I play in a community orchestra. When we have performances, we usually have from 55-60 people playing. Of that sixty, 3 are Seventh-Day Adventists (SDA). I was at the board meeting Monday night and I suggested we would be better off with a Friday night concert than on a Tuesday this fall. As you can guess, I was told I was inconsiderate of the SDA's. We have not had a Friday nor a Saturday performance in 6 years because of these 3 folks. What about the other 57 people and people in the community? We have to always bend to their religious demands. Could they not play a Friday night once in a great while? I guess not. One of the SDA's was at the board meeting and had a sh*t eating grin on his face when he got his way as my suggestion was turned down. We frequently have additional rehearsals on Sundays. No one complains about those practice days.

Today I was cleaning the garage and two older ladies walked into the garage. They spooked me for a moment as I was listening to NPR and I did not see them walk in. One of the ladies put her hand out with a tract stating, "This publication has been given to millions of people around the world." I told them I was not interested. They too had these sh*t eating grins as they walked away stating how beautiful my Japanese maple was and they really enjoyed looking at it. The phony smiles and sing song voices made me cringe. I was not rude BTW. I was also wearing a blood donor t-shirt. :-)

This really bothers me. If you ask me, the SDAs are the ones being inconsiderate. Fine...bring up their concerns if a discussion is being had about the best dates...but don't consider yourselves and your practices to me any more important than anyone else's and be gracious when it is your turn to compromise.

Even when I was TBM I was very uncomfortable expecting others in the community to always conform to our beliefs. For instance, Why should we expect to take up a space on a sports team when we know from the beginning we will refuse to support the team during the playoffs and games are on Sunday? Why is supporting a community event so offensive to God??

I was taught that people really admired us for it.

I don't think most of them did.

SG

I kid (sort of). It's time for democracy and not consensus if three people always dictate the schedule of a full orchestra.

Maybe they should go hang with the Salvation Army.

Cool coincidence with the shirt.

So Friday is their holy day, or what?

It's not Seventh Day Adventists that have a problem with blood transfusions. They even have their own blood banks. You're thinking of Jehovah's Witnesses.

Sorry. Re-read your story and I see you weren't referring to the SDA folks.

I once worked at a school with about 80 teachers, secretaries, and aids who always wanted to have staff parties on Saturday evenings. We couldn't because of one teacher being SDA. Seemed unfair to base these events on the religious preference of one person when the rest of us had conflicting family needs to the no-Saturday rule, and we had health, and personal needs of our own.

Your report of the JW's fake smiles and over the top tree compliments made me cringe. Ugh.

Thankfully, now that the Mormons have given up on me, we almost never have religious types showing up at our house. The last time was several years ago and I hope they were the last. Fortunately, we live on an out of the way tiny private road that requires navigating a winding mountain-type narrow road and a hairpin turnoff. That discourages all but the most motivated visitors and vendors.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 08/23/2014 01:29PM by Cheryl.

They can stay behind and watch the office while the rest of us enjoy our holiday extended luncheons. As we leave, they look at us as worldly heathens... and I snicker as they whitewash the fence.