With all due respect to people’s religions, it irks me when politicians tell me that I need to pray. I’m not religious, and we are supposedly in a country that values separation of church and state. Yet every time some catastrophe happens, the first thing politicians tell us is that we need to pray. Not “pray if you’re religious”, but “we need to pray”. While I don’t mind if people want to pray, I don’t appreciate politicians telling me that I need to become religious.
It’s not a big deal, it just irks me. I realize I’m probably in an extreme minority.
The problem is, “Pray if you’re religious”, might not play well to the Bible belt, so they just say “pray”. They probably figure that most people won’t take it as them saying you need to become religious.