Sectarianism

[FaustianSlip]

I grew up Episcopalian. Our last line went, "For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, forever and ever. Amen." Slightly different wording, but same difference, really. I can't remember if we crossed ourselves or not... maybe. That would probably depend on whether your community is more High Church or Low Church, I think.

[buddingmedievalist]

I was raised as an Independent Fundamental Baptist, and we merely distrusted Protestants but hated Catholics. It's been my experience that most anti-Catholic sentiment in my area of the country (the south) does come from Fundamentalist types. I lived in the midwest for a while, and found that Catholocism was MUCH more common up there and there was much more tolerance for everything: religion, diversity, race, sexual orientation, etc. The Bible belt can be a difficult place to be for those who defy the status quo, however there would never be anti-Catholic demonstrations or any type of fighting in the streets over it. People like to run their mouths, but they generally aren't passionate enough about religion to physically fight over it. Talk sh*t about a college football team though, and you better watch out...that is what people get passionate about.

Yes, absolutely to the part I've bolded. I'm Catholic and grew up in North Carolina; we homeschooled when I was younger (not because of religion but because I could read before kindergarten and the local public school wanted to make me a "peer reading tutor," which my mom found crazy) and there wasn't anything but a Baptist homeschooling group until I was probably in the 4th grade. So for years, I had little Baptist kids telling me that I was going to hell because of where I went to church. I think that's probably why I'm a little uncomfortable discussing my faith in public. But no, there was never any violence when I was growing up.

[JesusFightClub]

FaustianSlip, I was thinking about the issue you pointed out about using the iconography of Israel/Palestine possibly leading to antisemitism. It's a really complex one but sad to say, in my anecdotal evidence, it has now and again.

I am only basing this on a handful of people because I have been active on and off in pro Palestinian causes and believe me, people who show up with an anti Jewish agenda get short shrift indeed. There's a lot of Jews in the movement and none of that bollocks is accepted. The only time I recall there being an issue was when a woman came to a public meeting with an anti Jewish tract, and she was asked to leave and did.

To be honest though aggression can come from unexpected places and I've been taken aback before to hear football fans, kind of semi-casuals, pass remarks about "the fucking Jews" or whatever when they mean Israel. One guy in particular I was amazed because he is totally progressive in other areas and when he was drunk he started coming out with this shit which I won't repeat so as not to offend you. None of them were part of the movement, they were thinking more like the Derry murals.

My theory on this is that people map the one conflict on the other and don't get differences. A tribal way of thinking, where you pick your side...nothing wrong with that but then if you don't know your history it is just like picking a side at football where your team can do no wrong and anyone you perceive as following the other side is the enemy.

There is not a huge amount of Jewish folk in Scotland so a lot of that may be unfamiliarity as well. I have met a lot of good friends and comrades from a Jewish background due to politics but before that I had only met one Jew in my life, pretty much (weirdly, a couple of years ago my mum discovered her family was originally Jewish but that was so far back in the mists of time as to be irrelevant, though she told me it had been a family story when she was a little girl that no one believed).

So maybe people with such beliefs just don't know or understand that Jews are not a monolith. They may not know any. A bit like the horrible bias against Muslims, but I don't see any signs it is growing thankfully...wheras bias against Muslims definitely is.