@edgarblythe,
Here's what I find outrageous, I worked in DOD near Washington, most of us identified with with our target/ as linguist/TA/CA/Humint/ and a long list of other specialities. After the target, we would possibly bond as people's from a certain region of the US. After that, it was of little interest if co-workers were Catholic, Jewish, Protestant or Greek Orthodox. I know there were many who never identified as a particular denomination, and many were agnostic, atheists, no body cared. A few did, they were far outnumbered.
I did work for a while for a pasty faced uber believer who in addition to whatever church he may have belonged to, he also was a member of "Business Men For Christ". If you work for the government, you are not a business man, you are a federal employee. He used to drop checks on my desks, made out to me, the amount would be salvation. It was so insulting, he watched me constantly as if I was planning on seducing the entire office, he was very strange and believed he had a great nose for rooting out the possibility of sin.
Believe me, I've had it up to here with people who make assumptions about your religious, non-religious or spiritual leanings. This is not very nice, but when the Mormons or 7th Day Adventists knock on my door, hand me literature regarding their belief, or the Book of Mormon, sometimes they ask if they can come in and pray with me, I tell them to wait a second, let me count my spare rosaries, by the time I return to the door everybody has scattered.
If you have any knowledge of various organized religions and the history of major world religions, you can tie everybody else up in knots, but only if they start it first. Just to annoy others would make you an asshole, but to frustrate an asshole who is attempting to shove their beliefs down your throat, can give you the most massive afterglow.
