Ugh yes. Some guy at my school asked he he could pray for me. Sure, whatever. Then he put his hand over my eyes and “commanded god” to “lift this curse”! WTH. He kept repeating his commands to god then stopped and asked if i was better. He was actually disappointed when I said no. I’m an atheist, but I’m pretty sure that people are supposed to “command” god

I am religious and have had people want to and have prayed over me, which felt weird because then I had a bunch of peoples hands on me and was like ooooo was not expecting this, and in my denomination you just don’t do that.

Have you thought about trying to play it back on them and respond with something like my blindness is a blessing not a curse. Regardless of how you feel maybe something like that would get you off their case?

I believe most people truly have good intentions but there are some wack-a-doodles out there, and I think they see blindness as something of a fatal disease.

I nip this in the bud as fast as possible, I explain to those that want to "lay" hands on or pray for me that I am pagan and the my disability is my "cross" to bear as a test to get into what I believe is an afterlife, or I look at them and in the gruffest voice I can muster say "yeah dont touch me"

I have a friend who was randomly circled around during a normal church service. She got so flustered that she popped out both of her prosthetic eyes and said, “see! You can’t fix it!” 😂

This doesn't happen much anymore, but I usually just humour them if it does. At worst it's not going to harm anything, and trying to have a logical conversation with these types of people is less useful than talking to a rock, so they'll go away after 5 minutes. I'm not concerned about people touching me, though, so that's a big part of it. If they want to waste their time trying to convert, that's up to them. I can get out of it easily by explaining that I've got somewhere to go and I'm already late, and that usually works. And the way I figure is if they put their hands on me and I don't like it, well I know where they are and I can more easily do something about it. I can think of worse things than this, for sure. I'd rather some well-meaning person wish me to have a simpler existence, than idiots asking the same stupid questions about blindness in general, or some jerk trying to feed my guide dog random food.

I as someone younger was asked if I was VI and then when replied in the affirmative that god must have passed me over when he was giving out good eyesight. Religion actively breeds a form of mental illness that needs to be avoided/averted at all costs for the well being of self.

As one of my friends pointed out - to many religious people, a blind person is a Bible character come to life! Every person who has grown up in church has heard the story of Jesus healing the blind man by putting mud on his eyes. So when they see a blind person as an adult, it’s like meeting one of their childhood characters!

It annoys the hell out of me when people stop me and my boyfriend on the street so they can pray over his eyes. We have more important stuff to do than stand there and let them relive their childhood memories.

I'm sighted (my son is legally blind and will have no usable vision which is why I follow this sub). I'm a Christian, but even I find what happened to you appalling.

While Christians are compelled by their beliefs to share the Gospel, the Bible quotes Jesus himself telling the Disciples that if their message isn't well received, to stop and move on. This lady is clearly forgetting that piece of Scripture.

As for evolution, I absolutely know it's true. I mean, we've got tons of evidence of it, and there's even Scripture that debates the seven 24-hour periods of Creation. Meaning, that the idea like "Old Earth Creationism" (believing that the world is millions of years old but still created under the direction of God) makes sense according to what the Bible says. I don't understand why so many Christians seem to be afraid of science. I certainly am not.

Some people in my church, or my younger son's preschool which is connected to a different church, want to pray for my son's eyes. I usually just shrug it off. I don't understand how someone who claims to believe a Bible that says we are "fearfully and wonderfully made" would try to pray away a certain aspect of how someone was born.

Anyways, I'm really sorry for your experiences and please know that the zealots you've encountered (because you hit the nail on the head with that word) aren't representative of what the Bible actually teaches.

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Oh boy! I've got opinions! I can't identify from the blindness perspective, but I see people do these types of things to my students all the time. This coupled with the fact that I raise guide dog puppies means I get my fair share of unwanted conversations, albeit in a different context. I've got two stories that help shape my perspective on the matter.
The first is when I was out at the mall with a 12 year old student who had recently lost a lot of vision. We finally had to force the issue of cane use because he wasn't safe or independent without it. So here we are in public with his cane and he's kind of having a good time. We're dropping into the Apple store when a total stranger stops ME to ask, "Excuse me. Is that boy with the stick blind?" I responded that he was visually impaired and tried to scoot away, but not before this man could say, "Oh. That's so sad. I'll pray for him." Fuck that guy! This kid was feeling very small and insecure and awful about his change in vision. I've worked so hard to help him accept himself, and here is this asshole telling my student that it's sad that he exists. My personal default is to be nice, but that doesn't mean my student has to pick that same default. I wish he would have yelled at this guy, or told him off. That guy hurt my student more than he ever could have realized by trying to be sensitive.
The second student was an adult female adjusting to vision loss with all the strength of a tiger. She shared with me an instance in which she was in a not great part of town with her cane and she could hear someone following her. She called out, but no one responded. They continued to follow her. Finally she yelled aggressively as she whipped around, swinging her cane wide. They stopped following her. She felt guilty about doing this, and was asking for feedback.
I think neither student was wrong. We can only react to unwanted interactions in the way which works best for us. I don't think rudeness should be off the table if someone is not listening to you when you want to be left alone. Sometimes it ends the conversation more quickly.

All you simply have to tell these people is something like this

"If your God was real, we wouldn't be here doing this. Good day."

I've had numerous occasions when out with my cane that a stranger has approached and asked if they can pray for me. The weirdest was on the train, and a person gave me a lecture about how "If I accept god then he will give me my vision back."

Fellow Atheist here! There used to be a guy here in San Francisco that would stand in one of the busiest places downtown spinning a large, neon green sign that said "Jesus loves you." I'd ignore him or roll my eyes when I had to walk past him when I had vision. Then, after going blind, any time I'd be in that same area with my sighted partner, he'd run over to us just to say "Jesus loves you!" After hearing it the first time, I got super annoyed but we just kept walking away. The next time we were in the area a few weeks later, the same exact thing happened. He ran over, told me Jesus loved me, and this time I yelled back "If he did I wouldn't be fucking blind!" That shut him up and we continued on our merry way. It's hapened once or twice since, same place, same guy, but that retort just comes out naturally every time I hear him or any other religious nut say something like that to me.

Never! And I live in a Muslim country.

I just cut them short, religious nuts or whoever they may be, with:
Me: "are you selling something!?"

Them: "no!"

Me: "sounds like you're selling something. I'm not interested"

I move on.

I grew up in a rural part of the country and used to get this all the time. People would stop me on the street to pray for me or call just ... walking inspirational. I've had so many think it was okay to say that seeing me was a blessing or that I was an angel, when they knew nothing about me as a person. It is, no hyperbole, one of the worst parts of being blind in my experience.. I already dislike talking to people I don't know. Having people foist their religious interpretations on me always makes me uncomfortable, and there really isn't any response that allows you to assert that discomfort without seeming like an asshole to them.

Yes and No. I tend to have “resting bitch face” so don’t get bothered too much, but I actually have had good luck ignoring them or simply answering in one word sentences. “Would you like a CD?” “No.” “May I pray over you?” “No.” “Have you heard the gospel of Jesus?” “Yes.”

For whatever reason people don’t know how to respond when given such a response and they tend to leave me alone. I only pretend to ignore them if I’m with a friend who was able to give me a heads up.

I've sat through neumourus bus rides and had several people try to convert me (i'm agnostic but open to everyones opinions), was told my vision impairment is a curse and that I was an inspiration to even be doing what I'm doing (going to school is not a big deal.... thanks haha). Many times I just nod and thank them for their kind thoughts/gestures

I'm going to keep my comment fairly brief, as I'm afraid I'll be tempted to go on a rant that would offend some. Long story short, I've been there, done that and got the t-shirt to back it up. I've actually had to call the cops to arrest an overly aggressive religious zealot who refused to respect my personal space. Well... when I've repeatedly asked you not to touch me, and you lay your hands on me in a misguided attempt to get me to pray with you, I consider that assault. Not surprisingly, the arresting officers backed me up on that. I won't bore the rest of you with my views on religion, but I did want to share my experience dealing with religious zealots with you. Some might gasp, get angry and swear revenge, but that incident happened many years ago when I was still in high school.

Hi. Catholic Christian here. I have been a recipient of such things for years, but not as intense as others have experienced. I think that the reason why people are so insistent on the conversion side of things is because they simply do not want you to go to Hell. Additionally, people may be insistent on healing your blindness because a large portion of Jesus’s work in the Bible consisted of healing people of various ailments, and they then want to spread the faith so that you could potentially be healed. I experience joy in the practicing my faith as a Catholic Christian. However, I completely understand how many evangelization tactics are extremely problematic.

I understand my blindness as another cross to carry that I can use to help inspire others. Many people in the faith community do not entirely grasp this.

Everyone has their own beliefs, and I respect that.

Partner and I do not go out for Sunday brunch for this reason. They want to avoid after church goers as much as possible because people have tried to pray over them, touch their eyes, etc. in the past. We've also gotten some "god bless you"s while we're out and about, as if us going out together is some miracle. (It's a miracle that they've been tolerating my shit this long tbh.)

I am a christian, very much so. And I don’t mind if people pray for me. I am usually too busy to stay and pray for a long time but for sure it’s a nice gesture they don’t mean any harm. So I don’t mind. I don’t usually resist but it hasn’t happened in a while the last time someone just prayed out loudly when I passed him but didn’t touch me. I was a little weirded out but realized should have been more appreciative. God does actually work wonderous miracles.

Hahah! This happened to me a few months ago in San Diego. These chicks approach me and ask if they can pray for me, one in particular was pretty fucking hot. So they proceed to literally put their hands on me and do some kind of silent prayer. I grab the hot chick's hand and touch her up a little, she doesn't pull away or say shit. What an incredible "prayer" service! :-D

Also this lasted almost 10 minutes.

Why do you let someone else control your moods? I just shrug it off and move on. For most people, being blind or VI is unimaginable. I appreciate that these people seem to care. I am polite and give them a simple, “No thank you” and continue on my way.