#christian culture

[dynamicity-keysmash]

Only through great effort did I overcome my minority anger and write this post to be polite and calm.

Now, after thousands of notes in which some Cultural Christians have invented new & exciting ways to make everything about themselves, I am ready to reach through the screen and strangle the next person who replies to this post with the words "yule," "winter solstice," "pagan," or "secular."

I know that something regarding Christmas not being 100% about them and made for them is a new experience, so maybe I should hold space for their willful ignorance and ravenous desire to speak over religious minorities with semantic nonsense, but I am simply out of grace to give.

'Tis the season to unpack some stuff about Christmas from a minority perspective:

Christmas is a Christian holiday. The fact that many celebrate it in an irreligious way (which is valid!) does not change its origins, connotations, symbolism, nor what it has historically meant for religious minorities.

The idea that Christmas is "secular" (read: neutral) is a product of Christian hegemony and the blindness of many in Christian countries to the permeation of Christianity as "default" culture.

When someone says they don't celebrate Christmas since it's a Christian holiday, it is not actually reassuring or helpful to say something along the lines of "oh well it's just a secular day of family & presents for everyone! So you can celebrate it too!"

Though the above statement is usually well-intentioned, it is often distressing to hear because it is untrue and is erasing our lived experiences. The reflexive effort to make Christmas universal is a cultural reverberation of the millennia-old evangelizing effort to make Christianity universal, and as such, can be very uncomfortable for religious minorities.

[pastelalleycat]

There's a genuine concern about Christian nationalism here in the States with Trump most likely entering office in 2025 and the agendas the Republican party has. Several states are legally requiring the Ten Commandments to be hung up in classrooms, Bible stories to be taught in classes, PragerU curriculums to be utilized. Our country's children- and us- are going to be endrenched in Christian ideology beyond any cultural norms we've ever seen, and we need to be vigilant about who we're getting our information from and putting our trust in.

To be clear, I do NOT think all Christians are Christian nationalists, nor are all Christians the bad guys. Liberal and non-Trumpie Christians are our allies. The kind of Christianity I'm talking about here is Evangelical Christianity- the kind that commands sharing your religion with other people so they don't go to Hell, giving up control of your personhood in favor of what the Bible teaches and church believes.

Thankfully, Evangelical Christianity has a lot of special lingo, and they love to cycle through the same talking points. This isn't some mystery we know nothing about- this is something, like anything else, we can use critical thinking to track and reason through. As a former Evangelical Christian living in the Bible Belt, here's some buzz points you're going to want to be aware of. Please feel free to add on if I missed anything, or correct me if I got anything wrong.

Phrases

Calling the Bible:

the Word (of God / God's word)

the Gospel (of Jesus)

The Scripture(s)

The Word / Gospel according to [book name]

Calling God:

Yahweh (my apologies to Jews for writing out the full name. I wish I didn't have to. There's been a rise lately in Evangelicals saying it, unaltered, and it's extremely rude to y'all.)

King Jesus

(the) Lord / Lord God / the Lord our God

(Heavenly) Father / Father in Heaven

(the) Savior

About the world:

We live in a fallen/broken world / there is so much sin around us

We can't trust our feelings / we can only trust God's word

We can do nothing apart from God

We must humble ourselves before God

We need Godly leaders in this country / we need God to lead this country

God works in mysterious ways

We need to say "Merry Christmas" more (not joking)

Wars and rumors of wars (this pertains to the end times as described in Revelation)

Topics

LGBTQ+ issues:

"Homosexuality"

"Transgenderism" (the 'ism' is important)

"Pornography"

"One man, one woman"

"God's picture of marriage [heterosexuality]"

"Family values"

"Sodomy"

"An abomination"

Abortion issues:

"Pro-life"

Pro-choice people called "pro-death" or "pro-murder"

"Sanctity / protection of life / the unborn"

"The choice of life"

Women framed as childbearers, mothers, and wives, generally given little worth otherwise

Immigration issues:

"Border security"

"Protecting our society"

"Drug crisis" (which to be fair is a problem, but not the whole of this issue)

Emphasizing Arab / Middle-Eastern immigrants as particularly dangerous

Emphasizing Hispanic immigrants as dangerous

Israel

'The Holy Land'

'God's chosen people'

"Zion"

"The birthplace of Jesus"

"Persecuted"

Empahsizing right to "self-defense"

General topics:

Humility

Modesty (pride dress, sexuality)

Sexual immorality

Sin

Trusting God / not trusting own feelings

Preparation for end times (imminent or mysterious timing depending on who you ask)

"Protecting children"

"Family values"

[christian-culture-is]

autistic christian culture is never being properly taught how to pray as a child but all the sources you can find are like "praying is about building a relationship with god try to build a relationship with god" and it's like,, okay?? that's what it's about?? but how is it done?? what's the structure?? i can't do the thing?? if you don't me how to do the thing?? or even just one of the ways to do the thing??

like,, please 🥲 i don't want flowerly language i want an answer to my question

hahah mood

[losttranslator]

kintsugi: exists

christian youth pastors:

[technicalgrimoire]

I went on a Christian podcast to dispel some of the fear and misconceptions about D&D.

I hope folks listen to this and feel encouraged to try out roleplaying games for themselves, and discover what a life-giving hobby it can be!

[llinstarr]

Being non-Christian but loving Christians symbols is a hard challenge

[nightsealeafrainwing]

To all Christians who think patriarchy is supported by the Bible, it’s LITERALLY listed in the Curse put on humanity after the fall, right next to birth being extra traumatic, the ground being hard to cultivate, and death. So if trying to increase people’s lifespans, giving mothers epidurals, and innovating better farming technology are good things, then SO IS FIGHTING THE PATRIARCHY.

[esters-notepad]

So I have this semi-secret liturgical art project. It's supposed to be a cycle of four images: white, red, violet and green. I had a lot of trouble putting the violet image together. It wanted to be in portrait format when all images have to be landscape. This morning, I realized that if I let the crucifix and the priest switch places, such that the crucifix is in the middle and the priest is off to one side, then the image works!

[idlespright]

Altarraum der Jesuitenkapelle Trier

[ryuutchi]

the thing about cultural Christianity is that it's easiest to discuss on people who aren't Christian:

For example, A pagan says "if the Rapture comes, I know why" because someone is drawing disgusting porn -> I see the cultural Christianity in the reference to the rapture, in the assertion that a wrathful deity cares about the imaginary sex life of humans -> I say "wow, that's a very Christian way of responding to this" -> That pagan gets upset that I'm calling them a "Christian", despite their actual affiliation

But the problem is that whether or not they practice Christianity, the Christian normative values (the rapture is a thing, sexual thoughts are bad, a deity will take negative interest in bad sexual thoughts) are still quite present in the thought pattern.

If the person's Christian, it's just their theology. If a non-Christian perpetuates it, it's Christian CULTURE.

[dynamicity-keysmash]

'Tis the season to unpack some stuff about Christmas from a minority perspective:

Christmas is a Christian holiday. The fact that many celebrate it in an irreligious way (which is valid!) does not change its origins, connotations, symbolism, nor what it has historically meant for religious minorities.

The idea that Christmas is "secular" (read: neutral) is a product of Christian hegemony and the blindness of many in Christian countries to the permeation of Christianity as "default" culture.

When someone says they don't celebrate Christmas since it's a Christian holiday, it is not actually reassuring or helpful to say something along the lines of "oh well it's just a secular day of family & presents for everyone! So you can celebrate it too!"

Though the above statement is usually well-intentioned, it is often distressing to hear because it is untrue and is erasing our lived experiences. The reflexive effort to make Christmas universal is a cultural reverberation of the millennia-old evangelizing effort to make Christianity universal, and as such, can be very uncomfortable for religious minorities.

[pastelalleycat]

I think it would be highly beneficial for everyone in our society if human bodies weren't seen as perishable objects. Yes, bodies can perish and some people see dead bodies as objects, but I'm not talking about that. I'm talking about treating a body like a piano or a wristwatch or a safe.

Once a piano's out of tune, less people want to play it. A watch with a missing spring can't tell time anymore. A safe that's been hijacked is missing the precious goods inside. But do these items completely lose their value in that state? No! A piano can be carefully tuned to sound beautiful again. A spring can always be replaced. And there will always be precious things to keep secure.

If the piano can't be tuned, it could be refurbished into a flower garden. Everything has meaning. Everything has a purpose. And it gets to decide on its own terms.

[christian-culture-is]

It really frustrates me when people who aren’t Christians celebrate our holidays. If anyone did that with any other religion they would (rightfully) be called out but when it comes to us nobody cares or worse people will tell us we that deserve it or say we are over reacting.

No matter what someone’s opinion is on this whole debate we can all agree how frustrating it is to have people belittle us whenever we say something about this matter

[feedingtheflockministry]

How the DEVIL tries to DISTRACT YOU...

This is how the devil tries to distract you. In this video, Daniel explains how the devil attacks you and keeps you from doing the things God wants you to do.

[gnothi-seayton]

I’ve been catching up on the “culturally Christian” discourse. I’m a bit disappointed that the most active posts are atheists going, “How dare you call me Christian?” instead of taking the opportunity to interrogate some aspects of themselves that are not as de-Christianized as they’d assume. I spent a large part of my youth trying to find those blind spots and I’m a second generation non-Christian.

But this points to what I see as one of the corner stones of Christian culture: emphasis of belief over practice. It started with Paul’s epistles where he introduced the centrality of faith. Jesus spoke of faith in the gospels, but not nearly as much as exhortations about how to live a moral life. Next, the Council of Nicaea established its creed, a series of “we believe…” statements that Christians still recite every week. Nicaea and every subsequent Council has laid down further obligatory sets of beliefs and anathematized anyone who refused to toe the party line. Christian states have made heresy a crime. Conversion became a prerogative. Many were killed because they refused to submit.

This emphasis on belief got cranked up to 11 in the Reformation. Where Catholicism teaches the importance of faith and works, Calvin taught sola fide, salvation by faith alone. Modern philosophy started around the same time and was self-consciously a merely intellectual exercise, unlike ancient philosophy. So when major breaks with Christianity came on the scene, it shouldn’t be a surprise they defined themselves with terms like “atheism” and “skepticism.” Their emphasis was also on (lack of) belief. Atheists evangelize their beliefs and are quick to ridicule any one for wrongthink. Politics are much the same, especially here on Tumblr.

Now contrast that with Judaism and Islam and other religions where relatively more emphasis is placed on correct practice than correct belief. There are certain doctrinal red lines, of course, but it doesn’t come up as often as the importance of prayer ritual (think of phylacteries or salat) or following certain behavioral rules (dietary restrictions, wearing certain clothing). Christian chauvinism tends to look down upon halakah and shariah as being backward or “medieval”. From an orthopraxy perspective, the Christian emphasis on highly specific doctrine might seem like a weird fixation.

I think it’s no coincidence that the Ethical Society was founded by a man who had once trained to become a rabbi. His organization focused on secular congregations and public outreach. Many of the culturally Christian atheists of the time were more interested in publishing tracts or debating Christian ministers.

So to think that even though you come from a Christian culture and perhaps were even raised actively in a church, that simply switching out one belief for another will radically transform who you are and how you interact with the world is incredibly naive. Start by looking at the ways in which you privilege belief over action in your life.