So David French took Franklin Graham to task for his hypocrisy in defending President Donald Trump’s moral failings while attacking the morality of Pete Buttigieg because of his homosexuality. I mean what is wrong with French’s argument. No matter how much you may believe homosexuality is wrong, you have no moral grounds to attack it and then defend a multiple adulterer such as Trump. If you are a Christian, you do not get to pick and choose what part of... Read more
When I teach my sociology of religion class, I have creative way of introducing the students to the topic of Christianophobia. The section right before my discussion of that topic is antisemitism. So I tell the students of a study done at a megachurch. The study had about three to four thousand respondents who filled out a survey with open and close ended questions. They were asked about Jews. I tell the students that among the responses were these “gems.”... Read more
As anyone who has visited this blog more than a couple of times can see I am more than willing to discuss the problem of Christianophobia in modern society. I have also a time or two commented on the problem of Islamophobia. But I have not as yet commented on the issue of antisemitism. Perhaps I had not yet seen a good opportunity to discuss this type of anti-religious bigotry. Well the events of this past week have provided such... Read more
Most of us watched in horror as the Notre Dame Cathedral burned. I am not a Catholic and cannot feel the pain that a Catholic insider may feel. But to watch that iconic building burn did something even to this non-Catholic. Yes part of it is the history and the artwork that is now lost. But part of it also is the sheer fact that a church built to honor God was in flames. Beyond the fact that a beautiful... Read more
When an academic attempts to land a job at a religiously based college or university, then he or she may run into a question that normally would be taboo to ask. That question is about his or her religious beliefs and practices. As a Christian academic who has interviewed at Christian schools, it does not surprise me to be asked about my religious beliefs or if I will attend church at a job interview. But I appreciate that this is... Read more
I can honestly say that I am an expert on anti-Christian hostility in the United States. In fact, I can say that I am one of THE experts on anti-Christian hostility in the United States. That is not bragging, but merely a feature of being a professor who has chosen to study an area of our society that not many other professors care to study. Several years ago, I could accurately say that I was one of THE experts on... Read more
I have blogged about issues of privilege in the past and thought a lot about the concept. I love well thought out nuanced articles on the topic. This article by Eric Kaufmann is a good example about what I like to see. He dismisses the notion of privilege as being attempts of whites to influence our society and indeed argues that much of the problem stems from punishing whites who develop some degree of white consciousness. It is a good... Read more
Like many educated blacks of my age, I grew up thinking of the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) as an ally. I saw the valuable work they did in rooting out white supremacist organizations and exposing those organizations to the world. When I came of age, it had started to become more unfashionable to be labeled a racist or bigot. So the efforts by SPLC to identity groups that truly had a supremacist ideology but were trying to hide that... Read more
Have you had a chance to see this New York Times article? It concerns the degree of partisan animosity in our society. If you have not seen it then, let me share a few “highlights” from it. Some 20 percent of Democrats (that translates to 12.6 million voters) and 16 percent of Republicans (or 7.9 million voters) do think on occasion that the country would be better off if large numbers of the opposition died. We’re not finished: “What if... Read more
Often when I talk about Christianophobia, I receive indignant attitudes from those who do not believe that it is a problem. I know they have not read my work documenting that the level of animosity towards conservative Christians matches the level of animosity towards Muslims and that those with this animosity are more culturally powerful than those who hate Muslims. Nor do I think they have read my work illustrating that academics openly state that they are willing to engage... Read more
Shattering Paradigms
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