30 Examples of Christian Privilege

[Trynn]

I've actually experienced something like this, too, when I was a Christian. I mentioned in a conversation that I was Christian (it was relevant to the topic at hand), and a friend of mine said "I'd never have guessed you were", and we all kind of agreed it was a compliment because it meant that I wasn't a judgemental, evangelising jerk as I kept my faith to myself. Maybe it's because I live in Scotland, where religion is a very private matter (it's the height of rudeness to ask someone what they believe) and there's less of an assumption of "default Christian", so when people think of "Christian" they think of the Bible Belt.

That said, I get what the original post is getting at here; when you're a member of the majority, your behaviour is judged as it pertains to you alone, but when you're in the minority you're taken as an example of the entire group to which you belong.

No, that's true, I understand what they are getting at, I just disagree that Christians don't have to deal with it.Even though most Christians are just normal people trying to live their lives, as someone said upthread, it's the judgmental idiots who are the most vocal, so they tend to be the stereotype.

I could believe Muslims get it worse, though, with the whole Muslim=terrorist thing. I guess it's one thing to have one's religion thought of as rude/judgmental/stuck up and a whole nother to be thought of as a terrorist.

[yewchapel]

I did the 'He is risen' thing on Easter Sunday (I'd had some kind of virus thing for a few days previously so I was in the mood to celebrate not throwing up :lol: ) but most of my facebook friends are Christians. If I make religious updates at all, it's political (support for marriage equality, protesting against government cuts, opposition for nuclear weapons etc), and my non-Christian friends are mostly in support of those views too.

I would add 'people understand nuances within your religion' to the list of Christian privileges. Most people know that say, Methodists and Baptists are different kinds of Christians but will view Islam, Buddhism etc as homogenous belief systems even though there's a lot of variety within them. And yeah, if people think that Christians are rude/judgemental by default it's annoying but it doesn't result in them having their churches blown up, in general (in the West). I think when Western Christians claim persecution it's really insulting to Christians who are at risk of death, in places like Iran or India.

[duplessis3]

There is a world of difference between people thinking you are an exception to your faith in general because you are nice and for the kneejerk assumption that every member of your faith is a terrorist.

I noticed among the OUTRAGED christianists about Cesar Chavez yesterday the assumption that ALL Christians celebrate Easter on the same day. So I kept posting "It isn't Orthodox Easter. They are celebrating later. And 3/31 is always Cesar Chavez's birthday." (It must really be hard to be Orthodox, if you need Good Friday off as a religious holiday, having to explain, "No, I follow a different Christian calendar. Here is some information about the schism..."

[yewchapel]

I was just thinking about the Orthodox and their different calendar, particularly because they have stricter Lenten fasting too.