LINK Social Class and the Stubbornness of Family Myths: How Nonbeliever and Pagan Parents Cope with Intrusions on Parenting by Proselytizing Christian Family Members in the U.S. Bible Belt
From The Article: “Defensive othering is identity work done by those seeking membership in a dominant group, or by those seeking to deflect the stigma they experience as members of a subordinate group. The process…involves accepting the legitimacy of a devalued identity imposed by the dominant group, but then saying, in effect, ‘There are indeed Others to whom this applies, but it does not apply to me.’”
Defensive othering has been observed among seemingly disparate populations: from homeless men at shelters trying to distance themselves from other shelter residents (Snow and Anderson 2001) to residents of trailer park communities separating themselves from their “criminal” neighbors (Kusenbach 2009). Because defensive othering does not require individuals to combat commonly accepted stereotypes, it allows stigmatized individuals an easier path forward. Defensive othering becomes a loophole of sorts wherein individuals establish moral worthiness while avoiding taking on the harshest penalties of stigma and the arduous task of creating social change via activism.
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Feel free to reply to any comment by clicking the "Reply" button.In my opinion this study is based on some incorrect assumptions. First, the so called Bible Belt is only a few percentage points more religious than the rest of the country. Why would you zero in on the South with your study and ignore proselytizing that occurs in other sections? There’s the fact that the South has a higher percentage of evangelicals, yes, but by no means do all of them live in the South. Most live in other places. But why focus on evangelicals in the first place? Catholics, for example, also proselytize. I’m led to think McClure has a personal agenda.
There’s that untrue statement that the evangelical movement began in the South at the end of the Civil War. The most recent evangelical movement began in Britain and spread worldwide. In this country the movement began in New England, and it was well before the Civil War.
The trappings of a scientific study are there but alarm bells are going off in my mind. I don’t see much of an analysis of how this alleged coping is done, just repetition after repetition of the grievances. Only a tiny percentage of people say they’re Pagan, yet a huge portion of the study is devoted to Pagans. Could Amy L. McClure be a Pagan?
WilliamFleming
Level 8
July 2, 2019
1
what I have personally seen is, in New England, many churches are crumbling or even abandoned from lack of maintainence, new churches are mostly housed in old buildings that used to be something else, and look "homemade" at best.
When I travel to Virginia, Tennessee, and so on, there is a small but spiffy church about literally every mile, so shiny & well-maintained you could eat off the parking lot.
So it is easy to see they have far more support.......
@AnneWimsey Yes, Pew polls reveal that New England is now the least religious region by a significant margin. They also reveal that the South and the Midwest are about equal in that regard. That was from polls I was looking at a couple of years ago. There are a lot of well-maintained churches in my area but I expect half the population hardly ever goes to church.
The post is nearly a year old, or maybe older, depending on which July. How does it happen that you are revisiting such an old post? Just curious.
I get it. I’ve never believed. I’m an NC native, in the Bible Belt. I was taken to an evangelical church til I was old enough to refuse. At family gatherings, they pray before meals and go on and on about church. I go outside a lot. Their lives revolve around their churches. One family member brags about his charity work and donations. 
Another gave me a book called Cultwatch back when I was exploring Paganism. I had a pentagram on my car, and one of them asked me to park on the street. I laughed. Then I invited them over for Harvest.
I don’t want acceptance though. I fight back instead of trying to fit in: I’ve always been the square peg. They can pound on me all they want, I’ll never ever turn into a round peg. Maybe I’m an exception, in not feeling the need to feel accepted by the dominant group.
They ARE intrusive, that’s for sure. I’m good at either fending them off or blandly ignoring them.
CarolinaGirl60
Level 8
July 2, 2019
4
Same with me. I have always refused to knuckle under to obeying or going along with mainstream culture for my area even tho it has often cost me, esp. in the dating game. But outside of the dating game, I am able to blandly ignore the mainstream culture around me, including religion, as long as the members of it don't hassle me for being different or try to shove their culture down my throat, such as country music or conservative politics, family and kids being everything or sacred, etc..
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