the thing folks living in Christian dominant cultures gotta realize is that even if you’re not Christian, your basic understanding of religion and spirituality and morality is still being filtered through a Christian lens. your very concept of what religion is and does is filtered through that lens.
This is what I call cultural Christianity, for those who are still confused
“But everyone celebrates christmas.”
No. No we don’t.
“Religion is based on complete blind submission and not asking any questions ever”
No. That’s Christianity.
“Religion is totally focused on the afterlife and getting into heaven and avoiding hell”
Nope. Christianity again.
“Religion is about pushing your beliefs on others and trying to get them to convert”
Still Christianity.
Actually that’s even more specific - that’s Calvinism, which predominates in America. America isn’t just culturally Christian,it’s culturally Calvinist, which very specifically focuses on submission, the fear of damnation, and conversion. It’s also not just any old Calvinism, but a very rigidly puritanical variety thanks to our roots.
There are other culturally Christian countries, which are of other denominations and therefore have a slightly different bent. England is culturally Anglican, Germany is culturally Lutheran, Italy and Spain are culturally Catholic, Russia is culturally Orthodox, etc. However, even the cultural Catholicism of Italy is different from, say, the cultural Catholicism of Ireland.
So even here, we need to be careful not to filter other cultures’ Christianities through what is a very Americanized (via @queertilly) Christianity, and vice versa with other countries. Speaking as an American, even our concept of what Christianityis has been Americanised.
^^^ that
Sorry this is a very good and serious post but the second yall said Calvinism my brain thought of this little guy:
