If I go to any place of worship, during a prayer I should be silent; I don’t have to be, but it’s polite to do so. I can even pray myself, if I want to. In a Mosque I can remove my shoes. I can participate and be acting politely.
What religious ceremonies/traditions would it actually be rude for me to participate in, as a person who is not a part of that religion? I ask in case the situation ever comes up, since I’d really rather not insult people, even if I don’t believe in their faith.
They don’t check for cards but you shouldn’t take communion in a Catholic Church unless you are Catholic. If you are a baptized Christian of any sort, you can take communion at an Episcopalian church or a Methodist one (others too but I can’t speak for those).
:shrug:
Disagree here … I think this is A-OK, as long as one doesn’t walk up to the priest acting childish, cutting up, etc.
However: there may be something written down on paper somewhere in the Vatican that indicates otherwise.
Any good Catholic will tell you it is not OK although they may not care individually. I am not Catholic and I have made the mad cracker grab there myself but it was nerve wracking and I didn’t want to find out what the punishment was (most likely lots of glaring and evil eyes being thrown).
Sorry to hijack my own thread, but as a non-Catholic, if I took communion would transubstantiation work for me? Would I be considered to be eating merely food or the body of Jesus?
Yes, transubstantiation exists outside of personal belief. The hosts sitting in the tabernacle are the Body of Christ.
There was a bit of a fuss kicked up a couple of years ago when the Preisdent of Ireland, a Catholic, took communion in an Anglican Mass. The Church said she was wrong to do so, but an overwhelming percentage of the populace felt she had done no wrong. However, the Archbishop of Dublin declared that she had taken part in a “sham,” which, of course, increased the furor.
I think speaking in tongues would be considered rude, if you were just faking it to go along.
Thanks. I assumed it wouldn’t, so I guess it would be even ruder than I thought.
If you are not Jewish and attending a synagogue service you should decline if offered the chance to come up and participate in the Torah reading(which is not unlikely as this honor is often offered to newcomers). At some liberal synagogues, however, you might be reassured that this is OK. Probably similar to the communion thing, this is a matter of doctrine, but I can’t imagine anyone really being offended by it as long as your error was due to sincere ignorance and not out of disrepect.
Is that the Anglican or the Catholic Bishop? Anglicans (Episcopalians) in the U.S. welcome any Christians to communion. If it is the other way, can Catholics only take communion at a Catholic church?
If you’re celebrating Rosh Hashanah, when they bring out the shofar you shouldn’t see if you can play Taps on it.
It’s rather rude to enter a Mormon temple. It’s highly doubtful that a believer would invite you in, though, so this situation isn’t likely to arise.
In an Orthodox synagogue, you’d be unlikely to be called up, because the fact of your not wearing a yarmulke would probably indicate that you’re less religious/educated in religious matters, even if you’re Jewish. That’s mainly out of consideration for you-- no one wants to see the new guy embarrassed, and if they think you can’t read Hebrew, they wouldn’t want to put you on the spot.
I don’t know that this counts as a religious ceremony, but the only Jewish commandment that non-Jews are forbidden to perform is keeping Sabbath. You can’t keep a full Sabbath if you’re not Jewish, no matter what the circumstance. Even people preparing for an Orthodox conversion, who live Jewish lives for a while beforehand in preparation, must do something forbidden during the Sabbath so they aren’t keeping it. Of course, I think it’s really unlikely that you’d accidentally do this.
Lutherans don’t like non-Lutherans taking communion in their churches either. I created quite a scandal by doing so. You are supposed to have gone through your First Communion in said faith in order to participate in subsequent communions. As a matter of practice, I now wait for an invitation to take communion when in anyone’s church. Most of the time, the pastor, or whoever, will say something to the effect of “everyone is welcome to take communion as he or she feels moved too” if it isn’t a taboo in that church. At the Catholic church where I attended the wedding of a friend, they counseled us to walk to the front of the church with everyone else, politely decline the body of Christ, and go back and sit down with everyone else. Now, I have an issue with being told to decline the body of Christ, but my issue is more with the church than with the Lord…He knows how messed up the Catholics are. 
Yes, it would be considered quite disrespectful.
IMO, the priest never should have told you to do that. There is nothing wrong with remaining in your seat while others go up for Communion.
Tim Cahill has a short story called “Speaking in Tongues”, it is in a book he edited called Not So Funny When It Happened. The story is about his visit to some sort of fundamentalist Christian cult. Part of it is talking about how people sit in a closet until they speak in tongues. He relates how he faked it to please the ‘guides’ he was with. A very funny story.
Sorry, bad quote tag there…the second quote was from **xbuckeye’s ** post.
But the Tabernacle is OK?
When I attended Church in my youth, non-Catholics or Catholics unable to receive communion were invited to come up and receive a blessing instead. Instead of holding your hands out, you simply crossed them over your chest. Ofcourse, even that was voluntary, you didn’t need to go up at all if you didn’t want to.