Since most people cannot think their way out of a paper bag, we need labels just to navigate through the day. No harm in that. But labels, like many names, can shimmy a little, depending on when and how and why you use them.
Some examples:
Is Islam a Western faith? Along with Judaism and Christianity. Well, compared to what? Eastern religions that are not monotheistic. In that sense, yes. But if the Western faith is Christianity --and it is, since what we now call The West used to be called Christendom-- and Islam has been warring against it for 1400+ years, well, Islam is not a "Western" faith. (The current usage of "The Three Abrahamic Religions" is a PR scam to give Islam legitimacy and parity.)
For those of you old enough to remember the Cold War, it was common to distinguish The West from The Eastern Bloc, which was Russia and its European satellites. Even now, religiously, the Orthodox/Oriental East and the Catholic/Protestant West see each other as Other. So these labels do move.
Is Ex Cathedra gay? Well, yes. Certainly not straight, in the sense that my eros is completely directed at my own gender kind. But do I vote Democrat, celebrate my LGBTQQI brethren, sistern and others? Am I a fan of gay marriage and think that anyone who isn't is a H8er? Do I worship divas and drag queen and see myself as a victim of the HeteroPatriarchy? Well, in that case I'm not so gay.
Are Jews White? (An interesting question I never even thought of til this past year). In terms of skin color, certainly Ashkenazi and most Sephardi Jews are Caucasian. Culturally, pretty much yes. And if there's a race riot, Blacks are gonna attack them along with the Hiberno-Scandinavians like me. So, yes. But their language is Semitic, their homeland is in western Asia, and their haplogroups find their origins there, and if White really means European, then no. (Some unkind folks suggest that their politics cashes out in ways very unfriendly to European/Gentile Whites and that this is why they do not belong. Well...in that case, Unitarian Universalists, Whiter Than Whom There Are No Whiter, ain't White neither. Nor was Ted Kennedy.)
Is America a Christian country? (This question is charmingly provocative.) Well, no. Didn't John Adams and Thomas Jefferson say so? Does the Constitution mention God? But if Christmas is our major holiday and our calendar dates from Christ's birth and we anchor our week on Sunday and 85% of our population calls itself Christian, etc. etc. then, Yes. Is America a Christian State?* No. Is America a country full of Christians, one which, apart from that fact, would be unrecognizable? Yes.
The list of shifting labels is vast. You gotta use them, but they do slip a little. That's life.
As Abelard knew, a lot of times it's a question of Sic Et Non.
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*While I'm at it, a favorite rant. Church and State in the West (And by that I mean the successor states to the Roman Empire, both Latin and Greek) were often deeply enmeshed, sometimes Hand in Glove. But for the first 300 years of its existence, Christianity had no state status at all. "Not of this world" was its major attitude. And Jesus did make that "render unto Caesar" statement when the Pharisees tried to back him into a corner. Indeed, we could only have a separation of Church and State because they really always were separate. Much of European history is a struggle between these two institutions. Islam, on the other hand, as soon as Muhammad entered Medina and the Muslim calendar was inaugurated, has always been completely theocratic, never recognizing --unless temporarily forced to by outsiders-- any separation of the religious from the "secular" realm. There is no glove, only the hand. Something to remember.
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