#lets not play hot potato and musical chairs with the jargon for discussing all this?

[mzminola]

Every time I see a flare-up in discussion of the terms “cultural christianity” & “culturally christian” I see multiple people suggesting the term “christian hegemony” or some variation on it instead, under the assumption it will be less inflammatory, and I gotta say that one, I strongly disagree with that assumption, and two, it’s not actually an interchangeable term.

There are places in the world where Christians are a cultural minority, and they are still culturally christian, including the people in those communities who are atheist. They are just also being affected by whatever culture is the majority in their area. They are being affected by a non-christian hegemony.

I am a Jewish atheist from a mixed family who grew up in the US with atheist & agnostic parents. I have a mix of culturally Jewish & culturally christian ideas, attitudes, values, worldviews, etc, with some New Age Hippie Stuff thrown in for good measure.

That’s a neutral description of me. It is a neutral description of my background.

Sure, because I grew up in the US I was affected by christian hegemony.

But if you kept all of my parents’ backgrounds the same, and had me grow up in a country where christian culture is not the majority, where it cannot be described as a hegemony,

I would still be a person from a mixed family who is a mix of culturally Jewish and culturally christian and influenced by New Age Hippie Stuff.

I would just, also, have whatever local culturally majority is influencing me too.

“____ hegemony” and “cultural ____” are not interchangeable terms.

“culturally ____” is a neutral description on it’s own. People can use it positively, negatively, or neutrally, just like they can with any baseline-neutral term. Any term we come up with to replace it will have the same problem of some people using it negatively, and derailing the discussions.

So, maybe let’s give each other the benefit of the doubt, and not assume other people are insulting us personally when discussing this stuff?