Christian Privilege and Public Education

Is Christianity under attack? Are schools hostile to the Christian religion? Is religion being ‘kicked out of schools’? Christian conservatives would answer yes, and often mislead the populace into feeling that, as a result of the hostile anti-Christian dogma of schools, Christians are unable to practice their religion freely. However, this author contends that schools, while perceived as secular institutions, are far too generous to the dominance of the Christian faith, often at the expense of religious minorities and non-believers. Schools are wholly filled with religion, albeit just one religion, generally speaking, the Christian religion. Christianity and its adherents benefit from a series of privileges which establish Christians as a dominant group while conferring a subordinate and discriminatory status on non-Christians and non-believers and devaluing other religions. This thesis explores the nature of some of those privileges.