{"id":3690,"date":"2011-08-15T00:00:28","date_gmt":"2011-08-15T04:00:28","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/community\/slacktivist\/?p=3690"},"modified":"2012-06-24T16:01:20","modified_gmt":"2012-06-24T20:01:20","slug":"christian-privilege-invisible-to-privileged-christians","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/2011\/08\/15\/christian-privilege-invisible-to-privileged-christians\/","title":{"rendered":"Christian privilege invisible to privileged Christians"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

Jason Pitzl-Waters of The Wild Hunt<\/a> writes about \u201cInvisible Christian Privilege<\/a>\u201c:<\/p>\n

To many Christians their immense privilege seems invisible. They don\u2019t understand how much of our society panders to their unspoken power. The churches on every corner, the holidays and celebrations structured around Christian dates, the pandering of politicians, the ceremonial deism that acts as a placeholder for state-sponsored religion. Even our vernacular is colored by Christianity. \u2026<\/p>\n

Yet despite this, many Christians, particularly conservative Christians, have a major investment in seeing themselves as part of a persecuted minority. \u2026<\/p>\n

Where does this inaccurate perspective come from? How can a group see itself as a minority when it holds so much power? Through constant propaganda that tells them that this is so. \u2026<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Bradley R.E. Wright explores this delusional persecution complex for Christianity Today in an article titled, \u201cAmericans Like Evangelicals After All<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n

Surveying all the survey data, Wright discovers that evangelical Christian leaders tend to dislike people of other faiths or of no faith far more than they are disliked by those people.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Wright concludes:<\/p>\n

If American evangelicals do have an image problem, it\u2019s not our neighbors\u2019 image of us; it\u2019s our image of them. The 2007 Pew Forum study found that American Christians hold more negative views of \u201catheists\u201d than non-Christians do of evangelical Christians. (The most recent Pew survey found similar attitudes; see the chart above.)<\/p>\n

Now, I am not a theologian, but this seems to be a problem. We Christians are called to love people, and as I understand it, this includes loving people who believe differently than we do. I\u2019m not sure how we can love atheists if we don\u2019t like them.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Jason Pitzl-Waters of The Wild Hunt writes about \u201cInvisible Christian Privilege\u201c: To many Christians their immense privilege seems invisible. They don\u2019t understand how much of our society panders to their unspoken power. The churches on every corner, the holidays and celebrations structured around Christian dates, the pandering of politicians, the ceremonial deism that acts as […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":111,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[65],"class_list":["post-3690","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-evangelicals","tag-tribalism"],"yoast_head":"\nChristian privilege invisible to privileged Christians<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Jason Pitzl-Waters of The Wild Hunt writes about "Invisible Christian Privilege": To many Christians their immense privilege seems invisible. 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They don\u2019t\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/2011\/08\/15\/christian-privilege-invisible-to-privileged-christians\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"slacktivist\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2011-08-15T04:00:28+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2012-06-24T20:01:20+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/wp.patheos.com\/community\/slacktivist\/files\/2011\/08\/POLL1.gif\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Fred Clark\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Fred Clark\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"1 minute\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/2011\/08\/15\/christian-privilege-invisible-to-privileged-christians\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/2011\/08\/15\/christian-privilege-invisible-to-privileged-christians\/\",\"name\":\"Christian privilege invisible to privileged Christians\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2011-08-15T04:00:28+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2012-06-24T20:01:20+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/#\/schema\/person\/0173c85e46e7e0951fef5752bed78b6e\"},\"description\":\"Jason Pitzl-Waters of The Wild Hunt writes about \\\"Invisible Christian Privilege\\\": To many Christians their immense privilege seems invisible. 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Jesus loves Fred far more than Fred loves Jesus, but he at least has the decency to recognize the unfairness of that lopsided relationship and he has long wished that he were better at maybe kind of sort of doing something more to correct that some day. A Baptist, an amateur, a Gen-Xer, a Gemini and a Mets fan, Fred lives in Southeastern Pennsylvania with his wife and two teenage daughters. You can reach him via email at slacktivist at hotmail dot com.\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/author\/fredclark\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Christian privilege invisible to privileged Christians","description":"Jason Pitzl-Waters of The Wild Hunt writes about \"Invisible Christian Privilege\": To many Christians their immense privilege seems invisible. 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