Being For also means being Against

The subject line reads like a truism, but it's often one that gets overlooked, as when the majority reaffirms its own values or way of life, forgetting that some of those values may inherently close out a minority of the same populace. Ampersand has a fascinating discussion of this topic, using the terminology of Centering versus Othering to discuss the way that presuming a default can be the preface to discriminating against those that don't conform. He talks about the creepy case that I linked last week, in which a Jewish family was hounded out of their town for their objections to Christian content in their Delaware town's school system.

The anti-semitic bigotry which so many Christians in the Indian River School District began not with “Othering” - that is, with singling out Jews for treatment as deviants - but with “Centering” - organizing their town’s institutions to center on the assumption that being Christian is the default.

So, for instance, school vacations are called “Easter Vacation” and “Christmas Vacation,” rather than being called spring and winter breaks. School facilities were used for Bible Club, and Bible Club members were given special privileges (such as skipping to the head of the line in the school cafeteria). School board meetings and graduation ceremonies begin with invited ministers leading a prayer to Jesus.

None of the above acts are implicitly anti-Jewish, and all of them are things that many Christians might well decide to do even if there were no Jews (or any other non-Christians) around to discriminate against. These policies and acts reflect a belief that being Christian is a default state.

Thus, in concept and intent, the "centering" activities may be in no way intended as aggressive toward non-believers, or as discriminatory in any way, but they set up an environment in which one set of beliefs is "normal" and others are automatically "abnormal" or even "wrong." It should then come as no surprise when challenges to the unspoken norm (even if based on law, rather than dogma) are seen as reactionary, misguided, and not worthy of respect or consideration. From there, the trip to alienation and violence is a very short one.

It's important to be aware of Centering precisely because it leads so inevitably to Othering, even when considered with no regard to motive.

The Christians of the Indian River School District don’t view themselves as anti-Semites aggressively chasing deviant Jews out of their nice Christian town (although that is what many of them in fact are). Many view themselves as victims of aggression; the ACLU, along with one local Jewish family, is attacking their right to live Christian lives. It is because these folks think their entitlement to worship is under attack that many of them have escalated their acts of Othering to such an extreme level.

But where does that sense of entitlement come from? It is only because of Centering that many Christians have confused their right to practice their religion with being entitled to have a Christian Paster open public meetings and ceremonies; only because of Centering that many Christians consider themselves entitled to take time off from class for Bible study, or to proselytize Christianity in the classroom. If society hadn’t taught them that they are the norm and others are deviants from the norm, then they wouldn’t feel so entitled to have every aspect of public life kow-tow to their religious beliefs.

This same clash of viewpoints comes up in the culture wars not only around religion, but around gender and race and around many other issues on which the "right" view is broadly assumed as given within some community. It's important that we be aware of what we can rightfully presume as shared ground, and that we avoid choices in public life that devalue a subset of our citizens to the point where they can no longer comfortably live among us.