Christian Privilege & the Religion Professor

Last updated on: April 14, 2015 at 9:41 am by Caryn Riswold

Christian Privilege & the Religion Professor 2015-04-14T09:41:54-06:00 Caryn Riswold

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

Today is Better Together Day! The designation comes from the Interfaith Youth Core, lifting up the day to encourage more people to have one conversation with a person of a different religious or non-religious background. It’s an effort to combat some of the basic ignorance about other religious views that pervades our culture, and religious tension that permeates the globe:

“That’s why, on April 14th, we want you talk to an actual human of another religious or non-religious background about the values you both share. Then come back and post the experience online.”

For me, every day includes talking about religion and that almost always includes with people who have a different background than I do … my students. I’ve been working on ways of drawing out conversations about difference in the classroom for several years, making every class a little more multifaith in content, and this has meant reckoning with the ways that Christian privilege plays out in that setting.

I first wrote about Christian privilege here at Patheos in 2012. It has been a popular post ever since, which clued me in to the fact that it was something we needed to talk more about. Especially in relationship to interfaith cooperation. I had the opportunity to be in conversation with colleagues on a panel on the subject in 2013 at the American Academy of Religion, and eventually turned that work into an article that has just been published by the journal Teaching Theology and Religion. Published by the Wabash Center, TTR is a great resource for those of us whose job is, in fact, teaching theology and religion.

Here’s the abstract for the article, which is available in full via the publisher’s website:

Working with undergraduate students invites teachers into relationship and conversation with young people at a time when they are emerging as adults and forming their identities. Faith is one area of identity formation often attended to by scholars, college professors, and their institutions. But within that, little attention has been paid to those who do not identify as religious.

Additionally, “the overwhelming presence of Christianity at American institutions maintains it as the spiritual norm on campus. … Those within the spiritual norm gain a level of privilege that is often unconscious” (Seifert 2007, 11). This has an effect not only on nonreligious students but on any student who identifies as anything other than Christian; and it has a unique effect on teaching and learning in the religion classroom.

In this article, I will explain what Christian privilege is, why it is a unique problem in the undergraduate religion classroom, and what teachers of religion might do in response to it. In the end, I argue that educators need to better understand the effects of Christian privilege in our classrooms and become allies to the nonreligious in particular by using pedagogies that include and support all students, in their many religious affiliations and unaffiliations.

Education and conversation are essential to our being better together, today and every other day. This is some of how I’m working on this in my “day job” as a religion professor. And even though this campaign targets college students, I encourage you all to participate in IFYC’s Better Together Day by having a conversation with someone of a different religious or non-religious background.

What inspires you?

Tell us about it here in the comments, or online with @ifyc … #WeAreBetterTogether.

Previous Post

March 31, 2015

When Religious Freedom Only Protects Heteropatriarchy

Next Post

April 21, 2015 Rites of Passage: Sabbatical as Sabbath

Browse Our Archives

Select a Category Abortion At the Intersections Atheism Christianity Contraception Education Feminism Gender Getting Theological Honorable Mention Islam LGBT News Our Voices Race Uncategorized

Select a Month July 2017 June 2017 May 2017 March 2017 February 2017 January 2017 August 2016 July 2016 June 2016 May 2016 April 2016 March 2016 February 2016 January 2016 December 2015 November 2015 October 2015 September 2015 August 2015 July 2015 June 2015 May 2015 April 2015 March 2015 February 2015 January 2015 December 2014 November 2014 October 2014 September 2014 August 2014 July 2014 June 2014 May 2014 April 2014 March 2014 February 2014 January 2014 December 2013 November 2013 October 2013 September 2013 August 2013 July 2013 June 2013 May 2013 April 2013 March 2013 February 2013 January 2013 December 2012 November 2012 October 2012 September 2012 August 2012 July 2012

TAKE THE

Religious Wisdom Quiz

What was the name for a standard silver coin in Biblical times?

Select your answer to see how you score.

Mina Denarius Shekel Talent