Perhaps you have heard that Christians in the American military have been reminded that bullying their fellow soldiers into submission is Not OK. All of a sudden, a million Christian blogs cried out in terror, and were suddenly silenced. Christians are the persecuted minority! You can no longer be Christian in the military! Christians are the only religious group whose fundamental right to free speech has been revoked! &c.
This, may I remind you, mere days after the National Day of Prayer, along with its presidential speech laden with monotheistic language. (Separation of Church and State? What's that?)
The straw that broke the camel's back for me was this blog. It's not just the hyperbole that drives me mad. It's the utter self-centred blindness and lack of empathy it must require to just not see the people around them who have it less great than Christians because of what they believe. Every American president has been a Christian. Do we really think a non-Christian stands a chance at that office, at least in the near future? An atheist president? A Jewish one? God forbid, a Pagan one? I'd say the Jewish candidate would have the best chance at a shot, myself. Many children in America are told they could grow up to be president one day, and it must hurt when they finally realise that their religious beliefs essentially disqualify them.
The problem is privilege. Christians have it, and some of them want desperately to keep it. Any challenge to the preferential treatment they get and a certain type of Christian will have a temper tantrum. I'm not speaking of all Christians, but nor an I speaking only of the Bill O'Reillys of this world; some of the nicest people can turn into utter little bitches when someone suggests everybody be treated the same way.
Like it or not, some aspects of Christian privilege in the USA are cultural, and are ingrained enough that they will take a long time to remove. Take Christmas, for example.... I live in a mostly secular country, and Christmas is still a national holiday. (On the other hand we are lazy as hell when given the chance, and not likely to give up a day off.) The churches on every corner in some states aren't likely to go away either, so long as people are still attending. But so much could be changed. I mean, are the prayers in national events really necessary? A National Day of Prayer? Really?
I've mentioned before that most Christians I've met have been excellent and empathetic people. I don't like to be reminded that some of them even outside the far-right teabagger set have their heads so far up their arses they are in danger of drowning in their own digestive juices.
The concept of someone who says they love everyone as Christ told them to actually thinking it infringes on THEIR civil liberties when people tell them to stop bullying, cajoling, and threatening non-Christians under their command, non-Christians who are supposed to be their team-mates, just blows my fucking mind. The fact that they then think Christianity is a breath away from being made illegal.... I mean, what planet do these people live on? Are they really that self-involved?
Really?
Ugh.
(PS: I know my readers are mostly mature and kind people, more so than me for the most part in fact, but just in case, please don't throw a million harsh comments at the person's blog I linked above. I thought you'd like to read it as some of the things she says are astonishingly ignorant and selfish, but I dithered about linking it in case I inadvertently sent 20 angry people to her comments section.)
And there in lies the hypocritical bases of a large majority of social problems in the U.S. in both religion and even politics (seeing as "Separation of Church and State" seem to be as much of a pipe dream as the "American Dream" actually working out for anyone.)
ReplyDeleteIt's this notion of a majority feeling that their toes are being stepped on and their rights infringed upon almost ANYTIME a minority asks for their rights and freedoms to be recognized.