Racism is linked to Religious dogmatismJohn Shook - February 16, 2010
Religious congregations generally express
more prejudiced views towards other races.
Furthermore, the more devout the
community, the greater the racism.
Religious people can be racist, and that's not news. But are
they more likely to be racist than non-religious people? A new study
now confirms this hypothesis.
The February issue of Personality and Social Psychology Review
<http://psr.sagepub.com/cgi/content/abstract/14/1/126> has published
a meta-analysis of 55 independent studies conducted in the United States
which considers surveys of over 20,000 mostly Christian participants.
Religious congregations generally express more prejudiced views towards
other races. Furthermore, the more devout the community, the greater the
racism.
We also read this additional fascinating conclusion from the authors'
summary:
"The authors failed to find that racial tolerance arises from
humanitarian values, consistent with the idea that religious
humanitarianism is largely expressed to in-group members. Only
religious agnostics were racially tolerant."
Is this a surprising result? Humanistic values, such as equal dignity
and rights for all humanity, are often professed by many Christian
denominations. But does this preaching make any difference to their
members' actual prejudices? Apparently not!
This study finds that a denomination's demand for devout allegiance to
its Christian creed overrides any humanistic message. By demanding such
devotion to one specific and dogmatic Christianity, a denomination only
encourages its members to view outsiders as less worthy.
--- Let's read that conclusion again: "Only religious agnostics were
racially tolerant." Why would religious agnostics be more humanistic and
less racist?
Religious agnostics would be people who combine a religious/spiritual
attitude in living life with a humble admission that they don't know if
their approach is the only right way. Religious agnostics are
pluralistic -- they have no problem admiring how different people can
enjoy different religious paths. And it is precisely this lack of
dogmatism which permits humanistic values to shine through. Religious
exclusivism defeats humanistic universalism, but religious pluralism
enhances humanistic universalism.
The message to humanists? It's not enough to ask religious people to be
more humanistic. Humanists must ask for less dogmatism across the board
-- if Christians would be more humanistic, they must surrender their
conviction that their way is the only way. Humanism does not eliminate
reverence, but it asks for a higher perspective -- something like
"reverence for reverence." Revere your own religious path, but also
respect and revere others' ability to devote themselves to a higher good
in their own way. It is precisely that kind of universal respect for all
paths which can reduce prejudice.
As for the nonreligious, this "reverence for reverence" is essential to
humanism in the first place. We should all be able to create our own way
of relating to the wide universe as we learn to understand it. And the
humanistic ideal is that everyone can do this together in mutual respect
and peace.
http://snipurl.com/uut84 [www_centerforinquiry_net]
