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Catherine Stevens's avatar

I’m an atheist. I’m not concerned or bothered by someone wishing blessings. I occasionally do it myself.

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Maggie JK's avatar

It feels icky to me, like they are shoving their religion in my face, but I don’t care enough to be confrontational about it.

I have started telling people not to bother praying for me because I don’t believe in that when they tell me that they will pray for me. Time is finite and I think I am doing them a kindness by not wasting their time and precious prayers. Use them on someone who will appreciate it.

Maybe I would find their nonsense less harmful if Christian nationalism didn’t exist. If they weren’t trying to make laws dictating how I live my life maybe I could give them some grace.

But they already think everyone in this country is part of their cult I really don’t feel like playing along with that delusion.

I have a first amendment to be free from their religion and I would like to be.

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RWAlex's avatar

Here in my native Redneckistan, there's Walmart greeters and grocery checkout folks saying "have a blessed day" and even corporate management didn't make them stop even after customers complained.

I just reply with the Wiccan "Blessed Be!" And dig a bit deeper to actually wish them well: for my own sake.

"For all their curses and their blessings come to much the same thing..."

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Peaceful Mary T.'s avatar

It's funny, while reading this I was thinking about my Wiccan friends who say 'Blessed be' and I never think of them as trying to push their beliefs on me, just that they're wishing me a good day. Same as when someone says 'Have a blessed day' at the grocery store. Sometimes we just need to take a deep breath and be grateful that someone is wishing us well rather than hating on us.

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Jarred Harris's avatar

I have to admit though that as a witch, listening to Wiccans say "blessed be" to random people tends to make me smirk. It's a bit of antiquated phrasing from Wiccan liturgy, so it feels to me like a Catholic running around saying "the Lord be with you," especially if they say it in Latin. More power to the Wiccans who do it, but it still makes me smirk.

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JohnH's avatar

I once attended a Unitarian-Universalist service with members of family in Texas, who are UUs. The minister opened her service with ‘blessed be,’ which I recognized as Wiccan, and thought was very cool.

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Peaceful Mary T.'s avatar

I'm an Atheist with Buddhist leanings and there were a few years when I felt the need from some fellowship to get me through some tough times. The local UU's were perfect for me! Just a great bunch of very accepting and generally kind, open-minded people. An 'eclectic' bunch! It was really nice going there. If they'd had evening services, I'd probably still be attending, but I'm just not a morning person...

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Maggie JK's avatar

My problem is that they aren’t really wishing me well. If they were really wishing me well they wouldn’t mind their own business and stop trying to make laws about my body.

They already think everyone in this country is in their cult and I think it’s important that they understand that not everyone is. I have a first amendment right to be free from their religion and I would like to exercise it.

I’m really disappointed that the man who writes this newsletter thinks women should just smile and be polite even if it means giving up our first amendment right to be free from someone’s religion being shoved down our throat.

Why are women always told to shut up and appease everyone else? My discomfort isn’t important, appeasing a cult member is? Nah

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Straw's avatar

"Have a blessed day" is translated to "Ha en god dag" in Norwegian. Here god is good, and not some god I've never seen.

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Black Hole and DM mourner's avatar

I read good dog...

I spend too much time reading in English.

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Straw's avatar

Who's a good dog?

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Joan the Dork's avatar

The only correct answer is... 𝘢𝘭𝘭 𝘰𝘧 𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘮. 𝘈𝘭𝘭 𝘰𝘧 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘥𝘰𝘨𝘴.

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cdbunch's avatar

Even poor Cricket. May that woman rot on the bone,

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Joan the Dork's avatar

All dogs are good dogs. Some of them are just unfortunately cursed with bad humans.

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Bill Wilson's avatar

And when the pup’s owner gets home the devil will get his due. Puppy is so cute it gets a pass for bad behavior. Plus angel food whatever is delicious.

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Black Hole and DM mourner's avatar

Not Aria when she was hungry, meaning most of the time. She was a very demanding Dogesse.

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Bill Wilson's avatar

A doggienatrix.

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Black Hole and DM mourner's avatar

Iggy Pop.

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Zorginipsoundsor's avatar

K9.

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Maggie JK's avatar

All dogs are good dogs at heart.

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Maggie JK's avatar

I like “Hail yourself!”

I didn’t realize Blessed Be was wiccan, I reminds me of Handmaids Tale Blessed Be The Fruit. Ew

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Joe King's avatar

"Have a blessed day!" Polite, if annoying, Christian well wishing. Not Christian Nationalism.

Active proselytizing? Even more annoying, though there is entertainment value in asking the street preachers difficult questions. Still not Christian Nationalism.

These things are still protected by the First Amendment, and I will defend their right to do them.

Insist that the USA was founded to be a Christian nation, and try to use the power of the state to enforce at least part of Christian doctrine? 𝘛𝘩𝘢𝘵'𝘴 Christian Nationalism. That crosses the line into violating the First Amendment, and I will fight against that wherever I can.

Creeping Christian Nationalism is happening, when the Christian Nationalists push through more and more codification of Christian privilege. Fight against that, call it out. Don't attack the average Christian for poorly phrased good intentions. Teach them about Christian Nationalism and how it would hurt them, too.

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oraxx's avatar

I will admit to being a wee bit irked when someone wishes me a blessed day. Not so irked I would ever say anything about it. While members of the free-thought community know such sayings are meaningless, it's not the worst thing a person could say either. This is something that can be safely ignored.

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Joan the Dork's avatar

This could have been used as a little teachable moment, to point out the privilege baked into having the very language you speak cast favor to your worldview- and English is absolutely saturated with Christian expressions and profanities, to an extent where it's hard to avoid using them even as a nonbeliever- but that's not the conversation that's being had here. Do many Christians color their greetings and farewells with religious overtones and act all smug and condescending about it? Sure they do; we've all been on the receiving end of a "bless your heart" or two in 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘱𝘢𝘳𝘵𝘪𝘤𝘶𝘭𝘢𝘳 𝘵𝘰𝘯𝘦... but it's not a hill worth dying on. Just roll your eyes and move along. Even if the expression was meant as a passive-aggressive jab, rather than a slightly misguided sign-off, don't take the bait. Us getting angry over petty bullshit so that the real issues get lost in the noise is exactly what the 𝘳𝘦𝘢𝘭 Nat-Cs want.

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Maggie JK's avatar

I guess I’m just confused about Why everyone thinks this woman should just shut up and accept it if she doesn’t want to?

Why are women always told to shut up and fake it for the comfort of everyone else?

They can tell me I had to have a blessed day as long as they’re fine with me telling them to hail themselves. 🤷🏻‍♀️

Or is that a problem too? Am I supposed to really fake it to appease them? I’ve been on this planet for 51 years so it’s not like I haven’t been told before that I have to make myself uncomfortable to make someone else who’s butting into my life feel comfortable.

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E2's avatar

Christianity, and the Bible as literature, have been wound up with the history of the English (-speaking) people for a very long time. Of course it's part of the language; that will remain true even if atheism (or whatever) overwhelms practicing Christianity in the culture's future.

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Stephen Brady's avatar

I live in the Deep South and am a lifelong atheist. Not the Madalyn Murray O'Hair, in-your-face- kind. Just a happy non believer. I hear "have a blessed day" every time I go out and I just return it with 'you too'. It is not necessary to walk through life starting fights and stepping on toes.

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Dee Martinez's avatar

And as a born and bred Texan I reserve the right to issue a well deserved Bless Your Heart when needed. Always in that tone!

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cdbunch's avatar

When I hear the phrase it grates a little, but it's been around too long to be creeping anything, and is mostly an example of Christian Privilege assuming everyone is a Christian. You answer back, have a good day and get over yourself.

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Maggie JK's avatar

And this is my problem with just smiling and acting like I am one of them. It just gives them the audacity to think everyone shares their delusion about their sky daddy. I’m not going to pick fights about it, but I’m not going to play along either.

Their God is awful I don’t actually want his blessings.

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Troublesh00ter's avatar

Saying "have a blessed day" may not be creeping Christian nationalism, but it IS both creepy and tiresome. It's one more attempt by Christians to remind you that: "We may not be perfect, just forgiven," that they themselves are "blessed," meaning that they're special and apart from the madding crowd. Finally, it's one more way to proselytize with a single word.

And personally, I'm tired of it ... to the point where I WILL call it out, depending on my mood and how smarmy the speaker is. Thankfully, around here, it doesn't happen often.

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Zizzer-Zazzer-Zuzz's avatar

We have somebody new at work and I was going to ask how to respond to their email signature, which says "May the Lord be with you."

A) And also with you.

B) And with your spirit.

C) May the Force be with you.

D) Ignore it.

I think I'm going D for now.

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ericc's avatar

I am surprised their manager hasn't said something to them about changing it. Both the company I work for and most of the various government offices I have contracted out to have pretty standard regulations about keeping your .sig professional, and that certainly wouldn't meet the regs.

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Zizzer-Zazzer-Zuzz's avatar

I looked and our employee handbook doesn't say anything. We're pretty small, so I don't know if they've never thought about it or it's never come up. They mostly just ask us to be professional.

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cdbunch's avatar

Someone will have to complain before there's a policy. I recommend C and let zir complain.

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Maggie JK's avatar

OK but that’s unprofessional. Just as it would be unprofessional for me to write hail Satan in my email signature at work.

As a woman who is very anti-patriarchy I would cease doing business with a company that sent me an email with a signature line like that.

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cdbunch's avatar

My company basically has boilerplate. So I don't have a signature.

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Black Hole and DM mourner's avatar

C) with 🖖

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E.A. Blair's avatar

I'm old enough to remember the Latin versions:

"Dominus vobiscum."

"Et cum spiritu tuo."

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Guerillasurgeon's avatar

Too catholic.

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E.A. Blair's avatar

Most people don't remember the Latin, so some might think it's satanic. As for me, soli linguæ bonæ sunt linguæ mortuæ.

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Guerillasurgeon's avatar

Which lord is that? First Sea Lord?

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Troublesh00ter's avatar

Being that I just started re-watching the first season of Star Trek: Picard, maybe:

Jolan Tru?

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cdbunch's avatar

In IT, C would be the most appropriate. But these days even many small/medium businesses have standards for the email signature.

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Bagen Onuts's avatar

We have not found answers to any of our questions and now find ourselves more confused than ever. We do feel we are confused about things on a higher level than before.

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Maggie JK's avatar

It’s inappropriate for a work email.

If I was a customer/client I would be really weirded out receiving an email that says that.

But I understand why the man who writes this newsletter might not understand how offensive it is to have the patriarchy shoved in your face every day. I’m sure I wouldn’t be as upset about the patriarchy if I benefited from it like men do.

I think that’s why I’m so offended the tone of this newsletter is that women should just suck it up and play along. Yes I’m sure the patriarchy would love that, I’m not going to do that though.

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NOGODZ20's avatar

Christian Nationalism? Hardly. But I wonder how that flight attendant would feel if someone cheerfully replied "Hail Satan." Would the attendant, while obviously not a NatC, still have felt offended? Once again, it is nonbelievers who are basically told to smile, shut up and take it; to respect the feelings of Christians.

Day after day, we here see how disdainful/disrespectful Christians are on even the smallest level. And yet, we are the ones who are told to "move on." Doesn't that simply encourage further such behavior by believers? Further incursion? "Camel's nose in the tent."

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Bagen Onuts's avatar

Satan is far kinder and gentler than the kkkrister god. Even their "loving" jesus was full of derision. It created eternal hell for imaginary sins. Jesus sure did one-up the Old man and the spook with that one.

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Maggie JK's avatar

Yep whenever some religious nut bag has a problem with the fact that I’m a Satanist I just shrug and I say “at least the Satanists don’t believe in forgiving pedophiles.”

I should probably modify that and remind them that the Satanists don’t have pedophiles leading their churches.

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cdbunch's avatar

Let's get the camel's tail out of the tent, then we can worry about gently expelling the nose.

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NOGODZ20's avatar

If the tail is in the tent, that means the whole camel is in the tent and it has collapsed.

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cdbunch's avatar

And...

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NOGODZ20's avatar

The damage is complete.

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ericc's avatar

I would not support someone saying that loudly from their plane seat. That seems more like performance than sincerity. You're trying to get attention, not communicate to the flight attendant in that situation.

But I have no problem with the thought of some disembarking passenger saying it directly/personally to the flight attendant, at the doorway.

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NOGODZ20's avatar

That's what I meant: Saying it directly to the attendant in a cheerful tone and not shouted (notice there's no exclamation point after "Hail Satan").

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Maggie JK's avatar

😂😂😂 Interesting, so the flight attendant can loudly announce to the whole plane about blessed days but you only support me exercising my First Amendment rights if I’m quiet about it and keep it to myself? Ew. That sounds like christian nationalism.

Y’all will “allow” us to be free from your religion but only if we are silent about it and pretend we’re part of it?

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Maggie JK's avatar

Thank you! I’m actually really disappointed in the author of this newsletter. I’m damn sick of men telling women we should just smile and make everyone around us feel uncomfortable even when they are literally assaulting our rights and way of life.

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Old Man Shadow's avatar

Being an ex-vangelical, those phrases make me cringe inside a bit, but that's my own personal shit to deal with and I don't get angry about it. I say, "Thanks, you too." and move on... quickly.

It's the seizing of the State's monopoly on violence by organized religion that keeps me up at night.

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Lost In Alabama's avatar

Current atheist, former pretend Southern Baptist here. I still tell people occasionally to have a blessed day. It has no religious connotations for me. Wishing for someone to have a fortunate, happy day is not Christian Nationalism. Jeez!

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Sean's avatar

Not bothered. First rule, pick and choose your battles. Second rule, don't be a dick.

It's like when someone tells me they'll keep me in their thoughts and prayers, especially when my wife was diagnosed with cancer and it fell to me to explain it to everyone because she was getting exhausted reliving the story with every telling. It was their way of expressing compassion; they are not in a position to be able to fix the my wife's problem. (George Hrab talks about this on one of the Skeptics Guide to the Universe podcasts.)

Conversely, gov't officials "praying" about something, like COIVD or AIDS, can shove it up their ass. Letting people die and having "god sort it out" is the biggest chicken shit move christian politicians take.

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Bagen Onuts's avatar

It was a pope that said, "Kill them all. God will recognize his own."

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Sean's avatar

Thanks. I haven't heard that a pope said it, but that doesn't surprise me. Normally it's christians saying, "Kill 'em all and let god sort it out." In such cases of christian politicians not taking action, they aren't directly killing people, but they are as responsible as the Jews were for killing jesus, even though they had the Romans do it.

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Val Uptuous NotAgain's avatar

I agree that this isn’t creeping Christian Nationalism for a flight attendant to say. It would disturb me more if it was a governmental worker, especially one with certain powers over me (like a gun - police). This is an exercise in religious freedom, the same as someone saying Happy Holidays rather than merry Christmas. We don’t need to stoop to their level by getting upset over a greeting by an individual. Jeffry was wrong to tweet about it.

I will say, however, I’ve noticed a trend for the left to focus more on tone trolling the left rather than focus on the real threats the right is perpetrating. I see folks dragging other progressive folks for being too sensitive about a small thing, a comment or word used. But then the context of the situation is lost in the shuffle. It is fine to make a gentle correction of someone who’s making this kind of mistake, remind them that this isn’t the droids we’re looking for, but move on quickly. Because the left is being mischaracterized as bullies even within the left. The bothsiderism takes over and muddies the water and nothing gets resolved.

We can assume she had good intentions when she did this, and maybe got a little too zealous. But a simple reminder that this is how freedom works is good, then move on. Let the right eat their own. Attacking ourselves only serves to undermine our points.

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NOGODZ20's avatar

Thank you. You said that far better than I did.

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MikeinSonoma's avatar

It’s one of those things I find annoying and I have no doubt most the people using it know exactly what they’re saying and why they’re saying it. Commenting about it is just giving them what they want. I like the idea of responding back “blessed be” because they probably know exactly what I mean by it and then puts them in the same position. It’s like when somebody says I’ll pray for you, which most the time is the Christian’s way of saying fuck you, I respond back “I have hope for you”

As for those little prayer cards I’d always find on my first class tray as somebody who traveled for business predominantly on Alaskan Airlines, I’d always leave them in an obvious little crinkle ball on my tray. I was glad to see them gone.

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Vanity Unfair's avatar

"I like the idea of responding back “blessed be...” or perhaps, "Blessed be the fruit" if you want to make a more emphatic point.

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Dianne Marie Leonard's avatar

Mostly I just let this sort of comment roll off my back. If it's not well-meant, sometimes I'll reply with something slightly snarky, like "and the goddess bless you too", which might make the speaker check their privilege a bit next time they open their yap. Believe me, a lot of stuff that Xtians say to people they want to dehumanize or shame is a whole bunch worse! Like the (clearly Xtian) woman on the bus a while back who wanted my friend (who is blind) and me (crip) to shut up, and screamed at both of us, to the point that we had to ask the bus driver to eject her. She was yelling about how our various obvious disabilities made us demonic or something, and the only remedy was to come to Jesus who would cure us. Sure, both my friend and I run into shit like that all the time (and worse) but this woman was using her religion as a battering ram in public, so it shook both of us. And it was definitely not kindly meant!

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