How old is your daughter, by the way.
Isn’t it odd how atheists are supposed to tolerate grace in the homes of the religious (since at their home their rules should go) but also tolerate grace in their own homes out of politeness?
when I was a little kid, I would say ‘god’ and ‘jesus’ all the time because my parents did all the time. We were not a religious family. I had no idea that saying these things was considered bad by some people, to me these were ordinary things to say like ‘gosh’ or ‘horse’ or ‘geranium’, you get the idea.
When I went to school I said it in front of a teacher who happened to be religious and she told me off and told me it was bad to say ‘oh God’. I had no idea why. My mum and dad said it all the time at home. Now it was wrong all of a sudden? She never explained why. I was really confused.
I worked it out on my own later, put 2 and 2 together. I wish she had explained it to me, because it made no sense whatsoever at the time.
This story has nothing at all to do with this thread. I just have a burning desier to tell it! I don’t think I ever did tell it before! Personally I don’t think saying religious oaths are any big deal, but then I am not religious…I still think it’s anodyne as heck though shrug.
Anyway, I hope that people who get upset at kids who take the name of (insert religous figure here) in vain do realise it’s usually inadvertant. Yep, it was my heathen parents who were to blame! (so tell them off!) 
So, Infectious Lass, the words you knew were wrong when you a kid … did they happen to be desier and anodyne?
What I find interesting about this is not the story itself, but the eery goosebumpish 30 seconds that must have followed the outburst.
Actually, I’ve been in this type of situation a number of times with people who know me a little, but not a lot. It usually goes something like this:
Heathen Offender: “Jesus Christ!”
Room grows silent, voices pause, folks look at me.
**Me:**snapped from daydream “What’d I do?”
Lesson to be learned: Be as you are, man. 
Copaesthetic, that’s what I found funny about it. Kind of a weird silence followed by Welbywife starting the grace. Awkward at the time, but much funny upon reflection.
Voyager the daughter is 16.
My children are both religious, sort of. Which is odd since neither of their parents are. My kids were even discussing Jesus the other day, which I found disconcerting since we’ve not discussed Jesus, so I wonder who is teaching them this stuff. I could probably break them of this by making them attend church all day Sundays, but don’t want to ruin their fantasy yet.
When other say grace I just remain respectfully silent, but would feel hypocritical if asked to join in.
I’m here smack-dab in the middle of a very Catholic community and frequently wonder what will happen when/if the neighborhood figures out they have a real, live godless heathen in their midst. I’m pretty sure my immediate neighbor would remove their daughter from the afternoon childcare I currently provide. The others would be O.K. (I think)(well, maybe not).
I got haunted by some Baptists in a previous neighborhood, and so I’m not so outspoken anymore. Of course, I’m older and less passionate about it, and have kids now…
Anyway, my son, 5, came running up to me in the hallway recently. He said “God made me.” Uhhh… I’m just looking at him… wondering… “God made you do what?” I finally ask. “God made me.” he repeats and begins to run off. I yell afer him “I made you…out of coffee and chocolate!” Ungrateful %@^.
I guess he’s been watching Veggie Tales at the neighbor’s again.
This makes me think of my nephew when he was a little boy (5 or 6)
My sister overheard him in the playroom, stating ‘Jesus Christ’ in a rather annoyed tone. My sister, although not in the least religious, did not think that this was an appropriate choice of words. So she scolded him with a ‘What did you say’. My nephew replied "Nothing mum, I’m just praying’.
How do you scold a kid for that answer!
My opinion would be, if religious people wanted to pray before a meal at my house, I’d give them their moment, respect their choice by not eating until they were finished and shake my head at them while theirs are down. Thinking of which, I’d probably do the same thing at their house.
Growing up in a Catholic family and attending Catholic schools, I found prayer to be not a celebration of faith, but rather an awkward moment bound by authoratarian principles.
I recall being called up to my teacher’s desk in 2nd grade to recite all the prayers. I couldn’t remember Our Father. They actually wrote that on my report card. My mom was furious.
Another prayer horror story came when I was 11 and my Grams died a few weeks before Thanksgiving. We had to the whole family there and my mother made my sis and I read the prayer on the back of my Gram’s prayer card. We were both bawling our eyes out. Talk about a celebration of faith. It was like torture for us. The look on my mother’s face was some sort of odd satisfaction. She was pained, but it was like she was doing the right thing. Like when you hold your baby while the mean doctor gives them a shot. You hate it, but you know it’s the right thing. Ah, yes, nothing like scarring someone for life to really seal the deal.
On a lighter note, I has a friend whos family would pray before dessert. They would eat their dinner and laugh and talk and then when dessert was served, they would all thank their God for the dinner they ate, things that happened that day and mention topics that came up during the dinners. I thought that was awesome.
We were over at my sister-in-law’s house last weekend. They are Catholic, or were until the whole child abuse thing hit the fan. Anyway, they still say grace, even if my SIL doesn’t call the priests ‘Father’ anymore.
Anyway, there we sit at dinner, and they bow their heads to say grace. Gabe looks around and reaches for the hands next to him. We do a silent grace at our house, and I was pleased he made the connection between the two. Until he opened his mouth to explain.
“We take hands and look down at our food, at our house.”
Very solemn and important, that looking-at-food thing. Gotta look at the food before you eat it. Wouldn’t want to eat it without having looked first!
Sigh. But he’s not a godless heathen. He’s a god-ful heathen. A pantheist by nature (at all of 2 1/2 or so, he told me that God was ‘everything, all together’).
This isn’t quite the same thing, but it’s close and I wanted to share.
LOL! Although my immediate family was not religious, my grandfather was a Presbyterian deacon. We had a bunch of his church friends over to our house one day; my five-year-old brother, in his attempt to entertain and despite my big-sisterly admonitions, launched into a full-scale rendition of, “Oh Lord Won’t You Buy Me A Mercedes-Benz?”
When I cornered him afterwards, he protested that it WAS TOO a religious song as it had the word “Lord” in it…
Stop playing with imaginary friends when your sister’s right there!
I’m practicing that one… 