About
10 years ago, I was in my office at work, and a colleague came by to talk about
a project. I don’t remember exactly what the project was about, but it did
involve people who had been critical of the company and its products.
Then,
out of the clear blue, my colleague said, “But you know who really frightens me?”
I
shook my head.
“Those
Christians,” she replied, shuddering.
“Those
Christians,” she nodded. “Those evangelicals. They scare me, always trying to
force there views on us.”
Stunned,
I sat for a moment without speaking.
“Do
I scare you?” I asked.
She
shook her head.
“I’m
one of them,” I said. “One of those evangelical Christians. Do I try to force
my views on you?”
It
was her turn to be stunned. I could see cognitive dissonance exploding inside
her head.
“Well,”
she said finally, “if you are one of them, you must be the exception.”
It
was my first experience of “Christianophobia” with a work colleague. I had
experienced it before, something on the level of group hysteria, over a school
district controversy. My colleague was college-educated, older than I was by a
few years, with a journalism background.
If
you asked conservative Christians if there is Christianophobia in the United
States, the likely response would be a rather large majority affirmative. The
evidence has largely anecdotal – court decisions, stories of university
political correctness run wild (lots of those), sneering editorials by the
local newspaper, fundraising letters by organizations like People for the
American Way.
 |
| George Yancey |
All
anecdotal, until So
Many Christians, Do Few Lions: Is There Christianophobia in the United States?
by George Yancey and David Williamson.
The authors are sociology professors at the University
of North Texas, a public university (not religious) in the Dallas-Fort
Worth area.
The
book, while more engaging than the typical sociology book, is still a sociology
text. Yancey and Wiliamson don’t sensationalize their subject or write in
screaming prose. You have to read slowly and deliberately. The appendices
comprise about half the volume.
 |
| David Williamson |
They
make their case. Using existing surveys plus ones they themselves conducted,
they make a solid case that there is indeed Christianophobia in the United
States, and especially among a rather elite group – highly educated, relatively
wealthy whites. In overall size, they would be smaller than the conservative
Christians they fear. In influence, position, and power, however, they’ve got
it all over the Christians.
In
terms of what has been happening culturally in the United States, this is an
important subject to consider and discuss. And I will be discussing key parts
of the book over the next two to three Mondays – who are the people so afraid
of conservative Christians; why do they believe what they do; how do they
rationalize what would otherwise be considered intolerant, bigoted beliefs; and
what the implications might be.
I
do know that my work colleague who so feared “those Christians” fit almost exactly
the demographic described by Yancey and Williamson. And that happened a decade ago.
The situation has not improved since then.
Painting: The Christian Martyrs Last
Prayer, oil on canvas by Jean-Leon Gerome (1883); the Walters Art Museum,
Baltimore.
