The Christians Have Become The Pagans

[flwyd]

At the height of Christian power in Europe, the Pagans and Heathens lived outside of town. Farmers, they were secluded from the society engulfed in Christianity and controlled, in large measure, by the Church, though many Pagan practices lived on with a thin Christian veil. The Pagans followed the old ways and were looked down upon as being old fashioned, cliquish, and superstitious.

Today, secularism dominates most American cities. While many people remain religious and churches still play a strong role, God is kept out of law (mostly) and most activity in cities occurs without explicit influence from religious affiliation or doctrine, and The Bible doesn't have much direct influence on behavior (though a keen eye shows Christianity's foundational social role). But look to the rural South, small mountain towns, and midwestern farming communities. The church there is often the hub of activity, Christianity (and usually of a less-contemporary form) plays a large part in public life, and city secularists joke about and dismiss such outsiders as hicks.

In America, Christians have taken the role of Pagans and secularism now stands in the place once held by Christianity.

Comments

[trism.livejournal.com]

I would disagree that US Christians are all that marginalized. They seem to exert a great deal of influence on the ruling party of their country, for one. Belief in God and churchgoing are also at astronomical rates by comparison to other industrialized nations, even if a lot of it is just "Homer Simpson" social participation. Also, the secularists are not actively trying to rub them out, just trying to exclude their interpretation of things from the public sphere.

Now, UK Christians, those poor suckers are really marginalized. I think someone once ran the stats and there are more regular pot smokers than regular churchgoers in the UK.

[flwyd.livejournal.com]

I don't think the degree of the analogy is perfect, Christianity certainly plays a larger role in American politics than Paganism played in European politics, but that's due mostly to our democratic government system. On a national level and on most state levels, you can't ignore religion and religious attitudes. But at the level of city politics, size is probably one of the most significant correlates to religion's role.

And the social/C+E Christianity is what I had in mind. Cities have a lot more people who'll check "Christian" on a form and may believe in God, but for whom religion isn't a major influence and (more importantly for my point) don't involve it in the public sphere outside of Sunday mornings. I suspect that a great number of these sorts of people look down on rural "hard core" Christians.