User:Aneris/Christian West

The Christian West (also Christian Occident) is a common belief that the Western World was founded on Christianity, and that other influences were far less important. It is typically evoked by politicians of the right-wing, conservatives and nationalists in an attempt to place their country into a glorious Christian tradition, usually with the motivation to promote Christianity as a “leading” faith; to curb Satanism other beliefs; or to water down the evils of secularism.

Often times, the belief in a Christian Occident is coupled with the conviction that the values in the West, which are really the universal Human Rights, had a Christian foundation, or were indeed “Christian values”.

Sometimes “Christian West”, or the self-designation “cultural Christian” refer to a vague notion of a common north-western European culture, which was shaped by a majority of Christians, and by important thinkers, and rulers who were likewise Christians. This culture was then allegedly exported with the settlers, colonialists, and “Founding Fathers” to other territories, where they continued these Christian traditions, for example in the United States as a Christian nation.

Many of these beliefs are little more than hogwash — Christian or not — with only a grain of truth. A western-European cultural tradition certainly exists, but it is spectacularly misnamed as “Christian”. The fabled “Christian values” exist, too, but they are hardly desirable, and were certainly not foundational for the Western World, or the Human Rights.

Humans Are Awesome
Without any Christian help, peoples around the world have developed the, for example the ancient Chinese Confucius wrote:

己所不欲，勿施於人. What you do not wish for yourself, do not do to others.