Ministers and rabbis say hand-holding during grace at family meals is on the rise. Miss Manners, the etiquette guru, addressed the issue of hand-holding in church in a column last year. Her advice to those uncomfortable with the practice: "Put both your hands behind your back and give your unknown neighbor a regretful little shake of the head, accompanied by a friendly look, to indicate that it is nothing personal."

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Hands can reach out to the unwilling quite unexpectedly. A couple of years ago, recalls Richard Diamond, an office worker in Washington, a friend invited him to dinner at his home. Just after sitting down at the small, square table, the friend and his wife each seized one of Mr. Diamond's hands before his friend said the blessing.

Afterward, Mr. Diamond says, he took his friend aside, and asked, "What's with the hand-holding?" In subsequent meals at the couple's home, everyone kept his hands to himself. Mr. Diamond says hand-holding represents "phony pop culture, everything that's bad about sitcoms."

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Rabbi Sue Anne Wasserman of the Union of American Hebrew Congregations says some synagogues embrace hand-holding, with complicated results. "There are people who position themselves in places where they don't have to hold hands," she says. "They just stand in a corner, where they're not close to people."

On religious Web forums, such as a Roman Catholic bulletin board at greenspun.com, debate rages over whether to hold hands in certain parts of the services, such as the Lord's Prayer. The official stance: The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops prefers that worshipers raise their open hands in a position known as orans rather than hold hands. "The Lord's Prayer is a prayer to the Father and not primarily an expression of community and fellowship," the bishops write.