Grade 12 Equity and Social Justice – Strand C
Religious Oppression
Adapted from Adams, Maurianne. (2011). Religious Oppression.
It may seem odd…perhaps even counterintuitive…to apply the ideas of oppression to the role of religion in society
since, in most cases, religion is a basis for social morality (i.e., the opposite of oppression). Yet, religion has been
used, again and again, as a tool of oppression and as a mechanism to maintain cultural and political domination, or
as Young (1990) observes, it is the doctrine of faith that evokes deeply held and sanctioned beliefs to maintain
systematic domination and subordination in the normal, everyday practices of a well-intentioned liberal society.
Religion is not conquest or colonial domination; rather, religion is structural and systematic operating, in many
cases, “under the radar” because it is part of an unequal’s society’s unquestioned norms (e.g., society is full of
religious symbols, and thus, it is part of all parts of society). Thus religious norms are part of the “normal processes
of everyday life.” Moreover, its assumptions and habits uphold institutional rules which, in many cases, are
oppressive rules.
Approaching Religion from the Historical Sociology Viewpoint
 This is not a question of religious beliefs, affiliations or interpretations (i.e., it is not theological). It is
studying religion and its role in society from a historical-sociological viewpoint (i.e., religion as a process
to establish and maintain political, social and cultural dominance; religion, in a historical context, to create
and reproduce a dominant national-religious identity through hegemonic (…dominant or ruling…) religious
culture)
 Global conflict is often posed in religious terms (e.g., theological clashes of good and evil, uplifting and
noble capitalism versus godless-Communism, post-9/11 war on terrorism against Islamic militants and
terrorists). “Clash of civilizations” is a phrase simplifying the political, cultural and ideological aspects of
the conflict between those who claim extreme fundamental Islamic beliefs and those of the global, financial
networks aligned with the Western world (Huntington, 1996). Juergensmeyer (2004) states, “It is not so
much that religion has become politicized, but that politics have been religionized.” Our task is to separate
the religious dimensions of these conflicts from the political, cultural and ideological dimensions so that we
can explore and understand how religious motives and mechanisms are used to establish and maintain
cultural, ethical, racial and class oppression.
 Domestic issues also draw on explicit religious justifications to generate public support. Moreover,
religion interacts with ethnicity, class, gender and nationalism. Thus, it is important to consider the various
dimensions of social identity (e.g., religion, class positions, racial formation and race, ethnicity and
ethnocentrism, conflicts) together, and not as separate social categories. Recent conflicts include
euthanasia (end of life), stem cell research (beginning of life), abortion (right to decide versus right to life),
Intelligent Design (creationism) versus Darwinism (evolution), and restrictions on gay rights (same-sex
marriage), plus “smaller” issues such as religious displays in public spaces or tax-funded religious schools.
These struggles can be viewed as manifestations of political debate regarding the position and authority of
religion in public life. These conflicts often occur in political arenas, and as such, seem to enshrine (…or
resist) a certain denominational view of the dominant religion as the template or framework for public
policy.
 Conflicts are often carried out in the name of a single religious group’s commitment to its own universal,
unitary and religiously “correct” understanding of morality and conduct, and against the
interdenominational or non-sectarian assumption that a religiously diverse citizenship is better served by
religious pluralism or by secularism in the civic arena. According to the alternative, the political or cultural
domination of any one religious perspective at the expense of any other perspective (religious
or otherwise) threatens the civil rights and democratic aspirations of all citizens. No single religious or nonreligious belief can be more or less free that the others.
Social Justice and Religious Oppression
How has religion been used to…
1. …maintain, justify and reproduce patterns of dominance and subordination, as well as the role of religion
on behalf of anti-oppression?
2. …maintain social and institutional power?
3.
4.
5.
6.
…maintain national identity (e.g., ensure certain religious groups have access to the benefits of public life
including citizenship, housing, education, political representation and protection of law?
…enforce the ideas that the ideas and belief systems of colonists, settlers and immigrants from Europewas
superior to the belief systems of other groups including First Nations?
…isolate and delegitimatize “others”?
…conflate the ideas of racial formation (e.g., ideas of the Arab race affect the communities who identify
primarily as religiously Christian)?
Ethnocentrism and Ethnoreligious Oppression
 Ethnocentrism means the cultural domination of a specific
ethnic (often majority) group in a larger national context.
 Ethnoreligious is the intertwined and mutually reinforcing
symbiosis between race, ethnicity and religion during which
religion is used to justify and mobilize ethnic aspirations (i.e.,
the co-existence of multiple identities including religion, race,
culture and ethnicity). In social justice, ethnoreligious conceals
the religious dimensions of religious oppression. In Canada,
minority religions (e.g., Jews, Muslims) are often represented in
contradictory ways by the majority, advantaged culture. For
example, Muslims could be described as religious, ethnic or
terrorists. This action tends to oversimplify religion, ethnicity
and race.
Theorizing Religious Oppression
What are the historical legacies plus the contemporary manifestations of
religious oppression as it operates throughout the “normal processes of
everyday life?” To explore everyday injustices experiences by religious
minorities, Young (1990) described five faces of oppression:
 Exploitation
 Marginalization
 Powerlessness
 Cultural imperialism
 Violence.
The five faces identify the obstacles that prevent religious minority communities from partaking fully in the
opportunities Canadian life, unless these communities deny or hide visible symbols of their religious affiliations.
Integration of Religions with other Social Categories
Religious differences suffuse many of the global, regional and ethnic conflicts. Religion also generates intensity,
partisanship and sectarian solidarity sanctioned by a particular view of divine right. Thus, it is difficult to separate
religion from a group’s other social identities to answer “How much is due to religion?” In particular, the
significance of religion is often underestimated in Canadian society. We will try and explore religious oppression in
relation to other social categories (e.g., religion and race and economic class and ethnicity and nationalism to
illustrate the complex ways these categories interact to construct identity and difference (Note: Nationalism is very
important for those religiously identified as national “outsiders” (Marty and Appleby, 1997)). For example, the
oppression of First Nations in Canada is a complex and cumulative interaction of religion (Christianity versus
heathen), race (White versus Red), culture (civilized versus barbarian) and economic competition over land. This
process is important to understand the religious justifications used in tandem with racism or classism to dehumanize
“Others,” dismiss religious minorities, restrict or relocate living spaces and eradicate other cultures. As noted by
Deloria (1999), “land acquisition and missionary work always went hand-in-hand in (Canadian) history.”
Historical Framework
It is impossible to understand the complexity of global or local political and ideological conflicts without examining
the historical backgrounds of religious conflicts. For example, conflicts such as the Middle East, the Balkans,
Ukraine, Sudan, Somalia, Nigeria and Canada (First Nations) are rooted in long-standing religious, ethnic and
economic struggles between dominant and subordinate peoples. European anti-Semitism is integrally linked to the
emergence of Christian-identified European nation-states where Jews were forcibly converted, expelled, or
exterminated as the non-Christian “others.” Moreover, Jews were the “others” because, in part, Islam had been
forcibly been expelled from Spain. This latter conflict resurfaces today in international power struggles and the
ongoing of mistreatment of Muslims in the Christian world.
The historical legacy of religious-nationalistic global power struggle has also shaped Canada. Early colonization
saw religious struggles between Catholics and Protestants….mistrust which is maintained today. Our “freedom of
religion” was enacted to prevent state-sponsored religious domination by Protestant sects over other groups (Wills,
2002). NOTE: This action has not stopped our tradition of anti-Catholicism.
Christian Hegemony
Christianity is the normative cultural identity within Canada. Hegemony refers to the unacknowledged adherence to
a dominant worldview. Our religious worldview publicly affirms Christian observances, holy days, weekend
worship and sacred spaces at the expense of those who are not Christian. Moreover, Christianity values are
normalized and explicitly part of public and political life. For instance, politicians make frequent and pointed
references to the Christian bible. Yet, it is largely invisible to you and I (i.e., we have been born and socialized into
its traditions, assumptions, values and advantages).
Finally…
It is important to recognize the religion has also contested oppression and worked to create social change (e.g., role
of churches in USA anti-slavery and abolition movements)
Sociological Framework for Religious Oppression
Religious oppression draws on a sociological analysis of the roles and functions of religion in the greater society. It
is similar to our study of oppression in other forms:
1. examine the “levels and types” of social organization within which religious oppression acts at
interpersonal, organizational and cultural/social levels…both consciously and unconsciously
2. explore the disadvantaged experiences of exploitation, marginalization, powerlessness, cultural imperialism
and violence due, in part, to racial and religious inferiority (e.g., Aboriginal exclusion from citizenship)
3. assess the historical and contemporary reproduction of Christian hegemonic culture to maintain and justify
patterns of religious domination and subordination (e.g., oppression of Aboriginals in Canada by
coordinating religious oppression (Aboriginals as “heathens”) with racism (Aboriginals as inferior) and
classism (settler land occupation – allocation of land to Christian missionaries in exchange for “educational
work”). This latter form is especially important in discussing the foundations of religious advantage and
disadvantage experienced by minority religious groups.
The juxtaposed terms Christian, English, free and white illustrate how deeply religion, race and national origins
have been co-constructed. The religious sanctioning of racial, institutional (e.g., government policies) and cultural
domination enabled “religious settlers” to perceive divine purposes to the appropriation of Aboriginal land.
Throughout our history, religious beliefs interacted with political, cultural and racial elements to rationalize racebased segregation (e.g., Komagata Maru, Chinese Head Tax, Africville) and justify rigid social boundaries (e.g.,
Protestant versus Catholic, S.S. St. Louis, “None is too many,” Japanese-Canadian Internment, restrictive
immigration policies, xenophobic attitudes toward Muslims, Hindus and Sikhs). In every case, Christian implied
superior associated with whiteness, and it conveyed moral and cultural attributes necessary for citizenship,
democracy and self-rule.
From a historical perspective, the current resurgence of Christian fundamentalism with the associated vulnerability
and harassment experienced by religious minorities is NOT new. Our early religious communities were largely
homogeneous and theocratic (e.g., forced Christian education of Aboriginal children at residential schools; explicit
efforts to “assimilate” Catholics children through Protestant public schools).
NOTE: Religious oppression was also experienced by minority white religions that broke away from the
advantaged majority religion (e.g., Mormons, Jehovah’s Witnesses).
To repeat, Christian hegemony is possibly defined as “an unacknowledged adherence to a dominant worldview…a
religious worldview that publicly affirms Christian observances, holy days and sacred spaces at the expense of those
who are not Christian and within a culture that normalizes Christian values as intrinsic to an explicitly Canadian
public and political way of life.” This concepts of “business as usual” allows us to analyze the normative role of
Christianity in Canadian history, law, policy and culture.
Although the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms requires the government to allow and , in some cases,
accommodate different religious practices AND forbids the government from negatively impacting any particular
religion, it is important to ask, “Which religions are accommodated, and which religions experience negative
impacts?” Examples are so deeply ingrained in Canadian culture that they are invisible. Our school calendar is of
holidays is structured around a Christian calendar (e.g., Christmas, Easter) while ignoring Diwali, Ramadan and
Rosh Hashanah. There are obstructions to observant Muslim salat obligations (daily prayer). The sale of alcohol is
somewhat restricted on Sundays, a normative Christian practice that favours Sunday over Friday (Islamic day of
prayer and the evening that begins the Jewish Sabbath). There are countless references to Christian scripture by our
Prime Ministers and other public officials (e.g., Prime Minister Stephen Harper declared Canada a “Christian
country” in January 2015) even when their topic is unrelated to the subject of religion. Moreover, religion is quickly
becoming the visible and single-issue of many conservative Protestant and evangelical groups (Kaplan, 2004;
Phillips, 2006).
Christian hegemony can also be referred to as the exercise of Christian privilege. Having privilege with respect to
normative Christianity means that people need not to question “the assumptions underlying institutional rules and
the collective consequences of following these rules” (Young, 1990). Christian privilege is a phenomenon
maintained through the cultural power of normative religious practices that, by affirming the norm, exclude and
disqualify what is outside the norm (Beaman, 2003; Blumenfled, 2006).
McIntosh (1998) suggested that white privilege is “an invisible package of unearned assets…a weightless knapsack
of special provisions, maps, passports, codebooks, visas, clothes, tools and blank cheques.” Privilege means having
and using these “unearned assets” every day while remaining oblivious to them. It suggests that rights assumed to
belong to all citizens equally are not equally accessible to members of socially targeted groups. In this sense, rights
are only experienced only by advantaged groups and, as such, are more accurately described as privileges.
Our linguistic and symbolic vocabulary of faith, practice, prayer and belief largely ignores the existence of nonChristian religions (..although these religions may be older than Christianity). For example, many non-Christians
are asked questions such as “What is your bible?” and “When is your Christmas?” Likewise, Christian myths such
as the “virgin birth” and the “bodily resurrection of Jesus” are accepted as believable and plausible, while myths
such as Mohammed’s midnight flight (Islam), Vishnu’s periodic visitations of the Earth under different guises
(Hinduism) or the half-elephant/half-man protector god Ganesh (Hinduism) are unbelievable and impossible
fantasies. Our images include a white man with a flowing beard, not Krishna with his blue skin (Hinduism), the
four-armed goddess of knowledge and learning Saraswati (Hinduism), or enlightenment without a creator deity
(Buddhism). Finally, Christianity is about “goodness” or righteousness; yet, other faiths appear illegitimate.
Christianity is the norm.
Religions in Canada
For members of religious communities who are also members of a visible minority, the burdens of outsiderness are
compounded. At the societal and institutional levels, these groups are subject to oppression and face conflict on the
basis of attire, rituals and practices that mark them as outsiders of religion. This assigned status is compounded by
and multiplied with outsider racial, ethnic and linguistic status. By exaggerating and stereotyping religious identity
with racial identity of Otherness, other faiths are deligitimized (Joshi, 2006).
Moreover, Hindu, Sikh and Muslim beliefs are presumed to be theologically similar because they appear to the
phenotypically and racially similar, and their grouped in close proximity geographically. For example, Sikhs are
mistakenly linked with Islam.
Table 1. 2011 Canada Census Data in Canada – Estimated Percentage of Main Religious Denominations in Canada
between 1991 and 2011
Religion
1991
2011
Protestant (total)
34.9
14.5
Roman Catholic
45.2
38.7
Other Christian
2.7
1.7
Muslim
0.9
2.0
Hindu
0.6
1.0
Sikh
0.5
0.9
Buddhist
0.6
1.0
Jewish
1.2
1.1
No Religious Affiliation / Other
16.7
32.0
Source: Statistics Canada. 2011 Canada National Household Survey.
Definitions
Religious Oppression
Systematic subordination of minority religions (in North America) such as
Buddhists, Hindus, Jews, Muslims, Sikhs and Aboriginal spiritualists by the
dominant Christian majority. This subordination is a product of the historical
tradition of Christian hegemony and the unequal power relationships of minority
religious groups with the Christian majority. It is supported by the actions of
individuals (religious prejudice), social institutions (religious discrimination), and
cultural and societal norms and values associated with Christian hegemony.
Through religious oppression, Christianity and its cultural manifestations function
to marginalize, exclude and deny the practices and institutions of religious minority
groups the rights, privileges and access held out for all citizens.
Christian Hegemony
Religious worldview that publicly affirms Christian observances, holy days and
sacred spaces, at the expense of those who are not Christian. Christian hegemonic
culture normalizes Christian values as intrinsic to our public and political way of
life. Christian norms are termed hegemonic in that they depend only on “business
as usual.”
Establishment Clause
Within the Charter of Rights and Freedoms, it prohibits the federal government
from establishing or supporting any single religion or religious denomination or
sect. Generally, it means separation of church and state.
Free Exercise Clause
Within the Charter of Rights and Freedoms, it protects the free exercise of religion
Islamophobia
Fear or hatred of Islam and its adherents that translates into individual, ideological
and systematic forms of prejudice, discrimination and oppression of Muslims and
those thought to be Muslims
Literature Cited
 Beaman, L.G. (2003). Aboriginal spirituality and the legal construction of freedom of religion. Journal of
Church and State. 44(1): 135-149.
 Blumenfeld, (2006). Deloria, V. (1999). Missionaries and the religious vacuum. In J. Treat (ed). For this
land: Writing on religion in America. Routledge Press. New York.
 Huntington, S.P. (1996). The clash of civilizations and the remaking of the world order. Simon and
Schuster. New York.
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Joshi, K.Y. (2006). New roots in America’s sacred ground: Religion, race and ethnicity in Indian
America. Rutgers University Press. New Jersey.
Juergensmeyer, M. (2004). Religious terror and the secular state. Global and International Studies
Program. http://repositories.cdlib.org/gis/22
Kaplan, E. (2004). With God on their side: How Christian fundamentalists trampled science, policy and
democracy in George W. Bush’s White House. New Press. New York
Marty M.E. and R.S. Appleby (ed) (1997). Religion, ethnicity and self-identity: Nations in turmoil.
University Press of New England. New Hampshire.
McIntosh, P. (1998). White privilege and male privilege: A personal account of coming to see
correspondences through work in women’s studies. Working paper No 189. Wellesley College Centre for
Research on Women. Wellesley.
Phillips, K. (2006). American theocracy: the peril of politics of radical religion, oil and borrowed money
in the 21st Century. Viking Press. New York.
Wills, D.W. (2002). Christianity in the United States: A historical survey and interpretation. University
of Notre Dame Press. Indiana.
Young, I.M. (1990). Five faces of oppression. In Justice and the politics of difference. Princeton
University Press. New Jersey.