Christianism
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Christianism is used as a descriptive term for Christian political conservatives mostly in the United States, for the ideology of the Christian right, meant as a counterpoint to "Islamism".[1][2] Writing in 2005, the New York Times language columnist William Safire attributed the term (in its modern usage) to blogger Andrew Sullivan, who wrote on June 1, 2003:[1]
I have a new term for those on the fringes of the religious right who have used the Gospels to perpetuate their own aspirations for power, control and oppression: Christianists. They are as anathema to true Christians as the Islamists are to true Islam.
The bloggers Tristero and David Neiwert used the term shortly after.[3][4] Sullivan later expanded on his usage of the term in a Time magazine column.[5] Uses of the term can be found dating back to the seventeenth century, but these are unrelated to its modern meaning.[1]
Christianism has started to gain a foothold in the United Kingdom too, according to one commentator.[6]
This word does not operate strictly within the etymology of the suffix "-ism" which means "doctrine, theory, system of principles" (the other meanings are not applicable to religions) whereas the suffix "-ity" means just "state, quality or condition". In other Latin-based languages such as Spanish, Portuguese, Galician, French, Occitan, Catalan, Italian, etc. the suffix "-ity" (-idad, -dade, -té, -ità) means Christians as a group, their geographical distribution, and their shared cultural identity, what in English is called Christendom, with its own suffix being of Germanic etymological roots.
See also
- Christian terrorism
- Christofascism
- Dominionism
- R. J. Rushdoony
- Reconstructionism
- Theoconservatism
Notes
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 Safire, William (May 15, 2005). "Isms and Phobias". New York Times. Retrieved January 29, 2010.
- ↑ Walker, Ruth (May 20, 2005). "Onward, Christianist soldiers?". Christian Science Monitor (Boston, Massachusetts: The Christian Science Monitor). Retrieved January 31, 2010.
- ↑ When Semantic Differences Are Not: Part Two Tristero, June 2, 2003, accessed January 31, 2010.
- ↑ Neiwert, David (June 8, 2003). "How about Christianism?". Orcinus.
- ↑ Sullivan, Andrew (May 7, 2006)."My Problem with Christianism", Time, accessed January 31, 2010.
- ↑ Brown, Andrew (February 22, 2012). "Catholic Church leader rejects claim UK Christians are persecuted". The Guardian.