coercion

[Steve]

---  "marion11111" <marion11111 at ...> wrote:
>
> 
> > bboyminn:
> > If I saw someone that looked like they might be
> > Muslim or Hindi or Buddhist, I would likely change my
> > greeting accordingly. .... Really, I would try to be 
> > sensitive.
> > 
> 
> marion11111:
> OK, now I have to post here.  Other than a Muslim woman 
> wearing a hijab or a Jewish man wearing yarmulke, how would
> you decide that someone "looks" like they might belong to a 
> religion other than Christian?  You are coming very close to
> suggesting that any immigrant or person of color is more 
> likely to be non-Christian.
>

bboyminn:

Well, you have to understand that I live in a community that
is very homogeneous. Still we do have a large group of Jewish
people nearby, and YES, it is very easy to tell that they
are Jewish. 

As far as suggesting that immigrants or people of color are
more likely to be non-Christian, well...isn't that true?
Aren't people from the Middle East, Pakistan, India, and
most of Asia with the exception of Korea really more likely
to be non-Christian? It is not a question of racism, it is
just a fact of life.

Aren't people of Spanish/American decent, more likely to 
be Catholic? Again, that's not racism, that is a statistical
fact of life. 

Still, it doesn't guarantee they are of a particular religion,
only that they are more likely to be of a particular religion.

And, keep in mind that if I suspect they are of a non-Christian
religion, all I have to do is substitute a more generic 
seasons greeting. I don't have to guess their religion and
respond with a greeting appropriate to their religion, I 
only have to give a generic non-Christian holiday greeting.

So, where's the problem.

Steve/bboyminn