OK, I stole that from Andrew Sullivan. He has an almost daily blog post about the hypocrisy of the religious fringe in this country and around the world. I thought the below was pretty interesting. Turns out, Christians tend to be more raciest than the general population. There are plenty of things that you can draw from this, one of the big ones being that Christians tend to associate only with themselves and that includes a break down by denomination, which then includes a breakdown into race. Evangelicals = White Anglo, Protestants = Norwegian / Eastern Europe, Catholics = Latino, Southern Baptist = Black / African American. That’s just skimming of course but association is a big part of who we are as humans and as cultures. So the most interesting quote for me on this was:
“The authors failed to find that racial tolerance arises from humanitarian values, consistent with the idea that religious humanitarianism is largely expressed to in-group members. Only religious agnostics were racially tolerant.”
Here is a link to the PDF of the Study. Sadly you have to be a subscriber to see the whole thing.
I find this relevant because I consider myself a religious agnostic. I’m not quite to the point of Atheism, but science has not yet explained zero to me (the point of origin). Religion just can’t do it because the facts don’t support the theory and I’m not willing to just imagine something as factually wrong as Genesis. As a general rule, I don’t have an issue with the idea of a God or Gods. What I have an issue with are humans who believe THEY are God which stems out of ALL organized religion. I also consider myself to be pretty racially tolerant. I attribute much of that to my upbringing, which, even though it was not hugely diverse, I was able to take away an understanding of different cultures and races. As a child I was exposed to people all over the country as I toured with the American Boychoir and I met and stayed with everyone from Black deep south Evangelicals, to Upper New York State Jews with the stereotypical accents. I’ve sung music from every corner of the globe and not only did I sing it but it was expected that we actually understand where it came from and the language it was to be sung in and the culture it was created in. I spent 10 years of my life with a second generation Armenian American whose father was deeply rooted in the culture of his upbringing. I was able to experience a culture that I had not previously been exposed to and I benefited from that exposure. I think the difference with me is that I’ve not ever limited myself to association with only one type of person or one color of person because beyond that I believe we are all human and all of the same species with the same goals and aspirations. You are not of a different species because you have dark skin and I don’t. You are not a different species because you have blond hair and blue eyes and my hair happens to be brown. You are not a different species because your speak broken English or because you wear a Turban. I think that Christians tend to forget the commonality of humanity. They get so wrapped up in shouting their messages that they forget the common and core message of their faith. That is precisely what bothers me about organized religion and it is precisely why I refuse to attend a church. I’m not going to limit my life and my experiences to a congregation of similar thinking and looking individuals just for the sake of a common belief in God. And I’m certainly not going to associate with individuals who can not accept the idea that skin color is irrelevant to being a human. The year is 2010 and it is inexcusable for any individual of any race, of any creed, of any origin to antagonize people not like themselves simply because of that fact.
