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Christians, lions
I just wrote a lengthy comment about religion and human nature over on Askville. Earlier, I'd pointed out that wearing a blatantly atheistic t-shirt was likely to get get the wearer beaten up and bullied in schools in some parts of the USA.
[An atheist I know wrote:] "Heh.. because that's typical christian behavior, when they are in power or outnumber others."
Actually, that's typical human behavior under those circumstances. We see some of the worst behavior from Christians here in the USA because they're in the majority. So we tend to assume that it's Christianity itself that is to blame for that arrogance.
But other groups behave in much the same way, if not worse, in those areas where they are in the majority. The basis can be ethnic, religious, racial, or other; as long as human beings can categorize some other group as "other", many of them will take that as a license for all sorts of bad behavior. It's a rare group that doesn't fall into that trap.
And most of us don't seem to be able to learn from experience. You'd think that groups which had been persecuted by a domineering majority would treat other groups with compassion and understanding, when they themselves were in the majority.
Not so. My own people suffered the first genocide of modern times; a million and a half Armenians were killed by the Turkish Ottoman government between 1915 and 1917. It was a deliberate campaign of extermination, on racial and religious grounds (Armenians were an economically successful Christian minority in a majority Moslem country; imams across Turkey agitated for the extermination of Armenians). The Turks continue to deny to this day that a genocide occurred, although the vast majority of historians agree that it did.
Most descendants of the survivors eventually heard the horror stories of what had happened during the Genocide. So you might think we would be particularly careful to treat others with dignity and respect. When I was young, I went to an Armenian summer camp in Massachusetts. Now, all my ancestry is Armenian. But while most Armenians have black hair and olive skin, I happen to have light skin and red hair. So I don't "look" Armenian, except for my eyes. It happens sometimes; you'll see about one red-haired Armenian per 100-200 or so, if you go to a large Armenian church.
Anyway, I didn't look like the other boys. So I was beaten up, sat on, and told that since I wasn't Armenian I wouldn't be allowed to use the swimming pool. It was a very eye-opening experience for my young mind.
I've already gone on for too long, but I could also note that the government of Israel, along with influential groups such as the Anti-Defamation League, have refused to recognize the historicity of the genocide. The ADL in particular lobbied against recognition of the Genocide by the US government. The irony is, of course, painful; the survivors of the greatest genocide in history are actively helping the perpetrators of another massive genocide to deny that it ever happened.
In fairness, many Jews are outraged and offended by the hypocrisy of the ADL and the Israeli government on this issue.
Sorry, I've kind of gone off on a tangent. My original point was that while many right-wing American Christians are arrogant and dictatorial, it's probably not fair to ascribe that to their religion itself. Rather, it's a reflection of basic human nature...as well as poor education and upbringing, at a guess.
[An atheist I know wrote:] "Heh.. because that's typical christian behavior, when they are in power or outnumber others."
Actually, that's typical human behavior under those circumstances. We see some of the worst behavior from Christians here in the USA because they're in the majority. So we tend to assume that it's Christianity itself that is to blame for that arrogance.
But other groups behave in much the same way, if not worse, in those areas where they are in the majority. The basis can be ethnic, religious, racial, or other; as long as human beings can categorize some other group as "other", many of them will take that as a license for all sorts of bad behavior. It's a rare group that doesn't fall into that trap.
And most of us don't seem to be able to learn from experience. You'd think that groups which had been persecuted by a domineering majority would treat other groups with compassion and understanding, when they themselves were in the majority.
Not so. My own people suffered the first genocide of modern times; a million and a half Armenians were killed by the Turkish Ottoman government between 1915 and 1917. It was a deliberate campaign of extermination, on racial and religious grounds (Armenians were an economically successful Christian minority in a majority Moslem country; imams across Turkey agitated for the extermination of Armenians). The Turks continue to deny to this day that a genocide occurred, although the vast majority of historians agree that it did.
Most descendants of the survivors eventually heard the horror stories of what had happened during the Genocide. So you might think we would be particularly careful to treat others with dignity and respect. When I was young, I went to an Armenian summer camp in Massachusetts. Now, all my ancestry is Armenian. But while most Armenians have black hair and olive skin, I happen to have light skin and red hair. So I don't "look" Armenian, except for my eyes. It happens sometimes; you'll see about one red-haired Armenian per 100-200 or so, if you go to a large Armenian church.
Anyway, I didn't look like the other boys. So I was beaten up, sat on, and told that since I wasn't Armenian I wouldn't be allowed to use the swimming pool. It was a very eye-opening experience for my young mind.
I've already gone on for too long, but I could also note that the government of Israel, along with influential groups such as the Anti-Defamation League, have refused to recognize the historicity of the genocide. The ADL in particular lobbied against recognition of the Genocide by the US government. The irony is, of course, painful; the survivors of the greatest genocide in history are actively helping the perpetrators of another massive genocide to deny that it ever happened.
In fairness, many Jews are outraged and offended by the hypocrisy of the ADL and the Israeli government on this issue.
Sorry, I've kind of gone off on a tangent. My original point was that while many right-wing American Christians are arrogant and dictatorial, it's probably not fair to ascribe that to their religion itself. Rather, it's a reflection of basic human nature...as well as poor education and upbringing, at a guess.