Tekla, it apparently wasn't an invitation; it was an imposition. And Sigma isn't saying s/he actually IS a Taoist; s/he's planning to PROFESS Taoism the next time something like this happens.
And for the record, yeah, I feel that it's extremely rude of people to grab me or hug me when they aren't on touching terms with me. IMHO, just grabbing people is an imposition. I mean, even with a handshake, virtually everyone OFFERS the hand and doesn't simply grab yours. Simply grabbing negates the original point of the exercise, which was to indicate one's status as a non-threat.
I've been told that when I'm in someone else's home, the polite thing for ME to do is just go along with whatever prayer or prandial ritual the other person practices.
I have very mixed feelings about this; as an atheist, if I invite someone into my own home, I don't automatically expect them NOT to pray before they eat, and I don't tell them that they can't pray. I feel that such an expectation is rude and presumptuous, so I try to anticipate that other people will have practices that are different to mine. As long as they don't try to rope me into those practices, we can get along.
When I'm in public or in my own home, I'm told, it's okay to decline the prayer. Well, gee, thanks. Mighty big of you.
The thing is, I've found that a lot of theists (not all by any means) ASSUME that everyone else is into prayer and don't even think about the possibility that someone else might not want to pray. And when the non-practitioner declines, no matter how politely, there's a sh*tstorm of disapproval.
It's a tough problem, but I think the bottom line is that people should be aware that we are not all alike--and I feel that we shouldn't try to force our practices on others or give them a hard time when they don't participate in someone else's religious ritual.
Just treat religious practices as if they were sex acts!!!!!!!! (Well, that might not work ALL the time...)
