religious persecution in UStaras_wizardFebruary 16 2007, 16:57:45 UTC
Interestingly, you description and POV is 180 degrees opposed to how the the religious see themselves in the culture. They would say the requirements of PC and multiculturalism make them (the Christian religious population) the only target for prejuidice and bigotry left in the country. Furthermore, they would say the promotion and active implementation of a secular humanist (or multicultural or gay) agenda by the educational system and the big media corps (through their control of TV, magazines, and movies) creates an 'hostile environment' to their values and way of life. To give evidence of this prejudice and an existing hostile environment they would offer the "War against Christmas" and the ignoring of "The Passion" by Academy Awards a year or so ago.
This is not just a case of someone seeing a glass half full and another seeing a glass half empty. This is a completely different seeing of the environment around them. It can be sort of scary how the see themselves.
Re: religious persecution in USmediumdaveFebruary 16 2007, 18:19:38 UTC
This is a completely different seeing of the environment around them.
Yes. And that's a great example of how privilege works. The dominant group in any sphere of society has the luxury of simply assuming that their way of thinking is "right" and is above criticism. Operating with such a mindset, it's difficult to distinguish criticism from bigotry, or, for that matter, to distinguish mere disagreement from bigotry.
For example, many Christians (as you said) see our popular culture as an offensive against their religion simply because it is mostly secular, and has been gaining power and influence throughout the last century. Relatively speaking, the voice of the churches has grown fainter. Non-religious is not the same thing as anti-religious (most of the people who make the popular movies, TV, music, etc. do not see themselves as culture warriors), but this distinction is lost on religious folks who have a zero-sum, "if you're not with me you're agin me" attitude.
your replytaras_wizardFebruary 22 2007, 08:11:08 UTC
I'm not sure how to evaluate your discussion of privlege, because going back to the conservative Christian's self evaluation they don't see themselves as privleged. They see themselves as a peculiarly persecuted group. Thought just occured to me, the discussion of privlege applies if one considers the conservative's resistance to multiculturalism.
The conservative religious would say they can differentiate between 'non-religious' and 'anti-religious', and they would use my two examples along with others to support the anti-religious bais of mainstream medium. I can name more than a few creators of mainstream media who do see them selves as cultural warriors: Robert Mapplethorpe, Andreas Serrano, Susan Sontag, etc.
Re: your replymediumdaveFebruary 22 2007, 20:22:15 UTC
...going back to the conservative Christian's self evaluation they don't see themselves as privleged.
They might object to being called privileged, yes. But they actually are, and I would say that they actually do see themselves that way... their frustration comes from the gap between the influence they do have, and the influence they think they should have
( ... )
Comments 4
This is not just a case of someone seeing a glass half full and another seeing a glass half empty. This is a completely different seeing of the environment around them. It can be sort of scary how the see themselves.
Reply
Yes. And that's a great example of how privilege works. The dominant group in any sphere of society has the luxury of simply assuming that their way of thinking is "right" and is above criticism. Operating with such a mindset, it's difficult to distinguish criticism from bigotry, or, for that matter, to distinguish mere disagreement from bigotry.
For example, many Christians (as you said) see our popular culture as an offensive against their religion simply because it is mostly secular, and has been gaining power and influence throughout the last century. Relatively speaking, the voice of the churches has grown fainter. Non-religious is not the same thing as anti-religious (most of the people who make the popular movies, TV, music, etc. do not see themselves as culture warriors), but this distinction is lost on religious folks who have a zero-sum, "if you're not with me you're agin me" attitude.
Reply
The conservative religious would say they can differentiate between 'non-religious' and 'anti-religious', and they would use my two examples along with others to support the anti-religious bais of mainstream medium. I can name more than a few creators of mainstream media who do see them selves as cultural warriors: Robert Mapplethorpe, Andreas Serrano, Susan Sontag, etc.
Reply
They might object to being called privileged, yes. But they actually are, and I would say that they actually do see themselves that way... their frustration comes from the gap between the influence they do have, and the influence they think they should have ( ... )
Reply
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