The hugging in church site!

I am probably not the best expert on etiquette, given that at times I have irritated people or made them uncomfortable! Some people (Christians of some churches, that is) are uncomfortable when I offer to hug by gesture, by having forearms open! And I still offer and they accept or decline, happy or not, comfortable or not!

However, as for to hug and to kiss, I don't normally hug people or kiss people who do not wish it! At least, what I try to do, and what I do do imperfectly, is that I offer to hug and let others decide how to respond. And I try to make a guess about their receptivity before kissing them or kissing them by hand.

As I was building this website, I had a conversation with a preacher of a church of Christ in Michigan. He told me a story of a friend of his who was in a church, and the friend observed a man who had a woman somewhat pinned against a wall. The friend rescued the woman from her predicament and asked the man about it. The man claimed he was giving her a holy kiss!