As part of my work as an optometrist, I often use a more-or-less standard near vision testing card with different size print on it to test patients ability to read up close with their new Rx. The card is part of a standard set that includes these elements:
Two columns of a newspaper story about a baseball game
A section out of the white pages,
Some musical notes I can’t identify
Several passages from Genesis, (“In the beginning”… etc.).
The intent of the card designer was to choose four different common size of print people run into on a daily bases.
What concerns me is that I don’t want to offend someone, either Jewish, Muslim or atheist. Could this be construed as an insult, or am I just hypersensitive about hypersensitve people?
My understanding is that Jewish and Muslim people also reference Genesis, so I’m not sure that they’d be offended.
I’m not a Christian now, tho’ I was brought up as one. I would be wondering if you had a “converting” agenda if you gave me that card to read from and it would make me slightly uncomfortable.
Offended is perhaps too strong a word for it. If you happened to have a lot of other Christian paraphenalia around your office, I’d just assume I had the wrong optometrist and try to find one who was less into sharing that aspect of private life with the patients.
Does that help?
A bit. To be fair, there is no other religious paraphanila in my office of any type. the only pictures on the walls that are not my diplomas or certificates are animal photos by famous nature photographers. The card is clearly a mass-produced part of a large set of testing cards, and I typically direct people to the newspaper section in the middle (though, if I fail to do that in a hurry, I often get a recitation of Genisis). The print is there, I beleive, because Bible sized print is often the smallest size people encounter on a typical day.
I have a similar background to White Ink’s but would have a slightly different reaction. I would be offended if such a text showed up on the eye exam at the DMV, but I consider displays of religious texts, etc. in a private business to be perfectly acceptable, provided it doesn’t go beyond display. It wouldn’t inconvenience me any more than having the doctor display a taste for golf or impressionist art. Having to look at the letters in a passage from Genesis during an eye exam isn’t going to hurt me.
Having to look at the same letters in my daughter’s biology textbook would be a different story, though.
But why take the risk of even offending ONE patient? Imean, I have had near sight for ever, it seems, but I never had to read bits of Bible, Koran or anything else in the optician’s examination.
The risk you run is not really offending (although some people are offended by anything) but like White Ink said, having patients fear you are on a converting agenda.
I’m an atheist, I probably wouldn’t care unless you actually started bringing up religious topics in conversation.
I would see no possibility to offend anyone. If people are so paranoid that their optometrist is trying to convert them during an eye test, they have bigger issues.
If you mention to the patients ahed of time that you’re just going to give them a reading test with some sample documents, that should be okay. Especially since the other materials are non-religious.
I’d be slightly offended and probably wouldn’t go back to you again. Then again, I have 20/20 vision, so I’m not exactly a potential patient.
But really, what’s the point of it? You can’t find four common sizes of print without picking up a bible? Why even risk offending someone when a secular document would do just fine? It’s not like 10 point text is a rare commodity.
If you’re looking for a solution to using the card my thoughts are
A) if there are other cards that feature equally small and common text in the set, just toss the bible one in a back drawer.
B) if there are no other cards that feature equally small and common text, consider letting the patient CHOSE which passage to read (unless they have to read all of them), perhaps with a verbal preface of these are the most common types of print people are likely to see on a daily basis.
C) If you specifically want them to read the bible print, is there any reason not to tell them that you want them to read it because it’s the smallest?
If you can’t find print with the same size as the bible, why not just open up Wordpad, type something, change the font size to whatever you want, and print it out?
Neutron Star: Beleive me, this wasn’t an intentional thing on my part at all, and in fact it never even occured to me until just the last few weeks that this might be a problem for some people. And, I thought, it was more my own paranoia because no one has commented on it.
I originally got the card as part of a near point set when I was in graduate school. It was a required purchase to be a part of our standard exam kit. It’s a convient card to use because it’s solid plastic that doesn’t stain or wear and the print contrast remains fairly constant since the type doesn’t fade or wear off easily. It’s small, but large enough to be held comfortably.
I hadn’t really used the card until recently all that often because I typically had magazines or, far more commonly, a Rand Mcnally atlas of the US that I used for tiny type. But I’ve found that the magazines tend to get ratty pretty fast and my atlas is falling apart already. The card solves some of that because it can be tucked neatly in my coat pocket for use as needed. It’s not clumsy, and unlike magazines, not prone to being effected by large amounts of glare from overhead lights.
That’s not to say that I don’t have access to other cards that lack religious text, I just have to go out and buy one. What I wanted to find out, essentially, is if I should.
I’m an atheist and I’d probably quirk my eyebrows at it but wouldn’t think much of it. Of course, I also work at a Christian Printing Press, so I doubt I’m your typical non-believer.
My last thought is that it also depends on the community where you live. I happily exist in a fairly well established bastion of human secularist society. However, if you live and practice in a place where most patients are likely to be religious, they’re probably tickled pink that the biblical text is on the card.
Since your office is non religious, and it’s a question of incurring an additional expense, if you can find a way to mimize the impact somehow, then you proabably don’t need to buy a new card.
I’m an atheist(Humanist) and to be honest, it would offend me. I most likely wouldn’t say anything to your face but I wouldn’t be a repeat customer and it would skew any referrals I might give. Petty? Maybe a bit, but I don’t really want any more bible in my face than need be.
One question tho…the verse out of Genesis is pretty well known, if you could read a couple words, wouldn’t it be safe to assume you would able to assume the rest of the words without the vision really needed for it? (Although a vision test with the word Jebus in it for a new testament bible verse would be kinda funny, but that’s just me).
A couple of questions. Quite a few people will know that passage by heart, wouldn’t that lead to possible false results? They may not see it clearly enough to interpret the letters correctly, but clearly enough to know what the passage is, and then recall it from memory.
I don’t know if someone would have a problem with this. But I definitely chose to change doctor, when I learnt a previous doctor was a Scientologist (he had Scientology scrolls on his walls). But my reason for changing wasn’t because of his religion, but because it showed lack of scientific skepticism that he would join such a cult.
I wouldn’t like it. But, I’d likely ask you about it. Would you lose my business? No. My chiro has religious quotes everywhere and the music playing is Christian radio. I get a bit sick of Amy Grant while waiting for my appointment, but I’m still going. I do hate when he wishes me a “bless-ed day” all the time though.
I couldn’t give a monkey’s what it says, as long as it’s doing its job. Though I might have a bit of a prob with Mein Kampf or a speech from Bin Laden…
As a Bast worshipper, if the extent of it was (as it appears to be), you’re just testing whether I can see it clearly or not, nah, I wouldn’t be offended at all. Of course, where I live, that’s hardly the biggest Christian (or so-called Christian) pressure I’m typically under.
Also, as a Bast worshipper, I would probably also make some joke about seeing if I could get you some really tiny hieroglyphs, just for variety.
Bippy: I only use the card to test the comfort level of the bifocals, and ask people to look at all the print on the page when I’m in doubt. Ususually I make sure to point out the phone book print, since it’s about the same size and actually a bit more dfficult to read because of crowding. To get the official level of ability, I use a number card with a string of five numbers. But on a day-to-day basis, few people read eye charts.
It sounds like I should change the card. It’s really no skin off my nose at all, I doubt anyone would notice it going away and replacements are not terribly expensive. I just have to find the time to get one that I like, or go back to using small-type magazines and the atlas.
I will say that I find it a bit strange that at least a few self-described athiets seem as closed minded about something that (to me) is pretty petty. It’s looking like I wasn’t being hypersensitive. After all, I’m not handing anyone a Bible, but simple reading card with something like two passages from the it. That is aparently enough to drive patients away, even though mixed with several secular items. It’s not something that I can afford in this day and age.
BTW, that makes me wonder about the poor doctor who works near me. He’s an Orthodox Jew who wears a Yamulka to work. Doubt that you’d meet a nicer man, but he’s wearing a religious symbol…
