How is that not denying your place withing western Christian society though? We live in a culturally Christian society, I don't think it's particularly reasonable to expect people not to acknowledge that reality, even if you no longer identify and are put off by being called that, it doesn't change the reality that Christianity is the dominant religion in the west and has tainted all of our lives, especially those of us raised with it. How else is that meant to be discussed and addressed when there is a very clear influence even amongst secularly raised people in western societies? It's part of the fabric of our societies in the west, opting out of the religion doesn't divorce us from our Christian roots and those things Do need to be acknowledged , unpacked and considered, even if being referred to that way makes you personally uncomfortable
Discussing cultural Christianity in the West is a very important conversation that we should have, I'm not trying to deny that. My problem is that this website, in my experience, almost never uses "cultural Christianity" to actually examine Christian supremacy in the West, and instead uses it almost exclusively to a) insult "reddit atheists" and b) shut down any criticism of religion. There's a few problems I have with the way it's used on this site:
1.) It is, ironically, incredibly Western/Christian centric and often denies the experiences of non-Christian religious people. I've seen multiple non-American, non-Christian people get dogpiled for criticizing *their own religion* by people telling them that they're just "cultural Christians" who "shouldn't say 'religion' when you mean 'Christianity'", under the apparent belief that using bigotry and abuse to gain and maintain power is exclusive to Christianity. And people often cite black-and-white thinking, thinking people who don't agree with you are going to suffer in some way, thinking that your religion or way of life is objectively superior, etc. as "cultural Christianity" - but none of that is in any way exclusive to Christians and honestly has very little to do with religion at all. That's just called being a dick, and anyone of any religion can do it.
2.) It is always, almost without exception, used as an accusation leveled at atheists specifically, as though atheists are the only people who internalize stuff about their culture. It's true that people will internalize some Christian teachings if they live in a majority-Christian culture! But that's not exclusive to atheists at all, or to Christian cultures. *Everyone*, of every culture, has some shit to unpack, and it's weird to act like that's exclusive to American atheists. Especially since most ex-Christian atheists became atheists *because* they started unpacking the thinking they'd grown up with!
I've got a post about the cultural pressure to celebrate Christmas (a great example of cultural Christianity that actively harms people) that several Jewish people have commented on saying that they got pressured to celebrate from *other Jewish people*. But nobody would consider calling them "cultural Christians", and rightfully so because:
3.) You shouldn't force labels on people. Calling someone a cultural Christian is *still calling them a Christian*, which most non-Christians aren't really comfortable with. I know it seems like nitpicking between calling someone a "cultural Christian" vs. something like "influenced by cultural Christianity", but if you wouldn't call an American Jew or Muslim a "cultural Christian", you shouldn't call an atheist that either. We're not Christian, full stop.
My last post was inspired by a particular post I saw where someone said they didn't like being called a Christian because they'd suffered religious abuse, and a bunch of blogs dogpiled them to VERY condescendingly tell them that well actually, they ARE still basically Christian like it or not, and therefore need to unpack a laundry list of views that had literally nothing to do with Christianity and which I'm pretty positive the OP doesn't hold. Which is, uh. A super fucked up thing to say to a religious abuse survivor. So I was a little hot going into that post.
TL;DR: Yes, we should talk about cultural Christianity and yes, if you see an argument that you think stems directly from cultural Christianity you should call it out as such. You should NOT call anyone you generally disagree with a "cultural Christian", nor should you act like having to unpack bigoted or outdated ideals is something only (ex) Christians have to do and need to be reminded of at every available opportunity.
