A few things that I wish that some Christians would recognise: A rant about Christian Privilege

Hey folks.

We all know at least some people that are in some way religious. Hell, in many respects, I also fall into the “religious” category. Now, I want it understood that I have no issue with a lot of religious people in general. I don’t have a problem with most Christians. That being said, we all know a few people that are less defined by their character as an individual and more defined by their religion. It’s to them that I’m writing this, although feel free to read along as well.

A while ago I took part in a discussion about the idea of freedom of worship. When I pointed out that all this meant was that people not of Christian faith might be afforded SOME of the rights that people accept as a given for Christians and those others that they see as Christians, I got blasted.

Everything from: There are people that want Christians DEAD!

to: WE USE TO BE THE MAJORITY! (I know that the person meant “used to be”)

to: They’re trying to take away Christmas! You can’t even say “Merry Christmas” anymore!

It’s because of them that I’ve written this. It’s a very short list of things that I wish Christians would understand about a few things, plus my own thoughts on each one.

So here it is:

1, If you are able to read this in your native language, the congratulations! You’re living in a nation where the majority is Christian. This means that everyone else would appreciate it if you cut out the “persecuted minority” bullshit.

The idea that Christians are somehow a minority is one that needs to be pointed and laughed at. Hard. Christianity is the religion of choice for 33% of the world’s population. That’s pretty much a third of everybody on Earth. While the number is slowly getting smaller, it is still the largest religion on Earth. In the case of the US of A, the percentage of Christians is somewhere around 78% of  the population if you’re combining Protestant and Catholic along with offshoots of these two such as the Jehovah’s Witnesses and the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. While there are different denominations all over the place, they are all Christians. Now if you’re going to refer to yourself as a religious minority, then the best start would be to not be part of the largest religion on Earth.

While a few folks might argue that there are plenty of people that “aren’t real Christians” for one reason or another, the fact that Christianity is the default setting should be a pretty big sign that just maybe, you might have a privileged position. Whether they count as Christian to you or not, they made the choice to call themselves Christian. Even if they aren’t true believers, if their life is made easier by appearing to be at least nominally Christian, then the evidence of privilege is right there.

I mentioned denominations earlier which brings another gripe to the table. If you’re wanting to claim that one lone group isn’t a representative of your religion, then it would help if you didn’t do exactly the same thing to every other faith that you come across. One bunch of terrorists crashing planes into buildings are unlikely AT BEST to represent your Muslim next-door neighbours.

Also folks, as an aside, if you’re a Christian that wears a poly cotton blend, then you REALLY can’t say a word about anyone of any faith not following their particular holy book to the letter.

2, Christmas isn’t being taken away from you when people say “Happy Holidays”. The whole Happy Holidays thing started long before the people whining about this were born, so I doubt that an attempt to take away Christmas is being made.

A lot of folks have claimed that “Happy Holidays”  is something that has popped up recently to replace “Merry Christmas.” Ladies and gents, I call bullshit. It was used commonly as far back as at least the 1890’s and became rather common in the American public sphere in the 1950’s as it recognised all of the holidays between Thanksgiving (4th Thursday in November) and Epiphany (6th January).

While yes, it can also be used to express a religiously non-specific wish of goodwill for the “Christmas season,” the fact that there are Christians demanding that they be wished a “Merry Christmas” because it’s more Christian says a lot. The “they’re trying to steal Christmas” horseshit is  something that seems to pop up every year, usually started by folks that have a tendency to claim that they’re all for equal rights, yet don’t seem to get that this means that they have to lose some of their privileges that they’re not even aware they have. Just because symbols of your religious holidays aren’t as prominent as they used to be doesn’t mean that your rights are being infringed upon in any way, shape or form. It just means that you’ll have to acknowledge that some folks aren’t Christian.

3,  Atheists are not being any more intolerant of religious people than any other religious people are of each other. To claim atheism is a religion is to miss the basic point of atheism. Atheism is one idea and that’s it. No organised structure, no religion, just one idea.

Religious people are just as intolerant of each other as some non-religious are of them. The difference between an atheist and a theist is that of whether or not a person accepts the existence of god(s) and that’s it. It is just one on the grand scale of opinions that think that every other opinion in the religious/spiritual arena is wrong.

While there might be points where people of different religious viewpoints agree on things, each religious person is part of the religion that they belong to because on some level, they believe it’s correct and the people that disagree are incorrect. They will also act in accordance with their beliefs to a lesser or greater extent, so telling atheists that they can’t do the same is a special kind of hypocrisy.

4, The phrase “Christian Morals” shouldn’t even exist.

I’ve heard it stated that morality is informed by a creator.

No. It really isn’t.

Morality is a simple concept that is based around a few key ideas, the primary of which is this: If you don’t like something being done to you, your family, friends or your stuff, then don’t do it to other people, their family, their friends or their stuff. It’s not that difficult an idea to grasp. It’s also logical enough that it can be followed without a religion to give you the go-ahead. While there are rules within Christianity that are indeed moral, this doesn’t mean that all of the rules of Christianity are going to be considered moral. Nor should ideas that have been around for centuries before thrown into some Christian writings be considered “Christian morals”.

There are also other ideas that are thrown in with the concept of “Christian Morals” that are based around a millennia old worldview that equates women with property, children as non-entities and concepts of right and wrong based around the whims of a higher power. Any morality that is based on pleasing a higher power is simply pandering to the ego of a boss. Anyone that equates that being the highest form of morality strikes me as being in need of therapy.

5, Christianity has NEVER had a monopoly on marriage.

Marriage as a rite predates recorded history and sure as hell didn’t originate with Christianity. There are marriage rites that predate Judaism and Christianity by a VERY long time so this idea that marriage is primarily a Christian rite needs to be booted, along with telling folks who they can and can’t marry based on gender, sexual preferences, etc… While it might be against your religion, other people’s marriages don’t affect you personally unless you’re the priest that’s supposed to perform the ceremony. In that case, you have the right to say no.

Every culture on earth had a marriage ritual of one form or another and those folks telling you that marriage has always been about “continuing the species” are folks that I call bullshit on loudly and proudly. Marriage began as a way to sort out property. While children are a way to keep stuff in the family, they are not the sole reason folks got married. At best, kids were a strategic move to stop people from raiding your stuff once you were dead.

While redefining marriage might terrify some “traditionalists,” until I see the livestock offered as dowry between bogan families then I call bullshit on the excuse of “not wanting to redefine marriage”. Marriage has already been redefined more times than we can count, so if you’re gonna gripe about that, sorry folks, that ship has sailed. While I’m talking about the “redefining marriage” thing, I’d also like to point out that there are some cultures that did indeed practice same sex marriage before Christianity did that whole redefining thing that they’re so enthusiastic to demand that nobody else do. The Native Americans are one example of a pre-existent marriage rite, seeing their same-sex attracted people as sacred and referring to them as “two-spirits”.

The demand that everybody toe the line in regard to what marriage is allowed to be and not be according to the Bible is a perfect example of the privilege that Christians don’t even realise they have, or worse, see but accept as the result of being one of  “the Chosen of God”. For another example of privilege that you’d probably not heard about, during the Haiti floods and beyond, practitioners of Vodou were being denied food by Christian disaster relief workers unless they gave up Vodou and accepted Christianity. The Christians believed it was their responsibility to “save souls” and felt no major qualms about damning anybody that held onto their beliefs rather than become Christians. Not only was this something that barely got mentioned, even though it was a sickening abuse of power, but it reeks of Christian privilege. Should these people be held accountable for their actions, it will be them put on trial and not their church, denomination or religion. Were it Muslims doing the same thing, the outcry would be tremendous. No other religion would have a blind eye turned should they try to pull that kind of bullshit.

Here’s a few other examples of the kind of privilege that Christians enjoy:

If a religious representative is to be found in an Australian PUBLIC school, it will be a Christian chaplain. These chaplains are religious representatives paid for by the Australian government, which still likes to pretend that it in no way whatsoever endorses one religion over another. Instead of putting trained counsellors into high schools the Australian government has allowed church representatives into schools to act as moral guidance. Way to send the message that only “nice Christian folk” can be moral authorities.

When a billboard shows an openly Christian message, there is no problem. Should a group of atheists get together and organise an atheistic message on a billboard, there will be vandalism or protests about the billboard being bigoted against religion (despite the fact that any religious billboard will automatically be bigoted against almost every other religious viewpoint!).

A short and simple question: When was the last time that a person lost their job because they were a Christian? Employees have lost their jobs for wearing anything from pentagrams to Stars of David, but when was the last time that someone lost their job due to a supervisor’s thinly veiled dislike of the fact that they’re a crucifix-sporting Christian?

I’ve heard the “Oh so oppressed” rant from a few different Christian groups now, so I’d like to rebut with this:

When you are living in a nation that will hold the fact that you are a Christian against you in a court of law, you might have a point.

When you are living in a nation where the fact that you are a Christian will weigh negatively on whether or not your children will be taken away from you, you might have a point.

When you are looked at incredulously when asking for a Bible to swear on in a court of law, you might have a point.

Until then, just… stop it.

Southern Howler, signing out.

~ by southernhowler on March 25, 2013.