So a guest called me a racist yesterday,

[mechurchlady]

Strinblue you are right about the racism in Latin America. It also happens in other countries like Viet Nam where the Hmong are second class people. It is everywhere but we Americans tend to point it out more. In Egypt the Copts are treated as third class citizens because of the religion.

[Randy B]

I am at work in a radio station that is broadcasting the BBC at this moment. Just as I was reading this topic, they had a report about a guy filling in a form for some official doccument. When the person filling in the form asked "Race?" the reporter replied "Human". The official looked him up and down, and decide that he couldn't dispute that response (the fact that the reporter was double his size, may have had something to do with that response). Then the next question came out. "Religion?" The Reponse, "Jedi". A blink, and another glance, and that was what was put on the form! :D:

Randy

[darph nader]

I am at work in a radio station that is broadcasting the BBC at this moment. Just as I was reading this topic, they had a report about a guy filling in a form for some official doccument. When the person filling in the form asked "Race?" the reporter replied "Human". The official looked him up and down, and decide that he couldn't dispute that response (the fact that the reporter was double his size, may have had something to do with that response). Then the next question came out. "Religion?" The Reponse, "Jedi". A blink, and another glance, and that was what was put on the form! :D:

Randy

I remember reading/hearing during the 2000 census,something like 70,000 people in Austrailia put down Jedi Knight as their relgion.The minister was 'pissed' and threatened to put them all in jail.

[BRWombat]

I am at work in a radio station that is broadcasting the BBC at this moment. Just as I was reading this topic, they had a report about a guy filling in a form for some official doccument. When the person filling in the form asked "Race?" the reporter replied "Human". The official looked him up and down, and decide that he couldn't dispute that response (the fact that the reporter was double his size, may have had something to do with that response). Then the next question came out. "Religion?" The Reponse, "Jedi". A blink, and another glance, and that was what was put on the form! :D:

A friend of mine in college loved to answer questions like that with "Nunya." When he got the inevitable curious look, he'd explain:

"Nunya business." :D:

[mechurchlady]

I remember reading/hearing during the 2000 census,something like 70,000 people in Austrailia put down Jedi Knight as their relgion.The minister was 'pissed' and threatened to put them all in jail.

During the US 1990"'s I worked for the Census and we had coding problems. Darker Dutch and Irish put "Black Dutch" and "Black Irish" so they were listed as half black/african american and half dutch or irish. Mich is an abbreviaton for Michoacan and Michigan so tons of Mexicans go listed as being born in Michigan.

[DisneyMom]

Ummmm....One of my patients told me his religion was Wiccan....

[ktulu]

Ummmm....One of my patients told me his religion was Wiccan....

I worked with a girl who was "wiccan". We always wondered if it was against her religion to wash or brush her hair. She was, uh, not attractive...

[Kwahati]

The US military (and I would assume, by logical extension, the US government) recognizes Wicca as a legitimate religion. I know this because there was a kid in my basic training flight who was a Wiccan and he got to go to some sort of class/gathering when everyone else would go to "religious study" of their choice. Unfortunately, they didn't have any Wiccan chaplains at basic, so he didn't get to go to church (I'm ignorant of what Wicaans call their places of worship) when everyone else did, however I believe he was allowed to worship in his own way for that hour, he just had to do it in the dorm. All I know is that he was one of the nicest guys in my flight and he managed to remain nice despite all the ridiculous taunts of other guys (calling him a vampire and crap like that) at the beginning. By the end, everyone loved the guy and would do whatever we could for him to make sure he graduated with us! [At basic training, everyone is guaranteed one hour of religious study and one hour of worship per week. Yay freedom of religion!]

[leftcoaster]

The US military (and I would assume, by logical extension, the US government) recognizes Wicca as a legitimate religion.

Wasn't there some bruhaha a few months ago where the family of a soldier who was killed in Iraq wanted to put Wiccan religious symbols on his gravestone and the government initially objected. After some public outcry, I believe the government relented.

[Kwahati]

Wasn't there some bruhaha a few months ago where the family of a soldier who was killed in Iraq wanted to put Wiccan religious symbols on his gravestone and the government initially objected. After some public outcry, I believe the government relented.

Doesn't shock me. Just because the government guarantees something, doesn't mean all the people in the government are smart enough to know how to deal with that guarantee. A prime example: I'm ordained as a minister and I officiated some weddings for some people while I was stationed in Monterey, CA. The AF chaplain out there (a Christian) called me into his office, which was not all that unusual as we were pretty friendly even though his religion is not my religion, and started asking me about the weddings I had done. Basically, he was concerned that people were getting married because you get paid extra and can live off base (instead of in crappy dorms) I freely answered questions until he tried to say that I shouldn't be doing weddings. First he tried to say it was outside employment (which I was not authorized to have at the time), and then he said something about that the Air Force trusts him to do weddings so other people shouldn't be doing them around that base! I said with a wink and a smile "Sir, if I didn't know better, I'd say it sounds like you're telling me I can't freely practice my religion." That stopped it right there. Sometimes you just have to spell it out for people and they'll be like "Oh, crap! I'm in the middle of committing a major league EO [equal opportunity] violation!" Most government people know that's bad and will stop rather than get reported to an Inspector Genral. I liked Chaplain Dyson, so I really had to give him a chance to quit it rather than running to file paperwork like a whiny little jerk. (You can tell I did like him a lot because this is like 5 years ago now, and I still remember his name!)