On Being Religious Minorities, and Possible Futures
While modern Pagans, Hindus, Native/indigenous adherents, and various African diasporic practitioners in America may have some significant commonalities that make banding together to fight for religious freedoms and equal treatment a pragmatic option, we are all part of a far larger grouping known as “religious minorities” that’s a grab-bag of just about every faith that isn’t some form of Christianity (about 75% of the United States if you lump Catholics and Protestants together ). This larger unchosen demographic fellowship contains everyone from Muslims to Rastafarians, and is hardly what one would call a happy family. Still, in a country where Christian expressions, traditions, and allowances can seem hegemonic, there are some shared experiences.
“Imagine having an exam or mandatory meeting on a holiday with the religious importance of Christmas. It’s a regular occurrence for religious minorities in the United States … In many ways, religious minorities get the short end of the stick. Having her high school’s homecoming on Yom Kippur was not a shocker to Emma Peck-Block, whose family was one of the few Jewish ones in the small town of Menomonie, Wisconsin. Like many minorities, Peck-Block went to what many minorities call the “Christmas argument.” “We caused a stir and asked, ‘If it was a basketball game on Christmas, would you change it?’ and they said, ‘Of course,’” Peck-Block said.”
The CNN report quoted above goes on to present the argument that religious minorities may have an “advantage” because we form stronger religious identities and bonds with co-religionists. Surely that is partially true, and it’s why many Christian denominations present themselves as minorities despite their collective cultural and demographic dominance, often framing our mere existence as an attack on “Christian America”, or exaggerating the size and influence of various religious minorities to form a more intense group identity. However, I don’t agree with Rabbi Saul “Simcha” Prombaum that religious minorities should take an accommodationist stance when it comes towards seeking equal treatment.
“Prombaum has some advice. “You’re better off finding a way to accommodate yourself rather than force acceptance when you live as a minority in a majority culture,” he said. “Instead of forcing the majority to bend, it’s better for you to enlighten the population.” Do you agree? What do you believe are the advantages of being a religious minority, if there are any? Should minorities force the majority to bend or do you agree with Rabbi Prombaum?”
The idea that we should keep quiet, not rock the boat, and hope that eventually we’ll sway the majority by being very nice and informative is a recipe for remaining perpetual second-class citizens in a supposedly secularly governed country. Without litigation, without protest, without some fierce personalities who were willing to stick their necks out, modern Paganism would still be a tiny, secretive, and wildly misunderstood group of cults, our social standing not much different from what we had back in the 1960s. While some modern Pagans do indeed yearn for some kind of return to that time, just as some Christians yearn for a return to various early “purer” points in their own faith, it is neither a practical or wise choice for a family of faiths that is now growing rapidly with virtually no proselytizing. We are far too along in our journey to reverse course, we can only accept what we have become, are becoming, and fight to ensure we are free to practice as we wish. To be treated equally under the law, or continue to see our affiliations used against us in the courts, in the classrooms, in our prisons, in our workplaces, and in our military.
In addition, the demographics are changing. Continual Christian dominance isn’t a sure thing any longer. Most likely not in my lifetime, but eventually, America we’ll see a true shift into “post-Christianity”, a world where the Christian world-view and morality is no longer solely dominant. When that time comes, all of us who were once in the “religious minorities” will have to decide what kind of society and culture we’ll have. Will we pursue the fierce secularism of France? Or will America end up looking a lot more like India?
“India is secular and a democracy but a country with a billon-plus population — consisting of hundreds of tribes, clans and castes following myriad beliefs — can be pretty fickle when it comes to defining ’sensitive’ topics and easily susceptible to parochial politics … If countries like France lay emphasis on the separation of religion and state, in India, most aspects of public life are inter-connected with religion, not to mention caste, tribe and what not.”
The path America takes, not to mention countries dealing with similar tensions, like Canada, the UK and Australia, will come fraught with drawbacks, tensions, and problems, no matter which way we collectively turn. But what is certain is that we need to make sure we are taking an active role in shaping our future, politically, legally, and socially, or else the decision will be entirely out of our hands. There’s no guarantee that the post-Christianity our Pagan children and grandchildren face will be one friendlier to our faiths and traditions. If building a better future for us means daring to ask our “Christian nation” to “bend”, then so be it.
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