What is “Christianaphobia?”
Many people in our culture are afraid of or have an attitude of hatred toward Christians and Christianity. Sociologist George Yancey says this phenomenon is called “Christianaphobia.”
Why don’t people like Christians?
According to Yancey, many people don’t like Christians for their counter-cultural beliefs that are deemed intolerant or hateful. This mindset toward Christianity is so heavily ingrained in secular culture that when someone meets a Christian that seems to break the stereotype, they still don’t accept them.
“This same phenomenon happens in race, where a person meets an African-American and goes, okay, that person is nice, but the group has problems.”
Most people who suffer from “Christianaphobia” are simply ignorant and have only been exposed to misrepresentations of what Christianity is supposed to look like.
“Christians, as much as possible, need to go into mainstream academia, mainstream media, mainstream arts because I do think that contact lessens this sort of bias and bigotry. I think we have a responsibility to go into these areas which we have not gone into.”
Why do many people believe that Christians are what’s wrong with society?
“Many people believe that Christians are trying to drag society back to the dark ages, all of the sudden you realize why religious freedom is not that important to them, why they don’t think that the freedom to take their values into the workplace is important to them, therefore they will fight against that.”
Many people believe that Christian tradition is holding society back and preventing culture from progressing to a greater level of success.
