[culture|religion] The wonders of religious privilege

[jaylake]

I broke one of my own rules and got involved in a lengthy back-and-forth on Facebook with some folks over religious questions. (No link, because I don't want anyone to feel called out or embarrassed - they are welcome to come link themselves in comments if they so choose

Comments

[mmegaera]

I don't remember if I've mentioned the case here that I ran into in a small town in Ohio when I lived there twenty-odd years ago. The town had a daily paper. A Jewish gentleman decided to begin an alternate newspaper that was mostly a Little-Nickel-alike with the occasional article. It did fairly well for a while, or so I was told. Until he decided to express an unpopular opinion and was figuratively run out of town on a rail.

Many years before he (and I) arrived in town, a local craftsman had built a large wire nativity scene that was mounted on the side of the county courthouse every year.

The Jewish gentleman printed an editorial in his paper politely trying to explain (I saw the article in question -- it was the opposite of hostile) why that nativity scene was not appropriate because it was displayed on a government building. He promptly lost all of his advertisers, was basically shunned, and ended up shutting his paper down and leaving town.

When I arrived in town a year or so after he left, I was proudly told the whole story by at least three people when the nativity went up on the courthouse that December. I bit my tongue because my then-husband had just taken a rather public position in town (library director) and I didn't want to get him in trouble. Not that I wanted to, you understand. I pretty much had to.

Religious privilege indeed.

[goulo]

Well, that's a sad story indeed. :(