer-in-team-meetings/686703/29 "2014-04-22T22:53:49Z")
I worked for a regional telecom company years ago (late 90s) and we had a monthly company-wide conference call. The CEO of the company led a prayer before the meeting started every month. Baptist. Luckily nobody could see the people in my office (made up of four people), because we used that time to play solitaire or otherwise futz around. ---
**Author:** ![Gorsnak](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gorsnak/32/7587_2.png) [@Gorsnak](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gorsnak)\ **Post date:** [April 22, 2014, 11:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ever-had-a-boss-who-held-prayer-in-team-meetings/686703/30 "2014-04-22T23:03:34Z")
> [@Loach](#): > > Never. > > However I have been with the military in one form or another since 1989 and there is often a benediction from the **Chaplin** during ceremonies. I don’t know if that meets your criteria. Was the benediction silent, and include a zany slapstick comedy routine? ---
**Author:** ![Lanzy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/74df32/32.png) [@Lanzy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lanzy)\ **Post date:** [April 22, 2014, 11:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ever-had-a-boss-who-held-prayer-in-team-meetings/686703/31 "2014-04-22T23:26:21Z")
Yes, I had a boss that had a habit of starting meetings with a prayer, I had a habit of being late to meetings. ---
**Author:** ![Voyager](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/voyager/32/133_2.png) [@Voyager](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Voyager)\ **Post date:** [April 22, 2014, 11:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ever-had-a-boss-who-held-prayer-in-team-meetings/686703/32 "2014-04-22T23:51:10Z")
> [@C3](#): > > I worked for a regional telecom company years ago (late 90s) and we had a monthly company-wide conference call. The CEO of the company led a prayer before the meeting started every month. Baptist. Luckily nobody could see the people in my office (made up of four people), because we used that time to play solitaire or otherwise futz around. Solitaire during the prayer or during the entire call? The latter is the normal way to handle these things. I’ve never experienced it, but I’ve always worked for tech companies so diverse that there is no possible non-denominational prayer for all. Plus a good sprinkling of atheists among those where I knew what they were. The closest was at an internal conference where the keynote speaker, a minister and a tech person, gave a talk called “The Lamb in the Thicket” which was not religious but used the Isaac story. The next speaker was an Israeli who showed a cartoon from the family album - Isaac punching Abraham out. ---
**Author:** ![sara20](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e79b87/32.png) [@sara20](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sara20)\ **Post date:** [April 23, 2014, 12:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ever-had-a-boss-who-held-prayer-in-team-meetings/686703/33 "2014-04-23T00:38:33Z")
no ---
**Author:** ![Not\_Carlson](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/bc79bd/32.png) [@Not\_Carlson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Not_Carlson)\ **Post date:** [April 23, 2014, 12:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ever-had-a-boss-who-held-prayer-in-team-meetings/686703/34 "2014-04-23T00:38:56Z")
> [@Czarcasm](#): > > I could never be the “good” atheist that knew his place. I worked at a retirement home where the attendants were made to hold the hands of patients while the head of the (supposedly) non-denominational facility gave a distinctly Christian prayer. When I pointed out that I didn’t want to participate and that I knew that two of the patients were definitely Jewish, I was told that it didn’t matter because they didn’t know where they were anyway so it could only be to their benefit. Damn! Talk about disrespect for their patients! I wonder if they would still have thought that everything was cool if the families of those patients had found out what they were doing. ---
**Author:** ![AK84](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/85e7bf/32.png) [@AK84](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AK84)\ **Post date:** [April 23, 2014, 2:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ever-had-a-boss-who-held-prayer-in-team-meetings/686703/35 "2014-04-23T02:14:19Z")
Never. I have had bosses who were devout, but never one who, led us in prayer during a meeting. Or mentioned religion in a professional setting. ---
**Author:** ![Inna\_Minnit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/5f8ce5/32.png) [@Inna\_Minnit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Inna_Minnit)\ **Post date:** [April 23, 2014, 2:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ever-had-a-boss-who-held-prayer-in-team-meetings/686703/36 "2014-04-23T02:23:14Z")
Yup. But I worked for a Christian Ministry, so it was kind of expected. ---
**Author:** ![Senegoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/senegoid/32/6606_2.png) [@Senegoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Senegoid)\ **Post date:** [April 23, 2014, 6:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ever-had-a-boss-who-held-prayer-in-team-meetings/686703/37 "2014-04-23T06:06:20Z")
> [@Czarcasm](#): > > When I pointed out that I didn’t want to participate and that I knew that two of the patients were definitely Jewish, I was told that it didn’t matter because they didn’t know where they were anyway so it could only be to their benefit. Did he also baptize them after they died? ---
**Author:** ![jabiru](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/bbce88/32.png) [@jabiru](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jabiru)\ **Post date:** [April 23, 2014, 6:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ever-had-a-boss-who-held-prayer-in-team-meetings/686703/38 "2014-04-23T06:45:17Z")
No, and I cannot imagine this ever happening in an Australian workplace. ---
**Author:** ![BrightSunshine](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/b3f665/32.png) [@BrightSunshine](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrightSunshine)\ **Post date:** [April 23, 2014, 7:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ever-had-a-boss-who-held-prayer-in-team-meetings/686703/39 "2014-04-23T07:00:55Z")
I was an instructor for a summer program at a University. The director of the program was a former minister and led prayers before our dinners. I was very uncomfortable, but said nothing. I am glad that you used the word “coercive”, as in another thread I am being told by a libertarian that nothing an employer does is ever coercive. ---
**Author:** ![Living\_Well\_Is\_Best\_Revenge](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/6bbea6/32.png) [@Living\_Well\_Is\_Best\_Revenge](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Living_Well_Is_Best_Revenge)\ **Post date:** [April 23, 2014, 1:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ever-had-a-boss-who-held-prayer-in-team-meetings/686703/40 "2014-04-23T13:23:55Z")
Having lived in the South most of my life, unfortunately this is all too common. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ever-had-a-boss-who-held-prayer-in-team-meetings/686703.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ever-had-a-boss-who-held-prayer-in-team-meetings/686703.md?page=3)