Ever work with people who talk about church all the time?

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Does it get on your nerves? If so, how do you deal with it?? I'm no devil worshipper, and I see my self as being pretty tolerant of others, but I work with some people who seem kind of smug about their church attendance and often find a way to work that into many a conversation. Completely unrelated conversations.

Specializes in Psych, Corrections, Med-Surg, Ambulatory.

Interesting part: when she wasn't talking about religion, she was talking about sex, what she did with her husband in lurid detail. I wasn't the least bit interested in hearing about this either but thought it didn't quite fit in with her endless "preaching." What really did it for me was when a couple of young nurses were getting married-she gave both of them a "sex" talk & told them anything but "missionary"position was a sin. One of the young nurses was marrying a "preacher wannabe" so she totally fell for this. The other was much more progressive in her beliefs & blew her off.

Wait, lurid detail, but only in the missionary position? She really needs a copy of the Kama Sutra. Too bad it's sinful.

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Specializes in hospice.
She freaked out over Halloween decorations on the unit, claiming they were "satanical". One day I got enough of it & pointed out to her how most Christmas symbols predated Christianity by eons & could be traced back to Druids, et al. Her answer: "Well, Christians existed before them."

.............

-she gave both of them a "sex" talk & told them anything but "missionary"position was a sin.

You can't fix stupid. Religious in no way equates to stupid, but it's really unfortunate how many people force it to ride along. :no:

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Specializes in Telemetry, IMCU.
When they tell you God has healed them, just say "You're welcome."

Had a nurse say that and i responded: "Thank you for your help in my health treatments, but neither you NOR the doctor healed me, God did. " You don't have to be rude like that. You're not God and therefore it's offensive to take credit when it wasn't meant for you.

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Specializes in hospice.

There are atheists who just don't believe God is there, and are perfectly comfortable with that.

And then there are "atheists" for whom God is their competition to feeling like they are the center of the universe.

The second one is who would give you a response like that.

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Specializes in Telemetry, IMCU.
There are atheists who just don't believe God is there, and are perfectly comfortable with that.

And then there are "atheists" for whom God is their competition to feeling like they are the center of the universe.

The second one is who would give you a response like that.

Those competing are silly, because according to them, He doesn't exist. Then why compete with a non existant being? I've had run ins with these people before. Meh.

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Specializes in Critical Care, ED, Cath lab, CTPAC,Trauma.

MODERATOR NOTE:

Religion is always a hot ticket item. Once AGAIN SEVERAL posts been edited.

PLEASE be mindful to be respectful of ALL religions

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I don't mind when folks discuss religion at work. In all honesty though, it's not really an issue where I work. Coworkers might talk about a dish that they took to a potluck church supper that turned out bad, or some other amusing story. But they always keep it on a professional level. Nothing that could be considered controversial. They never get judgemental or preachy. They are simply making friendly conversation.

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Specializes in Critical care.
When they tell you God has healed them, just say "You're welcome."

When patients start saying thank you Jesus, I usually just say " or the antibiotics"

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Oh yeah. Being a transplant in the Bible Belt this is something that drives me crazy all the time. I'm respectful of whatever people believe, but there are a few at work that just won't shut up about it. And always want to press me to tell them what my beliefs are...yeah right, I know a bear trap when I see one. I have had to say flat out, "this isn't something I'm going to discuss here."

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Specializes in hospice.
When patients start saying thank you Jesus, I usually just say " or the antibiotics"

Which makes you rude, disrespectful, and culturally insensitive to the patient.

People who thank God for good things in their life usually recognize that He uses other people and the gift of human intellect (to discover things like antibiotics) to achieve them. Since He is the author of all in that belief system, thanking Him is in no way diminishing the people who acted as His tools. I seriously doubt that any significant proportion fails to also thank the people who helped them.

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I think this discussion has helped me see that people who use religion as an excuse to behave in a haughty, rude way really irritate me. Also, those who say things like "I go to CHURCH" and think that reiterating that enough will distract me from the fact that they are lacking tolerance, compassion, and decency irritate me further. If you are really a ____, you don't need to tell me because the virtues of your faith should show. I wonder why it is so comforting for some to ignore the grace and loveliness that is right in front of them in favor of some distant being. Why can't these people have love for their fellow beings rather than imply they are out of this world because they attend a meeting every month and act like a jerk the rest of the week? Sincerely wondering...

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Specializes in Med-Surg.

Who has time for that? Ain't no one got time for chit chat!

Just kidding. I am I'm the Bible Belt, so you would think I get this problem a lot. I don't though. My unit is very multi-cultural and we have a really wide variety of religious staff. People rarely talk about church/religion. The few times someone does it's usually very mild and never pushy.

I had this problem more in nursing school, and that was just because of the group that I happened to be around. I would be brief in saying I am not very religious and don't enjoy discussing religion very much. The same goes for politics. If the conversation persisted then I would either ignore it and go about my business or leave the area altogether.

I do not think that work is the appropriate place to discuss things religion. It has the potential to lead to way too much drama and conflict.

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