It is 9pm in a city centre
bar and I find myself on the defensive. Somehow the conversation has turned to
religion and, as if my mother was being directly insulted, I’m prepared to
speak frankly if necessary.
I have to remember to
control myself. One deep breath and I’m rather more relaxed. Everything
continues civilly. Perhaps I feel tense as it is only hours after the above
beer label started a conversation on the topic.
I am, for my sins (pun
intended,) a Christian. Specifically I’m actually Catholic, as that is the church
I attend on the odd occasions I do go, though I do not identify myself under a
singular denomination. My faith doesn’t define me nor dictate many of my
actions. It should do - according to non-Christians – but it doesn’t.
Christiantity has a basis of
privilege in western society being the dominant religion. I know that I am
not marginalised by bigots for my faith and that is a freedom other faiths don’t
have. What this privilege creates in this country, however, is a series of unwelcome
conversations where my beliefs can be questioned in everyday social
situations in a manner deemed acceptable. The assumptions made about Christians
are often delivered in either an accusatory tone or with a smirk.
To try and best create an
equivalence I have previously compared being a Christian in modern England to being a
Scottish football fan in modern England. I used to be a big fan of Scottish
football and support one of the two big Old Firm (Glasgow) teams. These two
teams spent much of the late 90s and 00s being judged on whether they were fit to
join the English league as that was considered to be the only way they could further
excel. On learning your love for Scottish football people in general
conversation would automatically make two assumptions:
a)
You believe domestic Scottish football to be
as good as domestic English football
b)
You believe Rangers and Celtic (The Old
Firm) are capable of competing for the English Premier League title.
Neither of these ideals were
applicable to me or the majority of Old Firm supporters I knew, yet these
“conversations” (arguments) would break out with fans of English football anyway. The accusations and
derision came from assumptions of your beliefs and the discussions would
continue this way even after explaining that their conjectures were false.
Talking about Christianity
here is similar. By existing I am allowed to be challenged directly about my thoughts on
sexuality, creationism, mosaic period text, etc.. and people often assume they
understand my attitudes beforehand.
At a time of heightened
cultural awareness I’m sometimes a touch perturbed by the ignorance I receive
so I’ll make it clear.
You – a non-Christian – don’t
get to decide my faith. You don’t get to decide my interpretations of written
doctrine. You don’t get to decide what I must believe based on the ramblings of
Ricky Gervais. You don’t get to decide what I assumedly dictate to other humans
based on Richard Dawkins work. You don’t get to decide who I am talking with at
the end of a telepathic converasation. You don’t get to mock that ritual of
lighting a candle under Mary’s statue in every place of worship I attend across
the globe.
And if you are a
non-Christian who often raises issues of cultural misappropriation, but still
celebrates Christmas and/or Easter…
This began when I saw the
first image on this page and I began to think of the many other labels and names
using Christian imagery that have entered beer. Not a single one of them
bothers me. There is nothing within me that takes offence to those words and
images. Heck, I would happily buy the lot (I often do with the Great Heck.)
It did make me consider
though why that has gone unchallenged? We are taking on sexism and racism in
beer correctly – images and language that shouldn’t divide opinion. But there
are many discussions about the more schismatic use of cultural misappropriation
in beer. Yet none of my beer peers have questioned the use of Christianity in
beer or asked my opinion about it.
It may be that the creators
are Christian. It may be that some are huge Bobby Bare fans. Maybe we are doing
this cultural and religious ambiguity correctly and waiting for an actual
Christian to speak about this. I have no issue with these beers and nobody else seems to have raised it. Yet I have seen increasing examples of brewers and marketers
being questioned as they haven’t considered that a certain image on their marketing was once sacred in 18th century Mutapa. Stop defending cultures that
haven’t asked for it. It begins to degrade the important discussions.
Mostly, though, this was
never a conversation about beer even if it is one that I have in the pub
frequently. I’m not suggesting that Christians are marginalised or that I ever
feel that way. I would just like people to consider their language more and
reel in their offensive assumptions. Especially those that challenge prejudices
openly yet are judgemental of religion.
When it comes to imagery and text, maybe speak to somebody it affects first before throwing out the disrespectful language. If somebody actually asked me as a Christian what I thought of Jesus' use in beer I will happily tell them that the Scary Jesus Rock Stars are on me.
As with all religions, with their
many interpretations and denominations, a single noun to cover all is
problematic. My vision of Christianity is very different to my mother’s, as
hers is her mother’s. We belong to the same faith though. Let us interpret the
words and symbols. Let us appropriate those correctly. You don’t decide whether
to fight the fight or let it be. It might just be that my Nanna would have
hated those labels.
I’d like to end by
redirecting you to a post I wrote after my Nan passed two years ago. I mention
religion briefly there and the solace it gave my late Nanna and my mother. We
recently laid my father-in-law to rest after he had battled illness for 17
years. He had been an atheist until the illness. He found something in the
church in those final years to give him strength and comfort. Nobody can be sure what it was but faith doesn't need a descriptive. His atheist friends respected it for what it was. Make sure you would have done the same.
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