DEAR MISS MANNERS: I live in the South, where it is apparently acceptable behavior to ask someone on even the slightest acquaintance what church they attend.
Miss Manners, I do not attend church in the traditional sense. I follow an Earth-based spiritual path that, in centuries previous, led to followers being hanged, burned at the stake and drowned.
I do not wish to impart this information to those asking me the above question. I have not been able to formulate an acceptable answer. What would Miss Manners suggest?
GENTLE READER: Well, that description does sound like an effective conversation-stopper, but Miss Manners agrees that it is just as well not to use it. That phrase about “not in the traditional sense” is a lot better, but it would be good to turn the question around and allow the questioner to extol the virtues of his or her church.
(Please send your questions to Miss Manners at her website, www.missmanners.com; to her email, dearmissmanners@gmail.com; or through postal mail to Miss Manners, Andrews McMeel Syndication, 1130 Walnut St., Kansas City, MO 64106.)