I try my best not to bring my assumptions about these things- and yes I admit I have assumptions and I work very hard to work through them - to the table. If I don't know someone's religion (and their feeling towards it - wishing me a Happy Chaunkah is a sign someone really doens't know me all that well) then I don't wish them a happy anything having to do with religion. If I don't know someone very well, I figure their religion is none of my buisness anyway, unless they've mentioned it or they're the faculty advisor of a religious group on campus or whatever.
If I do know someone, or in the process of starting to get to know someone, I really would be as unsurpised to find out they are Christian, Jewish, Muslim, Wiccan or anything else. I might guess they are more likely to be one or another based on name or race or location or whatever, but I won't let those statistical liklihoods get in my way of being open to whatever turns out to be true on the individual level. Or at least if I do let it get in the way, I consider that a failure on my part.
And if someone tells me something about themselves I didn't know, I do my best not to act suprised about it unless I know them pretty well and am mostly suprised that I hadn't heard that fact about them before, or that it goes counter to other things about them.
By the way, I would prefer, as a person with a disability, to not be treated the same as "normals." Certainly I'd like the same level of respect they get. But much of the time, their needs and mine are very different. For example, they can climb stairs and handwrite essay exams.
no subject
If I do know someone, or in the process of starting to get to know someone, I really would be as unsurpised to find out they are Christian, Jewish, Muslim, Wiccan or anything else. I might guess they are more likely to be one or another based on name or race or location or whatever, but I won't let those statistical liklihoods get in my way of being open to whatever turns out to be true on the individual level. Or at least if I do let it get in the way, I consider that a failure on my part.
And if someone tells me something about themselves I didn't know, I do my best not to act suprised about it unless I know them pretty well and am mostly suprised that I hadn't heard that fact about them before, or that it goes counter to other things about them.
By the way, I would prefer, as a person with a disability, to not be treated the same as "normals." Certainly I'd like the same level of respect they get. But much of the time, their needs and mine are very different. For example, they can climb stairs and handwrite essay exams.