azulmagia
Insofar as it implies "I'm going to heaven, you're going to hell" of course it's offensive.
Ah, right, right, this! It's an implication, and further things. Um... as I mentioned in my edit, with the thing about race issues, it's a lot about the implied things that the speaker may not necessarily feel, but the
listener certainly feels. And it emphasizes the history between the two cultures, and how one culture still may feel about the other. And
certainly emphasizes how the other culture still feels about that first culture.
"I'll pray for you" feels, to non-Christians, like it's saying "We killed nonbelievers in the past, we persecuted, tortured, and murdered our own people who we
suspected might be nonbelievers, we've caused them to become social pariahs because they disagreed with our church's tactics, we've moved into the new world searching for religious freedom then denied it to others, we built a country on religious freedom and now still assume it's a Christian nation, we won't let people get married, no matter what
their beliefs may be, and in what religion they may be marrying, because we think marriage is only applicable to our own religion. But yeah, sure, we'll take the high road on this one. I hope you come to your senses and join us in the future."
Not that they
are saying all of that, of course. For what it's worth, they could be some of those very kind Christians who actually follow what Jesus said, they love their neighbors, they care about those who need help, no matter where they come from or what they believe... but
those words do not express it as such, when dealing with someone who does not believe, and the
fact that they don't believe. It implies superiority over them, and from what I understand of the
actual principles claimed by the religion... that's just not Christian.