When I temp I often don't mention that I am a pastor, one never knows what someones responce will be. Today, the supervisor of the project I was working on before beginning conducted a quasi interview, where not only she told me what I was going to be doing but told me about herself, and asked me not only what sort of office work I had done but also about myself. So, I ended up telling her I was a pastor. I got the responce that I am still not sure how to respond to it. She proceeded to tell me she was raised catholic, but didn't attend church anymore even though she knows she shoul. but she said she believes in God, and prays etc. On a certain level I understand this responce on another it puzzels me because I can't quite figure out why saying I am a Pastor would elicit this sort of confession. I sort of want to say, really I don't care if you attend church or not. I have no investment in your attending church, and you could have said nothing and I wouldn't have known.
I also find it the most iritating responce. I am not sure why, I think in part because I don't know what to do with it.
Hmm, interesting. My first reaction would be guilt was her motivation for such a confession. Maybe she felt/feels really badly about not attending church for a while or not having a concrete belief.
ReplyDeleteMaybe she was uncomfortable based on her own assumptions of what a Pastor is? Maybe she was concerned of what you thought of her in a religious sense since you are a Pastor?
Just off the cuff, first thoughts on why this could have happened. Do you think you'd ask her about it?
tanyad
Amongst people of a certain generation or people who don't run around in the same artsy circles as I, I have often found when I tell them I teach English for a living, they say something like, "Oh, I'll have to watch what I say," implying that I correct people's spoken grammar, or "I always had a hard time in English class" or "I hated English in school."
ReplyDeleteI think it's a response not every career or line of work elicits, but certain ones do.
I'm not sure what to make of the responses I get, nor do I have much advice for you, honestly.
It's kind of a baffling response, the confession of being a "bad church-goer", and depending on the content or nature of the response can even be somewhat offensive.
If it irritates you, don't feel bad; people are irritating sometimes. They can't help it.
It's an inappropriate imposition, actually, like that woman at my office who cries at her desk. While, humanly, I am sorry for her, in an office setting she is behaving entirely inappropriately. I do not appreciate the imposition - she is forcing me to deal with her raw emotions, and baby, I didn't sign up for that in my employment contract!
ReplyDelete(Mind you, she *does* cry every day. She's really irritating.)
But most of all - you dislike being put on the spot - and I think that's most of what's going on. People who give you that response expect you to respond back, with something substantive for them - and again, you didn't sign up for that.
Pastoring is like that, though, sometimes, I think. Always on call.
Tanyad,
ReplyDeleteYa I think one or all of what you mention could be going on.
It's not so much that I can't explain why someone would react this way, as much as feeling that this sort of responce (I get this not infrequently when I metion being a pastor in these settings)is puzzeling because unless I take a posture that does not fit my sense of being a pastor there is no responce. In a sense it becomes a meaningless intereaction.
Unlike a hostile or curious responce which at least seems meaningful to me. I guess I don't feel this sort of communication in responce to saying I am a pastor actually is dialogue I become a miror in a sense.
But really I also find it slightly amusing (as well as irritating) because of the enormous amount of assumptions made and I wonder if the person really means to reveal as much as they do in that instance.