(C) Daily Kos This story was originally published by Daily Kos and is unaltered. . . . . . . . . . . People have a diversity of experiences when it comes to Religion. [1] ['This Content Is Not Subject To Review Daily Kos Staff Prior To Publication.', 'Backgroundurl Avatar_Large', 'Nickname', 'Joined', 'Created_At', 'Story Count', 'N_Stories', 'Comment Count', 'N_Comments', 'Popular Tags'] Date: 2023-02-17 I’ve personally witnessed three or four rounds of the Daily Kos religion wars. My guess is that they go further back than that. Every 3-6 months someone writes a rec-list article attacking conservative Christianity and fails to differentiate Christian Fascism from the rest of Christianity. Sometimes it’s an attack on all of religion, or if it isn’t, someone in the comments usually adds that in. Then follows the back forth of different articles supporting one side or the other until everyone gets sick of it all and it lies dormant for the next several months. Then someone goes and kicks the sleeping dragon again. Both sides frequently accuse the other of not listening, gross generalizations, inappropriate comments, and tries to paint their side as the TRUE victims. I’ve participated in these myself. But now that we are on the latest iteration I’ve started to pick up on at least one of the patterns. The pattern I’m seeing is that people are frequently talking past each other. They both have their own personal experience with religion and it is difficult to see other people’s experiences. I’ve frequently related examples of my own experience that contradicts someone else’s impression of what religion is about and my examples have been frequently ignored or minimized. People’s experiences around religion are highly variable, but I will brave putting them in two general (but not all encompassing) categories with regards to interactions with Christianity. If your’s doesn’t fit into these don’t worry, I know these two categories are far from perfect. It also completely ignores communities of strong non-Christian religion. The first general experience is one of living in a more conservative Christian area where Christian Hegemony is stronger and dominating on the local culture and everyday living. These would be generally Red states, conservative parts of Blue states, and generally more rural areas. Coming out as non-Christian carries varying levels of risk depending upon how severe the Hegemony is. The other broad category of experiencing Christianity in community would be the experience of Christian Hegemony as mostly an annoyance, and religion in general does not play a strong role. People in this broad category can go weeks without religion intruding into their lives beyond driving past a place of worship every now and then. I’ve lived in Boston, Boulder, the SF Bay Area, and other similar cities and the only time religion was brought up was when I either sought it out, or during the Winter Pagan festivities that some Christians think are Christian instead of the pagan roots they mostly come from. But generally, there was no fear of being asked about religion, or being persecuted for declining to participate in anything Christian. Sure, once every few years I’ve been approached by some Christian trying to convert me who generally regretted approaching me as I tore apart the Christology they were pushing. Now the two categories tend to be geographically related, but not strictly so. There are definitely strongly Christian subcultures in parts of every city as well as liberal subcultures in the middle of highly Christian areas. One’s family also has a strong impact upon how connected you are to either category. In addition, our personal experiences within these cultures can have very strong impacts when individuals have been abused inside a religious organization. But no matter how strongly you feel for or against religion, there are other, perfectly reasonable people who you will disagree with. Clubbing each over the head as to whose experience is dominant is counter-productive. They reality is that we both end up being correct mostly dependent upon how strong the local Christian Hegemony is. If you put me in conservative Texas where school prayer is common and expected (regardless of laws) I will end up feeling just as oppressed as you are. While I was brought up Christian, I don’t follow it and get just as annoyed with Christian Fascism as any of you. I married into a Jewish family and the threat of Christian Fascism to us is felt quite strongly. But thankfully I live in the SF Bay Area where I don’t feel it at all on a daily basis. I certainly see it in the news. But as far as lived experience, it’s very rare I feel oppressed by Christianity. When I look, the subtle Christian Hegemony is always still there (The year 2023 comes from where?). But oddly enough, I often feel more out of place coming out as religious in a mostly secular environment. My masters degree is a Master of Divinity and it’s awkward explaining it when it comes up. This is not meant to compete with the degree to which many feel oppressed under Christian Hegemony, just an example of how there is a range of experience. So atheists living in conservative proto-fasicst America will experience Christianity very negatively. Progressive Christians living in liberal enclaves will experience their lived Christianity in a mostly positive way (except of course in cases of abuse). I’ve engaged in many political and social justice actions with people of many different Faiths and it has generally been a very positive experience. I don’t need to believe whatever interpretation the Christian Minister may be going on about. But I appreciate their showing up to fight for justice. Are they perfect? No, but neither am I. I’ve also lived briefly in rural Virginia where instead of attending our religious service which featured a speaker from Planned Parenthood, I was hanging out on the front steps watching for people approaching with guns. I most likely wouldn’t have been able to stop them, but I could have at least raised the alarm. And this was not theoretical paranoia. Not too far from us another of our gatherings had a mass shooting event because the shooter knew us liberal religious people were there and he wanted to kill liberals. In the end, we need each other. The Democratic Party needs both atheists and liberal religious people to come together and vote Democratic. We can’t afford to fight. I invite people on both sides to ease up a little. You don’t have to stop believing what you believe. But if you are an oppressed atheist, know that the progressive religious people ARE on your side. We dislike the Christian Fascists just as much as you do. I know plenty of liberal Christians who fight against the Christian Fascists just as much as you do. And if you are a liberal Christian (or other liberal religion) let’s practice letting the oppressed atheists blow off steam every now and then. Sure they are lumping us in with our own enemies, but they probably live in a place that Christian Hegemony is far more dominant than where we might be. And then we just all need to ignore those folks unable to hear anything from the other side and work with those who are capable of understanding the finer differences. 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