the religious elephant on campus: identifying and addressing christian privilege secular student...

The Religious Elephant on Campus: Identifying and Addressing

Christian Privilege

Secular Student AllianceLyz Liddell

Lori L. Fazzino

Continuing Education Credits• Pulling from the work of McIntosh, Ferber, and Collins on models of

privilege and oppression, this workshop offers a discussion of religious privilege – what it is, how it can manifest, and how it can harm secular individuals as well as people of faith.

• This workshop is intended to both raise awareness and provide models of thinking about and managing such privilege. Religion and religious advantages are a lesser explored axis of oppression and privilege, but we hope to expand awareness with this workshop.

• Little to no risk is associated with attendance, though the topic of privilege and oppression can generate feelings of emotional discomfort.

Today’s Learning Outcomes

• Demonstrate Micro-recognition through helping people recognize their respective areas of privilege and which social identities will likely facilitate oppression.

• Demonstrate Micro/Macro-recognition of the pervasiveness of religious privilege, both interactionally and structurally.

• Demonstrate ways to increase interfaith efforts between believers/non-believers, which would ideally effectuate social change in the political and cultural spheres.

How We’ll Get You There

• Warm-up Exercise• Conceptual/Theoretical Frameworks• Secular Students’ Experiences on Campus• Small Group Discussion• Brainstorming• Closing the Circle

Warm-Up Exercise

Look for Common Ground

Privilege

• Any unearned, unasked for advantage or right granted on the basis of a valued social identity or membership in a prescribed group.

• UNEARNED• INVISIBLE• UNACKNOWLEDGE

McIntosh, P 1988. “White Privilege: Unpacking the Invisible Knapsack.

Applying McIntosh’s Framework

Religious Privilege exists where:“Beliefs, practices, and worldview of one group dominates and is accepted, almost unconsciously by members of the dominant group marginalizing all other beliefs” (Fried, 2007).

• UNEARNED• INVISIBLE• UNACKNOWLEDGED

Fried, J. 2007. Religious privilege: dialogue or domination? In Developments.American College Personnel Association.

Discussing Privilege is Difficult

• Blaming• Defensive• Guilt• Oppressed• Uncomfortable

Oppressor Oppressed– White Privilege Non-Whites– Male Privilege Women/Trans-folk– Thin Privilege Heavy People

– Christian Privilege Non-Christians

Single Oppressor Model

Overlapping Intersecting Identities

Age

Class

Race

Gender

Physical Ability

Sexual Orientation

EthnicityReligion

Multidimensional Model

This is Important!

The benefit of understanding Christian privilege from an intersectional perspective.

• All people have varying amounts of privilege and disadvantage. While particular types of privileges/disadvantages differ, disadvantaged is commonly shared.

Privilege/Oppression Continuum

Identity Category • Race Privilege• Class Privilege• Sex Privilege• Cisgender Privilege• Religious Privilege• Appearance Privilege

Contextual Factors• Regional Location • Cultural Context• Social Group• History Legacy• Number and Salience of

Marginalized Identities

OppressionPrivilege

Small Group Discussion

Imagine that you awoke this morning and you had converted from being Christian or Jewish to Islam, or from being a Muslim or a Christian to Judaism.

• How might family, friends, and work colleagues treat you differently?

• What positive or negative changes might you experience?

• Think about how your new religious beliefs intersect with the other identities you hold. How likely are you to be open about your new-found religious identity?

Levels of OppressionHegemonic Power• Rationalized, if not Justified• Both Individual & Institutional

Discrimination

Bureaucratic Power• Structural • Institutional Discrimination • Laws, Policies, Practices

Social Power• Interpersonal Interactions• Individual Discrimination• Social Exclusion

Cultural

Institutional

Individual

Adapted from: Adams, M., Bell, L. A., & Griffin, P. (Eds.) Teaching for Diversity and Social Justice 2nd Edition.

Discussion Question

Yesterday, Eboo Patel said that the 1985 hegemonic Christian America no longer exists

today. Do you agree?

Religious oppression refers to the systematic subordination of religious

minorities and the nonreligious by the dominant religious culture.

Imagine that you awoke this morning and realized that you no longer believed everything you once professed to – you no longer believed the tenets of your faith.

• How might family, friends, or work colleagues treat you differently?

• What positive or negative changes might you experience?

• Think about how non-religion intersects with the other identities you hold. How likely are you to be open about your new-found non-belief?

Small Group Discussion

• Secular demographics• Secular people in

interfaith settings: a brief and admittedly incomplete history

• The benefits to interfaith of having secular people

• The benefits to secular people of being in interfaith

Secular Students on Campus

Further Breakdown

Source: ARIS 2013

Secular Discrimination on Campus

• Social Ostracism • Coercion• Verbal Harassment• Stereotyping• Slander• Being Exposed/Outed• Proselytization • Removal/destruction of Secular Club Materials

Secular Campus, Negative Climate

Non-Religious Students:• Reported the lowest rate of university satisfaction

• Experience less welcoming campus climate– Symbolic displays of Christianity act as constant reminders of

non-religious students’ minority status and – Lower sense of belonging may lead to less campus

engagement– Isolated, marginalized, alienated

Bowman, N. and C. Toms Smedley. 2013. “The Forgotten Minority: examining Religious Affiliation and University Satisfaction.” Higher Education 65: 745-760.

Brainstorm

Think about the programs on your campus that may be impacted by religious privilege.

*What can student affairs practitioners do to help all students to feel that their religious beliefs are respected?

*How can we acknowledge the role of religious beliefs in students’ lives and identities without privileging dominant belief systems?

*Taken from: Soria, Lepkowski, and Weiner. 2013. Living in the Margins: Examining the Experiences of Atheist Undergraduates on Campus. In Developments

Closing the Circle• Learn about atheism• Assess campus climate for atheist students• Normalize the atheist perspective• Challenge normative ways of thinking about spirituality• Include atheist students in campus• Become aware of sources of marginalization• Include atheist perspective in interfaith efforts• Build a visible network of atheist allies among faculty and staff (SSZ!)• Disseminate information about scholarships specifically for atheist students• Encourage atheist students to use technology to connect to broader atheist

community• Encourage the formation of atheist student orgs• Conduct Research

Thank You!

Lyz Liddell, Director of Campus OrganizingSecular Student Alliance

Lori L. Fazzino, M.A., Strategy ConsultantUniversity of Nevada, Las Vegas

For more resources, visit:www.secularsafezone.orgwww.openlysecular.org