There’s been a LOT of talk about religion in the media with the war in Gaza right now… but what about the landscape here in our own country?
Did you know that 70% of Americans identify as Christian?
And that 77% of Latinos (the largest immigrant group) and 42% of Asian Americans (the 2nd largest immigrant group) identify as Christian?
It’s not just a coincidence.
Karl Marx famously coined religion as the “opiate of the masses” which disconnects disadvantaged people from the here and now and dulls their engagement in progressive politics. Historically, religion has been the cause of wars and genocides and at the micro level has been a source of estrangement and conflict in families.
And yet research has shown that affiliation with Western religions, such as Christianity, is associated with better outcomes for immigrants.
And while spirituality can be a beautiful thing that drives us to connect and encourages us to believe in a power greater than ourselves—when we are pressured to assimilate to a certain ideology, this becomes a source of trauma because we’re robbed of our freedom to decide what we want to believe and how we want to embody it.
Have you been impacted by this pressure?
Read my full post on Psychology Today and share your thoughts with me!