I often times regret studying psychology in college, because it's led to me having a tendency to over-analyze everything, and not only that, but ten years after I graduated, I've yet to utilize the degrees I earned a great deal. However, once in a while, what I learned through the course of college, especially in the field of psychology, pays its dividends, where I'll have an "ah-ha!" moment and think to myself, "Now, if I hadn't have studied psychology, I probably wouldn't have thought of that." Such was the case when recently thinking about the Indiana RFRA law (Religious Freedom Restoration Act) and how many Christians positively reacted to it.
It really befuddled me to hear Christians say such things as the following in response to the passage of the bill and the backlash it received:
- "We're not discriminating against anyone! Liberals are discriminating against us for our beliefs!"
- "What these liberals want is homosexual supremacy!"
- "No matter how much we give the LGBT community, they're going to continue coming back and wanting more! They'll never be satisfied!"
These are classic cases of projection. What exactly is projection? Here's how psychology expert Kendra Cherry explains it:
"Projection is a defense mechanism that involves taking our own unacceptable qualities or feelings and ascribing them to other people. For example, if you have a strong dislike for someone, you might instead believe that he or she does not like you. Projection works by allowing the expression of the desire or impulse, but in a way that the ego cannot recognize, therefore reducing anxiety."
In other words, these "Christian" conservatives are simply attempting to deny themselves feelings of guilt due to discrimination by projecting that onto another group, in this case, liberals. They also want to hide their desire for supremacy by claiming that's what homosexuals seek. Lastly, they want to deny their quantity of rights as never being good enough by suggesting that's how the LGBT community feels.
These projections (and others) clearly show that Christian conservatives in this country want to feel special. They may have a difficult time truly believing their words and actions are discriminatory, because they have trouble seeing things from an equality perspective. When it comes to gay marriage rights, instead of saying to themselves, "Well, they just want equal rights as everyone else," they're saying, "Well, if they get equal rights as us, then we'll no longer be seen as more special than them, and we don't want that! We want to be special!" This may be why so many die-hard Christians firmly believe they're being discriminated against and having their rights stripped from them. The fact of the matter is, they're not losing their long-held rights, others are simply being granted those very same rights, which makes them feel less special, and therefore, discriminated against.
Homosexuals aren't looking for supremacy or more rights than everyone else; they're simply looking for equal rights. If there's anyone out there that appears to want supremacy and more rights than the rest, it's these very Christian conservatives projecting otherwise. Christians, like anyone else in this country, have the right to believe as they so choose, however, that doesn't grant them the right to discriminate against other groups of people in order to prevent them from attaining equal rights. If they must resort to this, they should ask themselves, "What would Jesus do?" Not that...
http://psychology.about.com/od/theoriesofpersonality/ss/defensemech_7.htm
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