Christianophobia, also called christophobia, is a term used by some to describe an irrational fear or hatred of Christians, or Christianity in general. Jump to: navigation, search Christianity is a monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus of Nazareth as presented in the New Testament writings of his early followers. ...

Origins and use of the term

The term originated with American legal scholar J.H.H. Weiler. It was described in detail by George Weigel in his books, Is Europe Dying? Notes on a Crisis of Civilizational Morale and The Cube and the Cathedral: Europe, America, and Politics Without God. George Weigel (Baltimore, 1951 - ) is an American conservative author, Roman Catholic theologian and polical and social activist. ...

In December 2004 Pope John Paul II argued that christianophobia was spreading around the world and called on the UN to draft laws on christianophobia, as it has done on islamophobia and anti-Semitism. Jump to: navigation, search ← - 2004 : January - February - March - April - May - June - July - August - September - October - November - December- → Deaths in December • 30 Artie Shaw • 29 Julius Axelrod • 28 Jacques Dupuis • 28 Jerry Orbach • 28 Susan Sontag • 26 Reggie White • 26 Sir Angus Ogilvy • 23 P. V. Narasimha Rao • 23 Doug Ault... Jump to: navigation, search The pope is the Catholic Bishop and patriarch of Rome, and head of the Catholic Church. ... Jump to: navigation, search Pope John Paul II (Latin: ), born Karol Józef WojtyÅ‚a (May 18, 1920 - April 2, 2005), reigned as pope of the Catholic Church for almost 27 years, from 16 October 1978 until his death, making his the third-longest pontificate in the history of the... This article is about the United Nations, for other uses of UN see UN (disambiguation) Official languages English, French, Spanish, Russian, Chinese, Arabic Secretary-General Kofi Annan (since 1997) Established October 24, 1945 Member states 191 Headquarters New York City, NY, USA Official site http://www. ... Jump to: navigation, search Islamophobia is a neologism used to refer to an irrational fear or prejudice towards Muslims and the religion of Islam. ... The Eternal Jew: 1937 German poster. ...

The UN Human Rights Commission in Geneva now speaks of "anti-Semitism, islamophobia and christianophobia." The use of the word christianophobia has been proposed for use in the UN General Assembly. The United Nations Commission on Human Rights, a commission supervised by the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, is composed of representatives from 53 member states, and meets each year in regular session in March/April for six weeks in Geneva. ... Jump to: navigation, search Jet dEau in Geneva Geneva (French: Genève) is the second-most populous city in Switzerland, situated where Lake Geneva (known in French as Lac Léman) flows into the Rhône River. ... The Eternal Jew: 1937 German poster. ... Jump to: navigation, search Islamophobia is a neologism used to refer to an irrational fear or prejudice towards Muslims and the religion of Islam. ... United Nations General Assembly The United Nations General Assembly is one of the six principal organs of the United Nations. ...

Causes and effects of christianophobia in recent times

George Weigel attributes christianophobia today to a number of causes:

• The rejection of Christianity in favor of secular humanism by many European and American intellectuals in the 19th century.
• The experience of the Holocaust, which some European intellectuals concluded was the logical outcome of Christian bigotry through the centuries;
• The disappointment allegedly felt by European leftists over the collapse of European communism, which many "blame" in part on the church;
• The social rebellions of the 1960s, which opposed traditional authority of all kinds, both religious and secular;
• Pre-World War II church support for reactionary right-wing politicians, some of which would later collaborate with the Nazis – prior to the Christian Democrat movement which attempted to break from this legacy;
• Guilt by association with the political policies of the United States and the West in general, especially the "war on terror" which is perceived by some to be an imperialist war.

• Strong political statements made by controversial pastors Jerry Falwell and Fred Phelps; Christian network founder and presidential candidate Pat Robertson; singer/activist Anita Bryant and some American televangelists which condemn behaviour of certain social groups and political leaders.

Other writers point to evangelization by Christians as a cause. The activity of the Christian Right is sometimes characterized by its opponents as promoting the ideologies of Zionism, Islamophobia, anti-semitism, racism, Fascism, theocracy, intolerance, homophobia, xenophobia, heterosexism, patriarchy and sexism, and fostering ignorance, in part because it aims to prevent access to pornography, abortion, euthanasia and gay marriage through the use of laws, tends to favor preferential treatment of Israel, promotes public policies entailing religious belief in God, and sometimes frustrates the teaching of the theory of evolution in the public schools, among other things. Jump to: navigation, search Secular humanism is that branch of philosophy that advocates the use of reason, compassion, scientific inquiry, ethics, justice and equality in addressing issues of a worldview centered upon human beings. ... Concentration camp inmates during the Holocaust The Holocaust was Nazi Germanys systematic genocide (ethnic cleansing) of various ethnic, religious, national, and secular groups during World War II. Early elements include the Kristallnacht pogrom and the T-4 Euthanasia Program established by Hitler that killed some 200,000 people. ... Jump to: navigation, search This article is about the history of Christianity and anti-Semitism. ... Jump to: navigation, search Communism refers to a theoretical system of social organization and a political movement based on common ownership of the means of production. ... Jump to: navigation, search World War II was a truly global conflict with many facets: immense human suffering, fierce indoctrinations, and the use of new, extremely devastating weapons such as the atom bomb World War II, also known as the Second World War, was a mid-20th-century conflict that... In law, treason is the crime of disloyalty to ones nation. ... Jump to: navigation, search Look up Nazi on Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ... Christian Democracy is a political ideology, born at the end of the 19th century, largely as a result of the papal encyclical Rerum Novarum of Pope Leo XIII, in which the Vatican recognizes workers misery and agrees that something should be done about it, in reaction to the rise of... Guilt by association, also known as the bad company fallacy or the company that you keep fallacy, is the logical fallacy of claiming that something must be false because of the people or organisations who support it. ... The war on terrorism or war on terror (abbreviated in U.S. policy circles as GWOT for Global War on Terror) is an effort by the governments of the United States and its principal allies to destroy groups deemed to be terrorist (primarily radical Islamist organizations such as al-Qaeda... Imperialism is the policy of extending the control or authority over foreign entities as a means of acquisition and/or maintenance of empires, either through direct territorial or through indirect methods of exerting control on the politics and/or economy of other countries. ... Jump to: navigation, search Jerry Lamon Falwell (born on August 11, 1933) is an American Baptist pastor, televangelist, founder of the Moral Majority & Liberty University, and a prominent Conservative activist. ... Jump to: navigation, search Fred Phelps, c. ... Jump to: navigation, search Pat Robertson Marion Gordon Pat Robertson (born March 22, 1930) is an American Christian televangelist, entrepreneur, and Christian right political activist. ... Jump to: navigation, search Anita Bryant (born March 25, 1940, in Barnsdall, Oklahoma) is an American singer who made a series of television commercials for Florida orange juice. ... In the USA, a televangelist (television evangelist) is a religious minister (often a Christian priest or minister) who devotes a large portion of his (or her) ministry to TV broadcasts to a regular viewing and listening audience. ... Jump to: navigation, search Evangelism is the preaching of the Christian Gospel, or by extension any other form of preaching or proselytizing. ... Jump to: navigation, search Christian Right is a term collectively referring to a spectrum of conservative Christian political and social movements and organizations characterized by their strong support of social values they deem traditional in the United States and other western countries. ... Jump to: navigation, search For other meanings, please see Zionism (disambiguation) Zionism is Jewish patriotism that supports the Jewish homeland in the Land of Israel where the Jewish nation originated and where Jewish kingdoms and self governing states existed at various times. ... Jump to: navigation, search Islamophobia is a neologism used to refer to an irrational fear or prejudice towards Muslims and the religion of Islam. ... The Eternal Jew: 1937 German poster. ... Jump to: navigation, search A black man drinks out of a water fountain designated for black people in 1939 at a streetcar terminal. ... Jump to: navigation, search Fascism (in Italian, fascismo), capitalized, was the authoritarian political movement which ruled Italy from 1922 to 1943 under the leadership of Benito Mussolini. ... Jump to: navigation, search The term theocracy is used to describe a form of government in which a religion or faith plays a dominant role. ... There is also a movie called Intolerance. ... Jump to: navigation, search The term homophobia is a portmanteau derived from the words homosexual and phobia. ... Jump to: navigation, search Xenophobia denotes a phobic attitude toward strangers or of the unknown and comes from the Greek words ξένος (xenos), meaning foreigner, stranger, and φόβος (phobos), meaning fear. ... Heterosexism is a belief or argument that male-female sexuality is the only natural or moral mode of sexual behavior, and is also used to refer to the effects of that cultural ideology. ... Patriarchy (from Greek: patria meaning father and arché meaning rule) is the anthropological term used to define the sociological condition where male members of a society tend to predominate in positions of power; with the more powerful the position, the more likely it is that a male will hold that... Jump to: navigation, search The sign of the headquarters of the National Association Opposed To Woman Suffrage Sexism is commonly considered to be discrimination against people based on their sex rather than their individual merits, but can also refer to any and all differentiations based on sex. ... Ignorance is a lack of knowledge, or a willful lack of desire to improve the efficiency, merit, effectiveness or usefulness of ones actions. ... Pornography (from Greek πορνογραφία pornographia — literally writing about or drawings of harlots) (also informally referred to as porn or porno) is the representation of the human body or human sexual behaviour with the goal of sexual arousal, similar to, but (according to some) distinct from, erotica. ... Jump to: navigation, search Euthanasia (Greek: ευθανασία - ευ good, θανατος death) is the practice of killing a person or animal, in a painless or minimally painful way, for merciful reasons, usually to end their suffering. ... Same-sex marriage is marriage between individuals who are of the same legal or biological sex. ... Jump to: navigation, search The term God is capitalized in the English language as a proper noun when used to refer to a specific monotheistic concept of a supernatural Supreme Being in accordance with Christian, Jewish (sometimes as G-d - cf. ... Jump to: navigation, search Charles Darwin, father of the theory of evolution by natural selection. ... Jump to: navigation, search The term public school has different meanings: In Scotland, Australia, the United States and most other English-speaking nations, a school which does not charge tuition fees but is financed and/or controlled by the state, in contrast to a private school (also known as an...

Erratic and/or violent behavior of individuals can distort the public view of the conglomerate: individuals who try to thwart activity in abortion clinics through shootings and bombings, those who commit hate crimes, those who pilfer from organizations with intent to redirect funds to worthier causes. These do not represent the intent of the majority, but stand out in the public mind.

Excessive solicitation of funds from a handful of televangelists, compiled with the necessary solicitation from shows that deny advertising support, present the image of churches always asking for money.

Disagreement with the Christian Right is often generalized toward all Christians. Traditional Catholics and Protestant fundamentalists hold to some of these views, but the offense is applied across the hundreds of sects and denominations, and the millions of diverse individuals.

A recent trend in trying to maintain influence in the culture has led to lawsuits and cases that rise to the U.S. Supreme Court. With schools trying to maintain religious neutrality, young children have been punished for bringing books and religious jewelry to school, and for holding independent prayer meetings on school grounds.

Retaining a way of life come across opposition: schoolchildren who do not celebrate holidays can lose credit for not participating in projects; children not allowed to watch PG-13 movies in class might not be offered an alternative assignment; those who want the theory of evolution presented as one of many theories are treated as backward. Many teachers will allow religious materials brought in, as the teachers themselves are not allowed to influence the children; this still can result in another parent claiming unfair dogmatic practices.

Christians try to maintain equal rights to religious freedoms, but since they are perceived as the majority, they gain little sympathy.

Continual resistance between the American Civil Liberties Union's decisions and Christian activists prompted the establishment of a defending organization, the American Center for Law and Justice (ACLJ). Jump to: navigation, search The American Civil Liberties Union, or ACLU, is a non-governmental organization whose stated goal is to defend and preserve the individual rights and liberties guaranteed to every person . ... The American Center for Law and Justice was founded in 1990 by Christian televangelist Dr. Pat Robertson as a nonprofit public interest law firm composed of attorneys committed to defending what it sees as the Judeo-Christian values of religious liberty, the sanctity of human life, and the two-parent...

The perceived solidarity of Christians in politics and social issues leads to further anxieties that Christians will flock together and espouse the political views of strong vocal leaders.

The resulting fear of Christians and Christianity worldwide has led to Christians' loss of rights, property, and lives. Forty-five million, or two thirds of all Christians reportedly martyred in the last 2000 years, were killed in the twentieth century. (The New Persecuted: Inquiries into Anti-Christian Intolerance in the New Century of Martyrs.)

See also

• Anti-Catholicism
• Evangelicalism
• Persecution of Christians
• Religious intolerance
• Separation of church and state