My sympathies to the nurse in question. You could argue that she should have waited to be invited to pray, that she had to follow an anal code of conduct etc., etc., ......
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.. or you could argue that she was trying to be kind, trying to offer something she believed worthwhile and beneficial and was quite ready to desist when the patient said 'no'. She didn't sound to me like she was forcing anything on anyone.

Wait for the day when a waiter is sacked for recommending the peanut-ice cream without realizing the customer suffers from a peanut allergy. The customer could make a big deal of it, act all offended (!) that the possibility of their having a peanut allergy was taken into consideration, somehow, by being asked about without being asked about it so nobody would get offended... give me a break! Or they could simply say, 'no thanks' and leave it at that.


Last year my wife and I lost a child. When I went to collect her at the hospital, the taxi driver asked 'where to?' and I said 'maternity' (which was correct). "Oh! Congratulations! A girl or a boy?" he asked......

Now I could have got all offended at his lack of forethought and tact and reported him to the taxi base, messing up his life while hardly enriching my own either. Then the taxi base would probably have brought in 'new guidelines' informing staff / drivers not to ask any 'personal' questions of customers, thereby forever more ruling out any social chit chat and turing them into driving automatons like in Total Recall.

But I realized he was pleased for me, not realizing the whole story, and was just trying to be nice / friendly. So instead I just said "well, it's early days yet, and she's just had some tests" (which was more-or-less true) thereby saving him any embarrassment for asking an awkward question (it would have been unrealistic to lie outright and say we had a baby, as I would probably have been unable to fake sufficient joy at that moment). So that was that and he went on, none the wiser. That has always been my policy.

What would it have accomplished to put him on the spot and make him feel awkward? Would it have made my pain any less? I don't think so, probably the opposite. To me it seems there is something deeply uncharitable in the PC world, a readiness to take offence even when none is intended. A world where the spirit of genuine charity is replaced by hundreds of itsy-bitsy laws. Ok, I'm not saying PC hasn't helped erased some unworthy behaviour, such as racist terms etc., but it should have quit while it was ahead. Harsh? I just think it goes too far sometimes.