I used to be one of you. I went to church and prayed to God until I realized I only believed what I did because I was born into a system that privileges people like you. 

But dear Christians, I know you are not all the same. You are not all just like the racist, homophobic and sexist Brickyard preachers that remind me I am “going straight to hell” on the way to class. Instead, you blissfully enjoy the benefits of a system your people created over hundreds of years. 

Christians, you expect presidents to be practicing members of your religion. Even President Barack Obama has been the subject of attacks throughout his presidency from those who claimed he wasn’t a “true Christian.” But what would it have mattered if he were not a Christian? You take advantage of government and blur the lines between separation of church and state. You make it normal to hold Christian prayers before town halls, city council meetings and the start of Congress. Our government is run by 92 percent of you, while only 72 percent of U.S. adults identify as Christian. You don’t know what it is like to have someone else’s religion representing you and creating laws that govern your existence. 

Just months ago, Duke University announced an Islamic call to prayer from the Duke Chapel. The decision was met with backlash from some conservative Christian leaders. Even more alarming, Franklin Graham used threats, money and the reach of his father’s cult-like following to force the university to reverse its decision, stifling the voices of young people from another religion who would not have compromised Christians at all. 

Dear Christians, you have the privilege of not worrying about the clothing and jewelry you wear for fear of retribution. Dear Christians, of the 1,340 victims of anti-religious hate crimes committed in the U.S. in 2012, 64 percent were victims of anti-semitism and another 12 percent were anti-Islamic hate. That means hundreds of young girls in burkas being spit on and men wearing yamakas being beaten even though the Constitution guarantees their rights just as much as it guarantees that you can wear your “what would Jesus do?” bracelets.

This does not support the “war on Christianity” narrative peddled by so many tyrannical Christians seeking more power. 

Dear Christians, you are not told that you are greedy because of your religion. No one calls all of your people terrorists when one person from your group commits an atrocity.

Dear Christians, because of your privilege, when you’re in the classroom you don’t have to fear your opinion will be ignored or dismissed because of your religion. When there are religious debates, you can always be sure there is Christian representation among your peers. Our course readings will always make references to your God, because your religion is the backbone to the eurocentric course material we are forced to study in the first place. 

Dear Christians, whenever someone refers to a god, you assume it is yours. You have the privilege to never care about anyone else’s religion but your own. 

When you tell people that you are a Christian, others ask about your denomination. You are not forced to acknowledge the diversity of other religions, but people must understand the diversity of yours. 

You are not expected to know the names and dates of holidays for religions besides your own, and without question you expect our government calendar to revolve around yours. Your “spring holidays” are considered normal, and you never fail to assume strangers celebrate them, too. 

Dear Christians, you pass laws that limit other peoples civil rights. You infringe on their freedom to get married. You infringe on other’s freedom to worship. Without even thinking, you find it okay to share your religion with others without regard to how it makes them feel. You find it your duty to God to make my life, and the lives of everyone else in this world, more like yours. 

But dear Christians, no one wants your guilt or pity. No one wants you to walk around with a sign that says “I’m sorry.” Currently the Rev. William Barber II. just as the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. did, is leading movements for social justice, empowerment and equal rights. 

Dear Christians, like these leaders, use your privilege to empower those without it. Use your privilege to create a more inclusive government—not just one that advances the needs of you and your Christian family.