That prayer to Jesus is inappropriate at a company party?

[Kate8889]

I went with my husband to a company Christmas party and before we started to eat a woman came to the microphone and said a short prayer in the name of Jesus as thanks/blessings for the food. Everyone was expected to bow their head.

This is the first time I've been witness to something like this, it is a secular company with many Jewish, Muslim and agnostic people. We have been going to this Christmas party for 7 years and it's never been like this.

Indeed. I had a friend working for a Texan company in the UK once, and a lot of the email signoffs had heavy Christian connotations, really freaked him out. It's a credit to the GB that overtness over private religious beliefs and connecting it to company business in any way would (mostly, although obviously it has been creeping in with political beliefs) be considered very much a no-no in workplaces here.

Fair, working from Luke it's more reasonable to assume a birth date in Spring, what with shepherds out in the fields & lambing season & all.

There’s a lot of people with a lot of views on MN. That they don’t all align to yours doesn’t make them insincere.

(Personally I think the people saying Christmas is only secular or is only Christian are both missing a pretty obvious answer that at this point in our culture, which is largely secular bur with very many Christians too, it’s both. But I don’t think that means either side are misrepresenting their position, I just disagree with them).

(And another thing… I think some of this disagreement is because some people allow a very large margin between what they think ‘should’ happen or what they’d personally do, and what’s ’unreasonable’ to do. Others seem to think the question of what’s reasonable is basically the same as the question of what they’d do).

I feel that the OP isn’t being entirely truthful though. I find it heard to believe that this even happened. Maybe just a bit of rage bait to set off a bun fight about religion, or start off some Christian bashing….

Then maybe they shouldn’t be celebrating Christmas?

Christmas celebrations mean different things to different people. We all have our own special traditions. As atheists doesn’t mean we can’t celebrate the holiday.

There’s a lot of people with a lot of views on MN. That they don’t all align to yours doesn’t make them insincere.

This is of course true, but they can not align with my views and be insincere.

Perhaps I'm wrong, but people saying, "But Christmas has 'Christ' in its name!" with wide-eyed (faux) innocence, as if they're totally unaware that many, many people in this country celebrate Christmas without considering themselves to be Christian, sound insincere to me.

They aren't, they're celebrating an end of year festival with their work colleagues at the company's expense and the chance for once to let their hair down, eat, drink and be merry. However, if you wish to be a killjoy, do feel free to join the other evangelicals in campaigning for only Christians to ever be permitted to use the term "Christmas" and everyone else to enjoy the traditional end of year winter festival that predates Christianity however the hell they want.

No other religion would allow this. Imagine Muslim/jewish holiday where people are not allowed to pray. It would cause an outrage. Or a non Muslim person celebrating Ramadan just for the fun of it would be seen as cultural appropriation.

If it’s respect you’re concerned with, you will surely agree that out of respect you wouldn’t expect people to think or feel the way you do and, in fact, out of respect, if someone wants to showboat like that, they given people fair warning so that they can respectfully decide if they’d like to participate or not. I’m sure that out of respect, you wouldn’t be as arrogant as that.

I’d be questioning that. I work for a US HQ’d company and while many American colleagues talk about god all the bloody time we’ve not reached the point where anyone would do this. HR would step in.

It used to be, certainly. And the word reflects that etymological origin.

However - and this might come as a shock to you - for a lot of people in the UK, possibly even the majority, it's not about Jesus. It's about family, celebration and, yeah, commercialism.

Most cultures have a midwinter festival. The traditions and the rituals may shift and adapt, but the human instinct to mark the solstice stays much the same.

If it made people uncomfortable then they are not very inclusive are they? Maybe they're just Christanophobic bigots, and as such maybe shouldn't go to any Christmas events? Unless of course they think it's perfectly OK to appropriate a Christian festival and bastardise it to such an extent that its origins are totally erased? Not very inclusive or kind.

But there’s no real scriptural or doctrinal substructure to Christmas in terms of an order of service, as it were.
We read that this or that occurred (and the nativity story we absorb depends on which Evangelist is relating it) but even the most devout would surely concede that here and now, it’s as much a cultural festival as a religious one.
More so.
It’s inescapably blended with threads and iconography belonging to an earlier tradition, probably two in fact, and every part of it is infinitely adaptable to one’s own preferences and to any or no degree of faith.
You can’t say that about many serious religious festivals.

Right on. Well said!

so why was Christmas his Birthday Party then?

I’m genuinely gobsmacked by the supporters of a strictly religious to Christmas here, with respect to this office party, weeks before 25 December.
( Fundamentalist Xians? Certainly something I’ve never encountered in my oen life, anyway)

Not me. My winter festival is pagan and I’m proud of it, the patriarchal Christian church may have adopted our festivals to make themselves popular but there’s a long line of magical women who don’t forget.

To be accurate, Christmas is supposed to be a celebration of the birth of Jesus, over 2000 years ago.

The fact that it’s changed is down to people's opinions and views over the years.

You do know that many Jews, Hindus, and Muslims in GB do indeed mark Christmas, with a tree, a festive meal, and all that side of the fun?
To be in the swim with the rest of the population amongst whom they live, and to enjoy it 🎄a lot, too.

Odd. She could have said a quiet prayer herself before eating if so inclined.
Come off it @40andlovelifeand @AwfullyGoodit was inappropriate. You do realise several other major holidays happen around the same time -Hanukkah and Bodhi Day for example? I’m Catholic and I would not do this.

Bit of a weird move.

This kind of thing didn't happen 50+ years ago so why now? Especially when we are now a majority agnostic country.

The resurgence of Christianity we're experiencing in the UK at the moment is nothing to do with religion - it's all about US style right-wing politics and I absolutely detest everything about it.

No place for it in politics and certainly not needed in the workplace.

Indeed, and they probably wouldn't get their knickers in a twist over a quick prayer at a Christmas event.

The people of the UK were celebrating Yule and Winter Solstice way before the Romans invaded and forced Christianity upon us.

Many of the things we do at Xmas are from back then (lights, trees, yule logs, gifts etc).

It's been widely accepted in Theology for a long time that in all likelihood Jesus the man was born in October (from records and the description of the nativity scene in the Bible - mention of crops etc) and the adoption of the December birth was a reaction to many western populations refusing to give up their major celebrations - eg we were allowed to keep the celebration if we made it about Jesus.

A re-branding, if you will.

We lost many MANY traditions via religious rule.

The period is certainly not about Jesus for me and my family and many others.

Blessed Yule to all.x.

Opinions and views which have not needed to be ratified by any ecclesiastical nod from the Vatican nor Canterbury.

Because Christmas qua jolly, traditional festival in the depths of Winter isn’t a religious observance event at all but a secular one, as much tied to folklore as to scripture.
The point is, there’s certainly the Christmas of the spirit or soul, with the birth of the Lord and that lovely Bethlehem story woven all around it, and then there’s the Christmas linked to the longed-for solstice, seen as a metaphor if you like, but all about letting loose and celebrating in a time of darkness and close gathering.

If you believe your Lord was born on 25 December then celebrate this with good heart! For all you know your next door neighbour might be a follower of Mithras, and celebrating the same thing.

Is this the magic of Christmas? That it is so wonderfully applicable to so many deep needs in late December, for brightness, warmth, feasting and sharing, songs and old traditions?
It’s so flexible and understanding, and no amount of tinsel and bad behaviour in the streets at chucking out time can besmirch whatever perfect truth it represents for you, in your secret heart.