The context of the message to which you responded was bias in the media, specifically Nadine's concern that the BBC is deferential to Islam while being hostile to Christian institutions. I suggested an alternative explanation, that it is not an affinity for Islam and a hostility toward Christianity but an exaggerated politeness based on the concepts of hospitality and magnanimity.
Nice people treat oddballs with courtesy. It's not nice to make outsiders feel like outsiders. If you're having a birthday party for your kid and one of the kids is an immigrant whose religion worships donkeys, you don't play pin the tail on the donkey at the party. Like, duh. You may even try to make the kid feel welcome by engaging him on the subject of donkeys and treating his worship of them respectfully. That doesn't mean that you are about to convert to donkey worship or that you favor it in any way, or that you are hostile to Jesus, only that you are being nice to minorities so they don't feel so much like outsiders or that you are interested in others and in learning about their ways. Conversely, if the kids are out back playing football and getting too rough, you will scold them for it. That doesn't mean that you are hostile to American institutions, only that football, like other American institutions, has flaws and the flaws of American institutions are appropriately criticized by Americans. They are our institutions. It is noble and patriotic to clean up our own warts.
Christianity is football and Islam is the donkey. The media may, in fact, be a donkey sycophant while hostile to football, but what appears that way to some may also be simply the dual role of treating others respectfully while lampooning our own institutions when deserved. When the BBC does stories on Christianity, the dominant religion, it would inevitably be about the warts. That's the man bites dog approach of journalism.
It is natural for people to be more critical of themselves and those nearest and dearest than they are of strangers because they have a greater stake in improving what is closest to them. It is also natural for people to dismiss or demonize others while ignoring or denying or even glorifying their own warts. These conflicting sensibilities coexist in our society and even in the same people in different situations. The former shows up more when we are comfortable and confident, the latter when we feel threatened or have inferiority complexes.
I agree with you that our popular culture can be hostile to conservative churches. I understand why members feel like they don't have the upper hand, why they feel like "others," not the dominant group, and why they would expect at least the deference from the media given to Islam and why they would be outraged when they don't get it. I can also see why they might be so sensitive that they would loose sight of context. Folks who feel under siege loose skin thickness. When the issue is conservative Christianity vs. liberal Christianity, they may be the "other," but when the issue is Christianity vs. Islam, they are in the majority and should recognize some obligation to be magnanimous or to at least recognize that expression in others when they see it. |
