Well, apparently, we have a friend who was prosletyzed to while getting a proctology exam.
Doctor said “spread your butt cheeks” and then put in an audio cassette. At end of exam, he interrogated patient on what he had been listening to.
Sorry, I don’t know what the rest of the rant is about. I couldn’t get past this part :eek:
Did he have to turn his head and cough to eject?
:snort: :snort:
Well, it’s not overtly discriminatory, but I’d sure feel uncomfortable as hell there. I wouldn’t even go back-- I’d just find myself a new dentist.
These types always remind me of the OB/GYN who delivered my son. His office was full of Christian pamphlets (although he wasn’t as bad as this dentist with the videos and crap), and every handout he gave you had a little Christian fish on it. About a year after I had my son, he got caught shooting up in the doctor’s bathroom of the hospital while two of his patients were in labor. He had just grabbed something off of a cart, didn’t even know what it was, and almost died.
Okay, that does change things a little bit. I’d be a bit skeeved out by a person in a medical profession running video tapes of a faith healer in their waiting room. Metaphysics aside, isn’t that just bad business? He’s advertising for the competition!
When is the government finally going to do something about intravenous drug use among infants? What am I paying my taxes for, anyway?
I’m probably going to get flamed for hypocrisy here, but I don’t think a Buddhist altar in a waiting room is in the same category as a Benny Hinn video in a waiting room. I would just think, “Hey, look at the cool altar,” and settle down to read my book.
When I was living with my parents, we once rented a house from a woman who lived on the same street and had a mezuzah (sp?) hanging outside her front door. None of us had a problem with that, because installing a mezuzah is not an attempt to convert people to Judaism. We weren’t asked to touch it on our way in and out of the house, so after my initial reaction of “Oh, wow! I’ve heard about these things, but I’ve never seen one!” it had no impact on me. A pray-TV video, however, is an infomercial for fundamentalist Christianity. I can’t imagine that the dentist would have had it playing in his waiting room unless he had at least some hope that it would influence people.
Now, if people were actually praying at the altar in the waiting room, that would make me very uncomfortable. But so would a video of a mass. Like featherlou said, public displays of religion aren’t very appropriate. But to me, “display” only means active participation in a ritual, not an icon that just sits there.
And I also wouldn’t like it at all if someone was talking about his religion while poking around in my mouth with sharp objects. He may not have been proselytizing to katerina right then, but raising the subject at all means the possibility is there. And he’s the one with the drill…
Why not? It’s not like religion is obscene. Maybe to some, but the vast majority of people are religious. Even disregarding that, the “display” was in a private business. Maybe the dentist wanted to make it clear that his religion is important to him. If someone doesn’t like it, find another dentist.
Yeah, but Lib, I said that I define “display” to mean “active participation”. Watching someone pray at an altar is like watching them jerk off. Not my business, and I don’t see why I should have to watch.
But, that’s not relevant to my assessment of katerina’s dentist, since no one was praying in his office. I thought he was more along the lines of an Amway salesperson, only worse because a)religion is a very touchy subject, while calling orange sludge a “cleaning agent” is merely annoying and b) proseletyzing involves persuasion. Again, I’m giving katerina’s dentist the benefit of the doubt that he only mentioned his church in the context of “We had a good service yesterday” and didn’t move on to “Are you interested in joining?”. But if he did do that, he would be way out of line. No one should be preached at by someone who’s probing their orificies with clinical instruments.
It’s *his * office. Why would he be out of line?
Because of what katerina said in the OP. He’s a professional: he’s being paid to work on her teeth, not to preach. And a dentist, seems to me, would be in an ideal position to sound off on his belief system. It’s hard to counter an argument when your mouth is full of gauze.
(Again, as I will say in every post I make in this thread, I’m not accusing katerina’s dentist of having done this.)
I’m not real keen on watching televangelists on TV, but if I found it annoying enough, I’d simply not return to that dentist. I wouldn’t get all freaked out about it. So the guy’s too zealous. Not every dentist is a “fit” for you. Either you can tolerate a little “super-churchy” stuff from him, or you can’t.
And I’d like to know what this “mention” of his chuch was. If it was, like Rilchiam speculated, something that was trying to persuade the OP to go to church, that’s way out of line. But if he were just mentioning it? What’s the big deal?
If church is a big deal to this guy, it stands to reason that it’ll take up a lot of his free time. And it’s hard not to make some casual mention of something that takes up a lot of your free time. I’m sure I’ve mentioned “a friend from church” or “we were discussing the news after church last week” and if that small mention of my church was enough to get someone’s knickers in a bunch, then they are seriously WHACKED.
Posted when I meant to preview: Rilchiam, I wasn’t implying that you were making any claims that this dentist was preaching. You speculated that IF he was preaching . . . (But you are aware that he might not have been preaching.)
Ain’t he lucky you weren’t healed in the waiting room? You’d have no reason at all to go back…
Yay though I walk through the valley of Gingivitis I have no fear for thou art with me. Give me this day my daily floss and deliver me from cavities. Amen.
A little calculus should be nothing in the overall scheme of miracles.
In fact, you would have never had to see another dentist again. Such an opportunity missed…
Argument? It’s a dentist’s office, not a debating society. But moreover, it’s *his * dentist’s office — a private practice. It seems to me that strutting into his office and making demands that he discuss this but not that and put this in his waiting room but not that is ridiculous nannyism. Just write him off and go to another damn dentist next time. Criminey.
Lib, I’m not suggesting that anyone should make demands about what someone else can say. What I’m opposed to is someone being obligated to listen. And I don’t think the only other option should be “leave”. A member of a DMHO shouldn’t be boxed into a corner like that.
Religion is a very touchy subject in America. It’s simply politic to acknowledge that and avoid the subject around everyone except people you know well.
Hey, that’s nothing! I used to get my legs waxed to the sound of a Christian pop CD on replay. This might make me sound like a sicko masochist but it was simply the beautician’s way of helping me relax. She - an evangelical Christian - had no idea that I was seething with irritation and outrage at the sheer indignity of the situation.
In retrospect, though, I wonder if it helped distract me from the physical torture of having my bikini line ripped out by focusing on the mental torture and the insult to my intelligence, not to mention my aesthetic sensibilities?
This would certainly apply to a visit to a God-bothering dental merchant. Concentrate on your outrage and the pain will pass you by…
Lemme tell ya, if you’ve ever had a bad dentist, or no dentist/dental insurance when you have bad teeth, you’ll understand in a second. I still drive 30 minutes to my childhood dentist, rather than go to the guy across my street. I don’t know what I’m going to do when I move…
I’m not for boxing people into corners either, but for me that includes dentist people. The door leading in leads out. He has come into his office that he owns every day for God knows how long, and every day he has been showing Christian tapes and talking about his church. Then in walks Ms. Comelately whose panties fly up her ass because she cannot endure this man’s beliefs and his manner of expressing them. She drags her world that revolves around her into this man’s private business, and when she sees that he dare have a world of his own, she reacts like a bratty two-year-old who doesn’t like the candy Aunt Martha puts out. That’s how I see it, and I think it’s the dumbest fucking rant I’ve ever seen.
Which, from her OP, is what she’s planning on doing.