Earlier this month I attended the final ‘Faith in the Story’ conference at the University of Notre Dame in Indiana, where I presented some of my work on how Christian privilege pervades and shapes the American public sphere – and why we should work to counter that privilege. Christian privilege in the West is reinforced by what social justice advocate and Jewish community activist Lee Leviter has accurately dubbed “the myth of Christian innocence” – a myth that, as he points out, fuels antisemitism.
Lately, and in connection with the outbreak of violence in Israel and Gaza, I’ve been thinking about how a variety of “myths of innocence” shape both American and global discourse and politics, dehumanising and/or erasing certain perspectives and blocking the pursuit of equality and justice.
America’s foreign policy towards Israel is shaped far more by Christian myths and narratives about the “holy land” and the awaited apocalyptic “second coming” of Jesus than it is by American Jews.
