Christian Privilege - Tumblr Posts
I got me some discourse to write. Let's talk about Christian privilege. When Christian privilege is brought up in most activist circles, it's talked about like a monolith. Unlike most of the intersectional work that goes into fleshing out white privilege and how it intersects with gender and class, that same careful analysis is rarely given to Christian privilege. Why? That's a question I can't answer. However: 1) #ThingsOnlyChristianWomenHear is highlighting how, although women still benefit from Christian privilege, their gender is much more devalued in a (fundamentalist) Christian context than it likely would be without the impact of Christianity. (Interestingly, it's also highlighting a lot of the Western roots of misogyny.) 2) Persecuted Christians do exist, just not in the U.S. (or most of the Western world) There are countries in the world in which being Christian is not a privilege at all and can result in loss of life and limb (e.g., Iran). So thinking about Christian privilege, or any type of privilege or oppression, requires a transnational lens to grasp the nuances it takes in other societies (and focusing just on the U.S. is itself revelatory of immense privilege). 3) BUT, with that being said, there are those who will use the above two points to try to argue that Christian privilege does not exist in a U.S. context. And that is demonstrably false. When being a good Christian is seen as a positive leadership quality, when revival meetings on college campuses can go on without interruption whereas Muslim students have to hide in staircases with their prayer mats, when evangelical ideology still plays a huge role in the direction of our nation's legislation and politics, when America is called a "Christian nation," all while being a good Hindu or good Pagan is viewed with suspicion and laughed to the edge of the ocean and people are praised who subject gay couples to harassment for simply ordering a wedding cake, one cannot tell me that no Christian privilege exists on our shores. -over and out-
I don't understand how some Christians genuinely believe they're oppressed or persecuted for being Christians. Yeah some select people are Weird About Religion but Christians are not widely persecuted at large in western society. They're extremely privileged.
Like yes I can surface-level "rationalize" by saying it's just that the ultra-bigoted Christians aren't legally allowed to refuse service to gay people or treat trans employees like shit anymore, or that actual science that contradicts the Bible gets taught in schools because it's evidence based, and they think this equates persecution because their religion was demoted from unofficially a national truth to something you choose to practice privately that can't be forced on others. But my lack of empathy makes me have to point to every example that Christians still have extreme privilege in the western world that they colonized because the surface level rationalization isn't enough, I genuinely still don't get it.
Christians, the whole world gets breaks on your holidays, something not afforded to other religions unless their major holiday happens to be close to yours. Other religious people have to ask for breaks to observe their holidays. By default you get yours. Christians, schools do events for your holidays before the breaks, singling out yours over the others. Other religious people are sometimes forced to participate in a tradition for your holiday, often the commercialized version of it but sometimes with a religious aspect (for example, my school's choir sang Christian songs for their christmas concert.) Christians, shops close early on Sundays because it's your special day of the week. This only moderately inconveniences others, but still showcases that your religion is catered to. Christians, the people in the political world of the west are by and large Christians, and they often let their Christian beliefs shape their political decisions. LGBTQ people didn't have rights to exist for many, many years, because the Bible said homosexuality was a sin (even if this is a mistranslation, original verse was about gay incest). Women were denied rights based on Biblical gender roles. Churches are found more frequently than any other religious center in the western world, and they're tax exempt.
If you want actual religions that are persecuted, look at Muslims. Visibly Muslim people are shown racism as well as being treated like terrorists for merely being Muslim. People assume they're the most extreme, misogynistic, queerphobic religion because that's all their religion is painted to be (despite the fact their beliefs are very similar to those of Christianity in those regards, and progressive Muslims exist the same way progressive Christians do.) Look at Jewish people. They're the centers of conspiracy theories that do successfully prey on people, the Holocaust happened, and today people are using Palestine as a shield to be actual neo-Nazis. Look at the dozens of erased non-Abrahamic religions that are treated as props like Buddhism by westerners if they're not entirely forgotten.
Being a Christian is a privilege. The worst you'll ever face for being a Christian is some people being weird about religion. That sucks but that's not oppression. And some Christians are just as weird about non- christians all the time. You don't have to make up oppression that doesn't exist because of people being antitheist dipshits that hold no power in the real world, or because you're not allowed to use your beliefs as an excuse for contributing to actual oppression