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Goodbye Jesus

Getting Religious When Something Bad Happens


Foxy Methoxy

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Last night I got word one of my cousins was in the hospital. Like everyone else in my family, I was very concerned. But when several members whom I know to be completely non-religious and often anti-religious started saying things like "Everybody please keep her in your prayers" I felt like I was taking crazy pills. What the fuck? There are some very religious people in my family and when they talk like that, I expect it. But since when can you claim to be atheist or agnostic for years and suddenly ask for prayers? Today, we got news she is OK and I'm waiting to see if the people who mysteriously turned into praying folk last night go back to being non-religious or not. It will be interesting. I understand they were worried. I was worried, too. But tossing out religious jargon in that circumstance seems very insincere. To me, it seemed like they were trying to curry favor with the more religious element in our family and not actually meaning a word of it. That really bothers me. I hate to call bullshit in an instance like that, but you have to stay true no matter what. You can't just turn religious for a night hoping to impress certain people. It's bullshit. I fucking hate that kind of thing worse than when the religious zealots get preachy. At least the zealots are consistent. Unfortunately, I can't say the same for some of the others.

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Without knowing your relatives, it's hard to determine what their real thoughts or motivation was. Can it be that they used the prase "in your prayers" sort of as a generic way of saying "keep them in your thoughts"?

 

Their behavior is annoying, certainly, but at a time of stress like this, I would cut them a bit of slack.

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Yeah, I guess you should cut them some slack. I just went through that for the past seven months of my sister's hospitalization. Every time there was a slight improvement, it was "praise the Lord. God is good." When things went sour again they reverted to "We must keep her in our prayers." Then the cycle would repeat - for seven long months. It was so hard to refrain from verbally shaking them to ask why an all powerful deity didn't simply prevent illness in the first place. If she improved after their fervent prayers only to slip back into the shit the following week, why think prayer works at all?

 

It's very frustrating. BTW, the patient finally returned home last week.

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If I thought it was sincere, I would cut them slack. But they're doing it suck up to her mother. It's all for show.

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Without knowing your relatives, it's hard to determine what their real thoughts or motivation was.

 

Oh, I know exactly what the motivation was. My Aunt cut them off when they deconverted. Now that we're having a crisis, they're using this to get back under her good graces.

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But hey. If they start going to church because of this and are sincerely religious again, then I won't be as irritated. That's why I'm ranting here and biting my tongue in real life while waiting to see what happens. If they're truly religious again, that's fine. But if I'm right and it's all for show, fuck them. They're worse than the fundies.

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But they're doing it suck up to her mother. It's all for show.

 

Is the mother rich?

 

Edited to add: judging by your next post, my instincts are at least partially right!

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It's pretty much an instinctive behavior if you grew up falling upon a higher power when you feel powerless. I remember having an insightful dream where a tornado was going over my house and I immediately started a prayer in my head, but I rebuked myself because I knew it was futile and solved nothing; prayer essentially puts us at ease even though it does no good--like how a cat will start purring in a stressful situation because it calms them.

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Last night I got word one of my cousins was in the hospital. Like everyone else in my family, I was very concerned. But when several members whom I know to be completely non-religious and often anti-religious started saying things like "Everybody please keep her in your prayers" I felt like I was taking crazy pills. What the fuck? There are some very religious people in my family and when they talk like that, I expect it. But since when can you claim to be atheist or agnostic for years and suddenly ask for prayers? Today, we got news she is OK and I'm waiting to see if the people who mysteriously turned into praying folk last night go back to being non-religious or not. It will be interesting. I understand they were worried. I was worried, too. But tossing out religious jargon in that circumstance seems very insincere. To me, it seemed like they were trying to curry favor with the more religious element in our family and not actually meaning a word of it. That really bothers me. I hate to call bullshit in an instance like that, but you have to stay true no matter what. You can't just turn religious for a night hoping to impress certain people. It's bullshit. I fucking hate that kind of thing worse than when the religious zealots get preachy. At least the zealots are consistent. Unfortunately, I can't say the same for some of the others.

 

 

Since these relatives are mercenary and opportunistic then thank goodness that you got this insight into their real character; you now know how to deal with them in the future.

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Yeah, I guess you should cut them some slack. I just went through that for the past seven months of my sister's hospitalization. Every time there was a slight improvement, it was "praise the Lord. God is good." When things went sour again they reverted to "We must keep her in our prayers." Then the cycle would repeat - for seven long months. It was so hard to refrain from verbally shaking them to ask why an all powerful deity didn't simply prevent illness in the first place. If she improved after their fervent prayers only to slip back into the shit the following week, why think prayer works at all?

 

It's very frustrating. BTW, the patient finally returned home last week.

Praise the Lord. God is good! :jesus:

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Seriously, though, I don't get it any more than you do. There was a time when my son was at death's door (fortunately, things turned out OK). The last thing to cross my was praying.

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