Here's a story about the separation of church and state in the US. These cases are becoming quite common now, so I'm not going to go into too much detail - please read the article for more information:

Dad crusades against God in school

Basically the man, David Wallace Croft, an atheist, is taking his local school to court, trying to prevent prayer in school by the back door, objecting to the 'minute of silence', which is actually being used by Christians as an opportunity to pray for the allotted minute. He is well known to the school, having protested against several other religious intrusions into school life. Everyone knows that the Croft family are atheists.

The story itself, as I've hinted, isn't what got me annoyed. It wasn't until I read the final couple of paragraphs that I really wanted to shout at the ignorance of the Christian female parent described there:

Ms. McCrummen said the Crofts are often on her mind. She wrote their names on a prayer wall at church.

"I pray for him and his family every day," she said.

That offends me. It really does offend me. It is 100% obvious that the Crofts want Christianity to play no part whatsoever in their lives. None. Their views are crystal clear. And yet people like this, Christians such as Ms McCrummen, cannot resist making it known that this atheist family are being prayed for, their names in fact being written on a church wall. Do the Christians not get it? They don't want you to think of them. They don't want you to pray for them.

This may seem like a small thing, and after all, they can pray for whoever they like, but in reality it's a way for Christians to look down on atheists as if they were lesser beings, people who need help, who need God to change them into something better. The fact that she prays for Mr Croft and his family 'every day' is extremely condescending, and it really is offensive.

Do you think this woman would stop praying for the Crofts if the Crofts asked her to do so? No, of course not. She doesn't have any respect for the Crofts at all because if she did she wouldn't pray to her God every day, presumably so that he could change them somehow into Christians.

How offensive would it be if the Crofts said to Ms McCrummen, "We have a voodoo doll with your name on it and every day we stick a pin into it, so that you will lose your faith in God." Don't for one second think that the comparison is so very far-fetched, because it isn't. Of course the woman would be horrified if some non-Christian magical ritual were being performed in her name. And yet isn't that exactly what she herself is doing, using the names of the Croft family? Every day she offers up a prayer to her mystical supernatural sky-god, asking him to send down his magic and burn away the evil thoughts in their brains.

Christians should not pray for atheists, primarily because it shows an utter lack of respect for the very people they are trying to 'save'. In praying for an atheist, they are saying that the atheist is somehow damaged, wrong, faulty, in need of repair, when the truth is that atheists are perfectly happy with their lives, at least as happy as Christians... or at least they would be if Christians would stop praying for them.

If they are intent on praying for atheists, they should at least not tell the atheists they are doing it, because that is the offensive nature of the act, the message to the atheist that 'we are praying for you'. This is simply shorthand for 'you are wrong, we are right, and we want you to know it and won't stop until you change your ways'.

If someone tells you that they will pray for you, ask them this: 'If I asked you not to pray for me, would you respect my wishes?' You can judge their character, and their respect for you, and for people with different religious beliefs, from the response they give to that one simple question.