greeting that is not your faith

[karrenlandry]

OK...what do you say to "God bless you"?

Seriously now, I understand in most cases it's either a habit of politeness or a reflex as unthinking as the sneeze itself. However, I still flinch when someone wishes it on me. I've learned to either stifle my sneezes to avoid all the embarrassing blessings, or respond playfully with something on the order of, "Gee, I don't think it's going to take, but thanks anyway!"

The people in my office have learned to let me sneeze in peace, without comment. I sincerely appreciate their consideration for my beliefs/lack thereof!

Doing my bit for consciousness raising...
karrenlandry

[karrenlandry]

OK...what do you say to "God bless you"?

Seriously now, I understand in most cases it's either a habit of politeness or a reflex as unthinking as the sneeze itself. However, I still flinch when someone wishes it on me. I've learned to either stifle my sneezes to avoid all the embarrassing blessings, or respond playfully with something on the order of, "Gee, I don't think it's going to take, but thanks anyway!"

The people in my office have learned to let me sneeze in peace, without comment. I sincerely appreciate their consideration for my beliefs/lack thereof!

Doing my bit for consciousness raising...
karrenlandry

[nudeM]

I usually say 'God bless you' or just 'Bless you'. If the person states they are offended, then I will retract my statement and state, Kazunhiet (sp).

[nacktman]

Gesundheit is German for (god)Bless You, which is the same myopic response.

Just say "Pardon me!?", to the offending party and let them stew in their own self loathing, but if you prefer German just say "Wie bitte!?" and say the same thing.

[funguy]

quote:

Originally posted by nacktman:
Gesundheit is German for (god)Bless You, which is the same myopic response.

actually, Gesundheit is German for "health," which is neither the same response nor myopic.

[luvnaturism]

The joy of social naturism is that, in general, it's a setting where people are accepted, appreciated, and enjoyed just as they are. Why then would a naturist want to respond to someone who has just wished them well in a manner designed to "let them stew in their own self-loathing?"

The conventional responses to a sneeze, whether "God bless you" or "Gesundheit" long ago lost whatever theological implications they might have once had. Now they're just generic well-meaning greetings of the same general type as "Have a nice day."

If the recipient is genuinely uncomfortable about being on the receiving end of "God bless you," then karrenlandry has already provided the best answer to his/her [not sure which is appropriate] original question: a smile and a friendly quip can easily convey that you'd rather be spared the blessing while also conveying that you appreciate the person who made the gesture.

[nacktman]

funguy, the phrase literally means "Bless you" not 'health' and therefore is the same response.

Can you not accept people do not wish to be offended and insulted by narrow mindedness such as displayed by the post immediatly above.

There is a thread about being too PC and cowtowing to the myopic views of the minority is definitely PC and some wish to be free to be who they are and not have their sense of freedom infinged upon by others.

[Mountain Goat]

quote:

Originally posted by nacktman:
There is a thread about being too PC and cowtowing to the myopic views of the minority is definitely PC and some wish to be free to be who they are and not have their sense of freedom infinged upon by others.

I have a friend training to be a minister. I don't swear around him. He doesn't say any religious greetings to me. It's called respect and understanding. As a friend, he occasionally will say things like "We'll pray for you.' But I understand that as concern.

We do the above not out of political correctness but out of respect and friendship. With people you know or people you have relations with, you need to find that out.

For strangers, you cannot know the appropriate greeting. So it is useful for one to use something neutral at first - this is respect. In service, as pointed out in another thread, it should be the natural way - part of the whole service package. That is the enlightened way of dealing with people.

Of course, many people don't think about it. 'Bless you' can be instinctive to many. I was once teaching an Arabic student who dropped 'Insha Allah' (Allah willing) into a coversation. In actual fact, in Arabic it is a very common phrase inserted everywhere in Arabic.

As a moderately smart person, I recognise that as instinctive and understand the underlying meaning, that of care and concern.

But in the same way, many people don't realise the underlying meaning - and get obsessed with the words. You know most of the important people in your life and the beliefs they have. It is only the few that you don't know that you have to decide whether you are going to risk offence or say something neutral. And that is up to people to decide. Personally I think people should take more responsibility for the things they say.

It ain't rocket science.


Mountain Goat

[luvnaturism]

Here's a link that may be useful to those who find it uncomfortable to receive a kindly "God bless you."

http://www.the-brights.net/movement/toolbox/gby/

[luvnaturism]

quote:

Originally posted by funguy:
actually, Gesundheit is German for "health," which is neither the same response nor myopic.

Funguy, my dictionary says that "gesundheit" is an exclamation used to wish good health to a person who has just sneezed, and states that its origin in German means "health."

I did a Google search for "gesundheit." It returned many items related to health, and none at all (at least in the first couple of pages) about "God bless you" or "bless you."

[Sauna]

Gesundheit is only health and never God bless you.

[ncnudlady]

Some need to check their dictionaries.
ielanguages.com lists the meaning of Gesundheit as Bless you and states nothing about health and so does the German dictionary on the shelf and of all my German friends and colleagues.

[ncnudlady]

Karren, do not allow those that would impose upon you do so.

[usmc1]

My day job is in an environment with a number of people all within the sound of a sneeze. There was a period where if I had multiple sequential sneezes several people would echo "bless you" after each sneeze.

It was nonsense, like middle school shenanigans and I called for a cease and desist. Now if I sneeze, the passage aggressive response from the Christers is just to ignore me.

The thing of it is, is that I didn't object to the initial "bless you", nothing to get my knickers in a knot about there, but if I sneezed three or four times in a row, each freeking sneeze got a chorus of "bless you". Freeking seventh grade nonsense.

But, as to the basic question of "bless you" on a sneeze, my sense is that it primarily is merely a mindless, learned response without a whole lot of implication of evangelizing a religious perspective, for all I know, it is a Wiccan calling on the goddess or the green man to bless me.

I choose my fights carefully and I just am not going to confront someone over their friendly and harmless "bless you" when I sneeze. There are, in my mind, real battles to be fought.

[luvnaturism]

quote:

Originally posted by ncnudlady:
ielanguages.com lists the meaning of Gesundheit as Bless you and states nothing about health....

I don't question what you found in your search, but when I went to ielanguages.com, followed the links to translate a single word, and typed in "gesundheit" it returned one word: "health."

Hopefully it can at least be agreed that "health" is a commonly-understood meaning for the German word gesundheit.