I'm sorry I don't pray that way....

As distinct from merely a different NAME ?




R the exits well marked ?
That might be a good place from which to stay away.


I was acquainted with a skillful lawyer who spoke fervently in support
of a NY anti-discrimination law, as applied to re-calcitrant dentists.

I knew that he was a Catholic.
I presented him with this hypothetical analogy:
one of his clients says:
"we like your work; u 've done well for us.
We 'd like to ask for your continued professional service,
perhaps at higher rates of remuneration, if u help us to
charter a new corporation." He agrees; its ez to do.

The client warms to the subject, adding:
" we want you to begin a religious corporation, from the ground up,
and have u involved in choice of real estate, architectural contracts,
selection of personnel, employment contracts, and recruitment
of new members; be our general counsel, with generous earnings.
It will be a church for the worship of satan.
Here is an advance on your payment: 3O silver dollars."

He was aghast; not much of a reply qua the legitimacy
of a law requiring the rendition of professional services.

(I also threw in the 13th Amendment.)





David

L o L !
I 'm just careful to what I commit myself.
I 've never committed myself to be a Slider,
but I can be a hanger arounder.
I don't mind the music (as a general rule).

Its usually OK to sit there n munch on the goodies.

The situation that u mentioned actually HAPPENED
some time ago. My friend Marty has called me many times
qua lectures in bookstores that he has found in the NY Times.
That has worked out very well, enjoyably, when some of us
attend the lecture and then go on to dinner in a fine Manhattan restaurant.

On one occasion, Marty made a mistake.
He misunderstood the kind of lecture
after which we were going to have dinner,
as per our reservation at the restaurant.
Therefore, we were in attendance at an
emotional harangue from black leftists
condemning American policy to Africa for 45 minutes.
I ' d have left at the beginning, but my friends were
still there and our dinner reservation was for later
in the evening; so, I was indeed the only one
visibly not applauding the semi-frantic diatribe,
in which I had no interest, after which we had a good meal.

Quod est demonstratum: U r insightful, astute and shrewdly discerning, boomer.





David

Have a couple of relations that visit quite often, who are very 7th day Adventist one's, usually stay a week are great company, but from the start when they first came, they sat at the table and thanked their God with eye closed and hands in praying position. They knew my wife and I had no knowledge of God's so I informed them that their God thing didn't supply the food and felt it was rude to try and take the giving of them a meal away from us to something or the other That I knew nothing about, plus them trying to advertise their ritual, and that it was offensive to us. Luckily they were sensible people and refrained from doing it again. They have often tried to get us interested in religion, but I away's counter with the statement of " would it make better persons of us if we did " they say no but, then go on about what they found when they found their God thingy, when I said we weren't at the least interested and explained why, they couldn't understand the why nots.

I've never seen the wisdom in the public prayer idea. Solomon makes plain that prayers belong in the solitude of the bedchamber. It sounds like good sense in order to maintain the humility of the act. Any prayer other than solitary tends to erode that humility.
I think it's much better to express one's gratitude to the host, and save the prayers for the chamber where the opportunity for pride is reduced.

I agree. I remember when I was a kid in a public hi school,
in whose student assemblies prayers were read out by some student.

His expressed concerns did not reflect mine. (He was a pacifist.)
We did not elect him, nor endorse his chosen filosofy.

By what right did he presume to represent ME?

I considered complaining about it,
but I was not sufficiently motivated.
I was fairly confident that God woud not take them seriously.
Judging by the manifested results, that appears to have been the case.





David