STFU, Sexists.

Permalink

Agree with so many things that STFUsexists said. But, sweeping generalizations made on Tumblr about Christians should not be okay. Not all Christians are pro-life and are about oppressing women and members of the LGBTQ community. I’m not a Christian, but there are a lot of hateful things directed to Christians as a group that cause me to bristle. If we could focus our anger and discussion at the specific groups that have stirred up the ire within us that would be much better than alienating an entire group of people who don’t necessarily deserve it. You can disagree with the tenants of Christianity but it doesn’t mean you have to take the entire group down all of the time. I’ve seen so many things calling those who believe in God “stupid” and “ignorant”. Why is that okay?

I think that sometimes generalizations are understandable and we, the reader, know that the poster doesn’t necessarily mean every single person from that group. But I think that really only applies when you’re talking about a reasonably sized group. For example, I often say I think the tea partiers are an awful group of people. Are there possibly plenty of great ones? Sure. And I think it should be understood that I’m aware there are exceptions. But “Christians” are a HUGE group. A ridiculously huge group. To denounce all Christians is just bad form and it makes the person speaking sound fairly ignorant. I disagree with plenty of aspects of Catholicism but I wouldn’t say that all Catholics are awful, women-hating, pro lifers. Perhaps that’s because of my personal experience, I live in a state that has a decent sized Catholic population and I worked at a Planned Parenthood that often worked together with Clergy for Choice.

I’m getting ranty and not really making full points. I guess the main reason behind my reblog is to just emphasize that hating Christians isn’t okay. It is ignorant. We’re articulate enough to speak against the specific aspects we don’t like without having to denounce an entire group.

You can stop reading now because anything below this point is going to be a bunch of random thoughts.

I suppose it’s easy to think of Christians as some super privileged group, but that’s also not quite true. The people who say these things, I wonder if they think about why so many people in poverty have religion. Why did so many of the slaves convert and accept Christianity? It wasn’t just because it was forced on them (although that is so so true), but they also needed something to look forward to, some beacon of hope, and Christianity gave them that. Any religion could have given them that. Religion is not the enemy. Organized religion has proven time and time again to not be the best thing for our society, but the actual different religious philosophies shouldn’t be attacked with one sweeping blow all the time. It’s lazy! It is much quicker to say “THOSE DAMN CHRISTIANS!!” instead of specifying, but taking the time to specify and really build your argument is just the better route.

I’m not religious. I think of myself as agnostic. I normally don’t rush to the defense of Christians but I have noticed a lot of hate directed toward that group and I don’t really think it’s warranted.

I mean, for goodness sake, Unitarians are considered Christian and they are [often] so damn accepting and liberal. How can someone just make a sweeping accusation about Christians when that group contains Unitarian’s and strict Catholics? It just doesn’t make sense. The same logic that tells us that we can’t make sweeping generalization about Black folk should hold when we’re talking about Christians. A group so large will have such diversity that we cannot judge them all as one.

I agree with what you’ve said here, I just want to make a few clarifying points that I think should be added to the discussion.

Hating Christians for being Christian is never okay, under any circumstances, ever. It’s bigotry.
I feel as though a lot of outspoken Christians on Tumblr get called out for their homophobia or anti-choice views, and respond as if they were attacked for their religion, which is not the case. It’s obviously not the case, because there are plenty of Christians who don’t hold bigoted views against women, minorities, LGBTQ, etc.
My so-called generalization about Catholicism is, I think, valid. I’m totally open to discussion about this, since I’m not a Catholic myself and know little about religion in general, but the Catholic Church is a very organized, hierarchical structure that has published stances on basically every subject of daily life. Is it really a generalization to say that this is how an organization feels when those in charge of the organization have come out and said, “Abortion is wrong, contraception is wrong, homosexuality is wrong”?
There are certainly degrees of privilege from sect to sect of Christianity, as well as across race, gender, and class lines. But the fact does still remain that to be a Christian in America today and throughout the country’s entire history is a privilege. Hate against Christians is still bigotry and is still wrong, but the percentage of Christians being kicked out of their homes as teenagers for being Christian vs the percentage of queer kids being kicked out of their homes for being straight? Or beaten to death, targeted, smeared in public life? It is a privilege that needs to be acknowledged, and I disagree with coopting the struggle of non-straight people to defend Christianity.

(Source: the-unpopular-opinions)

STFU, Sexists.

Show notes Hide notes