If I am sitting at the dinner table and someone says "Shall we say grace?", I almost allways say "grace" and then start eating.

But I have a friend who does. :P

If you did that at my house you wouldn't finish eating.

I would, I would just be shoving whatever I could into my pockets and into my mouth while being pushed out the door. But to be truthful, I would not do that at anyone else's dinner table, only at my family's dinner table. My family (both of propagation and of origin) does not regularly pray, but occasionally, someone decides they want to pray at my table. This past Easter, we had dinner at my dad's and my sister, who is not a devout, practicing Christian, but who is a "holiday Christian" -- one who chooses to observe religious practices on holidays -- suggested saying grace. I was the only one who responded at all. Everyone else just ignored her (or rolled their eyes). Lots of love and respect there, I know, but for now we won't go there.

I will say, nic, and this is become I would love to eat at your house if I am ever in the area, that I would at least respect the traditions of your household with respectful silence and close my eyes meditatively, not praying to a creator, but reflecting on the gratitude I would have for being invited to your table and for being alive and conscious aware of the time spent with you and yours. I do value my friends and respect my friends' traditions if they present opportunities for fostering good will and strengthening friendship.

I would be tempted to say "no". But it depends on the situation. If it is Passover sedar with my family, we will not only say the grace before the meal, but the hours of long, ritualistic stuff before the meal, including the ritualistic eating and drinking and washing of hands and stealing of the afikomen to have it ransomed off later (a tradition which while still cool is sadly being watered down).

I am okay with grace before the meal on Passover for two reasons, one I don't actively say it as I am not leading the Sedar and I choose to quietly not say "amen". And also, I know I have signed up for a partially religious ritual when I going to a sedar.

Under normal circumstances, it wouldn't come up. If it did, I would sit quietly and wait for people to finish the grace. I wouldn't expect to participate as I expect people to have decent manners and the correct response to someone else's religious ritual is to be quiet and respectful, but to not participate, and I expect people to know this and accept my behavior on those terms.

In the past, when I was younger, I handled things more poorly and went along with such things, but the situation was so miserable anyway that that is the least of my regrets. It's funny the way the worst care that has ever been taken of me when I was a child was done within a system that always said grace before the meals. I doubt there is really any correlation there in general, but little things like that sometimes make me wonder.

I usually just roll my eyes, either inwardly or outwardly, and refuse to say "Amen."

I just sit by and wait respectfully.

@devnull we don't say grace in my house... but I was in a bad mood and your claim pissed me off. There's too much rudeness in physical society and not enough in virtual society. Maybe the net is dominated by the middle classes or something.

@rachel I think there's something in that as well. It's just unthinking and stupid. But those are unthinking and stupid *people*, nothing more.

i would if i had people around me doing attacking me with such things ^^