A Good Idea! . . . Mostly

According to news reports, Vatican officials are now urging the United Nations to recognize prejudice against Christians in the same way prejudice against Judaism and Islam are recognized.

Good idea!

Prejudice against Christianity has too often gone unrecognized while members of other religions have been given special treatment. Fairness all ’round is a good idea.

HERE’S A CNA STORY ON THE SUBJECT.

AND A PARALLEL REUTERS STORY.

While I think the Vatican demanding that anti-Christian bias being recognized in an explicit way, I think that there is a problem with the way the proposal is (according to news reports, for whatever those are worth) being advanced.

It’s a matter of words.

The term that is being proposed to refer to prejudice against Christians is "Christianophobia," which would mean "fear of Christians."

This term is a bad idea.

Consider: How many times have you heard complaints about opposition ot homosexuality being described by the term "homophobia," as if people who merely disagree with and disapprove of homosexual behavior are "afraid" of it.

Such charges amount to an attempt to psychologize the beliefs of those who disagree with your beliefs, which results in a species the ad hominem fallacy (in this case, "You disapprove of X because you are the kind of person who fears X"). This distracts from the objective merits of the discussion of whether X is a good thing or not and veers into the subjective world of emotions.

It’s bad argumentation. We should stick to analyzing the merits of a position rather than simply attacking the (alleged) subjective feelings of those who hold it.

What’s sauce for the goose is sauce for the gander, so if we recognize the "-phobia" fallacy when others use it, we should not employ the tactic ourselves.

Instead, we should recognize that prejudice against Christians is anti-Christianism, the same way we recognize that ethnic prejudice against Jews is anti-Semitism (and that theological prejudice against Judaism is anti-Judaism).

The problems with "Christianophobia" are particularly underscored by the fact that the Vatican officials urging the use of the term are (according to news reports) specifically concerned with attacks on Christians in the Muslim world that have been stirred up by the War on Terror (e.g., the bombings of churches in Iraq).

This makes it obvious that the problem is not fear of Christians.

It’s hatred of Christians.

Let’s be honest about that.

The more we confine our rhetoric to reality, the better off we’ll be in the long run.

Author: Jimmy Akin

Jimmy was born in Texas, grew up nominally Protestant, but at age 20 experienced a profound conversion to Christ. Planning on becoming a Protestant seminary professor, he started an intensive study of the Bible. But the more he immersed himself in Scripture the more he found to support the Catholic faith, and in 1992 he entered the Catholic Church. His conversion story, "A Triumph and a Tragedy," is published in Surprised by Truth. Besides being an author, Jimmy is the Senior Apologist at Catholic Answers, a contributing editor to Catholic Answers Magazine, and a weekly guest on "Catholic Answers Live."

2 thoughts on “A Good Idea! . . . Mostly”

  1. Yep.
    That or a compound involving one of the (surprisingly large number of) Latin words for “hatred.”

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