Christian privilege: Difference between revisions

{{short description|SocialTheoretical social advantage that is bestowed upon Christians in society}}

In the United States, White mainstream [[Protestant]] denominations have greater degrees of privilege than minority Christian denominations. Such groupsminority denominations include [[Black church|African American churches]], [[Christian Hispanics and Latinos]], [[Amish|Amish people]], [[Mennonite]], [[Religious Society of Friends|Quakers]], [[Seventh-day Adventist Church|Seventh-day Adventists]], [[Jehovah's Witnesses]], adherents of the [[Eastern Orthodox Church]], [[Christian Science|Christian scientists]], [[Mormons]], and in some instances, [[Catholic Church|Catholics]].<ref name="Christian" />

When dominating groups within societies place Christian [[culture|cultural]] norms and perspectives on individuals holding differing viewpoints, those people are sometimes deemed, in social justice terms, to be oppressed. <ref name=" Hardiman" /> These norms can be imposed "on institutions by individuals and on individuals by institutions".<ref name="Hardiman"/>{{rp|p.19}} These social and cultural norms define issues related to good and evil, health and sickness, normality and deviance, and a person's normative ethic.

[[Alexis de Tocqueville]] the French political scientist and diplomat, traveled across the United States for nine months between 1831–18321831 and 1832, conducting research for his book ''[[Democracy in America]]''. He noted a paradox of religion in the U.S. On the one hand, the United States promoted itself around the world as a country that valued both the "separation of church and state", and religious freedom and tolerance. On the other hand, "There is no country in the world where the Christian religion retains a greater influence over the souls of men than in America".<ref name="Tocqueville">{{cite book |last=de Tocqueville |first=A. |orig-year=1840 |year=1956 |title=Democracy in America |location=New York |publisher=The New American Library}}</ref>{{rp|pp.303–304}} He explained this paradox by proposing that with no officially sanctioned governmental religion, Christian denominations were compelled to compete with one another and promote themselves in order to attract and keep parishioners, thereby making religion even stronger. While the government did not support Christian churches as such, Tocqueville argued that religion should be considered the first political institution because of the enormous influence that churches had on the political process.<ref name="Tocqueville" />

The concept of [[hegemony]]<ref>{{cite book |last=Gramsci |first=Antonio |year=1971 |title=Selections from the prison notebooks |others=Trans. Q. Hoare & G. N. Smith |location=New York |publisher=International}}</ref> describes the ways in which a dominant group, in this case mainly U.S. Christians, disseminate their ''dominant'' social constructions as common sense, [[normative]], or even universal, even though most of the world's inhabitants are not Christian.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Smith |first1=D. J. |last2=Harter |first2=P. M. |year=2002 |title=If the world were a village: A book about the world's people |location=Stanford, CA |publisher=Stanford University Press}}</ref> Christian hegemony also accepts Christianity as part of the natural order, even at times by those who are marginalized, disempowered, or rendered invisible by it.<ref>{{cite book |last=Tong |first=R. |year=1989 |title=Feminist thought: A comprehensive introduction. |url=https://archive.org/details/feministthoughtc00tong |url-access=registration |location=Boulder, CO |publisher=Westview Press}}</ref> Thus, Christian hegemony helps to maintain the marginality of other religions and beliefs. According to Beaman,<ref name="Beaman">{{cite journal |last=Beaman |first=L. G. |year=2003 |title=The myth of pluralism, diversity, and vigor: The constitutional privilege of Protestantism in the United States and Canada |journal=Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion |volume=42 |issue=3 |pages=311–325 |doi=10.1111/1468-5906.00183}}</ref> "the binary opposition of sameness/difference is reflected in Protestant/minority religion in which mainstream Protestantism is representative of the 'normal'".<ref name="Beaman"/>{{rp|p.321}}

According to Schlosser,<ref name="Schlosser" /> many Christians reject the notion that they have any privilege by claiming that all religions are essentially the same. Thus, they have no more and no fewer benefits accorded to them than members of other faith communities. Blumenfeld<ref name=" Investigating" /> notes the objections that some of his university students raise when discussing Christian privilege as connected with the celebration of Christian holidays. The students, he notes, state that many of the celebrations and decorations have nothing to do with religion as such, and do not represent Christianity, but are rather part of American culture—however, this could be considered a further example of privilege.{{Citation needed|date=April 2022}}

*[[MaleMuslim privilege]]