Christ_empowered
Member
- Oct 23, 2010
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The post on poverty got me to thinking...
Ever noticed how some churches, and sometimes entire denominations, are favored by people from different walks of life? In society...I think particularly in 21st century America...people are around people more or less like them in terms of social class. If somebody has enough $$$, they may even go for a gated community, just to make sure nobody too far below them gets in their space (except for maids, of course).
The Catholic Church is sometimes different, but...even then...here locally, we have 1 Catholic church favored by the university faculty, doctors, etc. We have one favored by immigrants and other people from the lower rungs of society. Semi-locally, one more affluent church has a school and their priest blogs. The other, less affluent churches...no schools. No blogging priests, as far as I know.
I think the situation w/ Protestants is complicated. I grew up Presbyterian (PCUSA). I didn't get it until recently, but...my family and I were below many (most?) of the rest of the congregation and some perceived my mother as a "social climber" (small, southern town). My parents were+are well-educated, while collar, blah blah blah, but when I was that age, they'd just started their careers. They had graduate degrees and little $$$, so the social situation was complicated.
I went to Teen Challenge, which is Pentecostal, to be rehabilitated at age 24-25 (its for adults of all ages these days, btw). It was great. We visited all kindsa small, souther Pentecostal churches all over georgia. I noticed...there were some poor people, some working class, some middle class, now and then somebody more affluent...they seemed like a better mix of people than the PCUSA I grew up with, which was people who were well educated and/or affluent, and everybody was lily white back then.
But, now, around here locally, its...interesting. Faculty and staff, people my dad knows from the college, go to a megachurch. Nothing wrong with that, but I haven't seen many obviously poor or working class people the few times I've gone. The Presbyterians, as best I can tell, are more "progressive" and "inclusive," but its still mostly white people, educated people, and often affluent people. The Baptists seem to have a mix, but it still looks like its middle class and up, at least here in my lil town. The Methodists...same deal. The Episcopalians...they seem to be popular w/ the well educated, the affluent, and some of the older families, especially the ones that have roots in charleston (I live in SC).
I'm rambling. Now that I've "recovered" from shock, its like...well, I actually notice things and can think about them more in depth. So, this has kind of...well, it hasn't shaken my faith, but it concerns me, the social class thing. And it cuts both ways. When I lived in GA following teen challenge, my parents supported me. I definitely wasn't living large or anything--basic apt., basic car, decent clothes--but I wasn't working and I was living OK. I tried going to a Baptist church headed by a counselor. Well, I didn't fit in with these people (mostly hardworking southerners) because I was unemployed and "too pretty." :-( The homogay thing played a role, but, again: social class. Unemployed, with a decent car, decent clothes, enough money to do some things...just not OK, I guess.
Ugh. And now that I'm thinking "well, go to church!," I'm realizing...social class stuff --is-- an issue, and its complicated for me. I'm unemployed, in recovery from madness (and shock). I receive disability, which usually means a life of state-subsidized poverty. BUT I live w/ my people, so I get decent clothes and I have a decent car...I even make it a point to where respectable shoes, because...well...its the south, lol.
Where do --I-- go to church? With the Presby people who now affirm the gays? I mean, at least they won't be openly anti-homogay. With the Pentecostals? They tend to be very conservative, so even if I'm not actively homogay, being comfortable (but unemployed), mentally ill, and a recovering homogay would all add up to...potential Trouble (note the capital T). Baptists? Ummm...probably never again, unless its the megachurch my dad pops in at now and then, and I even had probs the last couple times I went there (with that many people, as a pariah, you're going to run into some snot nosed hypocrites. happens).
Ugh. I just...this is part personal rant and ramble, part general observation. Why is it that the church is now divided along social class and political lines? And where do I go, where I can be accepted (but not overly pitied, I hope) and challenged and also be led further into All Truth?
What have your experiences w/ Christianity+social class been?
Ever noticed how some churches, and sometimes entire denominations, are favored by people from different walks of life? In society...I think particularly in 21st century America...people are around people more or less like them in terms of social class. If somebody has enough $$$, they may even go for a gated community, just to make sure nobody too far below them gets in their space (except for maids, of course).
The Catholic Church is sometimes different, but...even then...here locally, we have 1 Catholic church favored by the university faculty, doctors, etc. We have one favored by immigrants and other people from the lower rungs of society. Semi-locally, one more affluent church has a school and their priest blogs. The other, less affluent churches...no schools. No blogging priests, as far as I know.
I think the situation w/ Protestants is complicated. I grew up Presbyterian (PCUSA). I didn't get it until recently, but...my family and I were below many (most?) of the rest of the congregation and some perceived my mother as a "social climber" (small, southern town). My parents were+are well-educated, while collar, blah blah blah, but when I was that age, they'd just started their careers. They had graduate degrees and little $$$, so the social situation was complicated.
I went to Teen Challenge, which is Pentecostal, to be rehabilitated at age 24-25 (its for adults of all ages these days, btw). It was great. We visited all kindsa small, souther Pentecostal churches all over georgia. I noticed...there were some poor people, some working class, some middle class, now and then somebody more affluent...they seemed like a better mix of people than the PCUSA I grew up with, which was people who were well educated and/or affluent, and everybody was lily white back then.
But, now, around here locally, its...interesting. Faculty and staff, people my dad knows from the college, go to a megachurch. Nothing wrong with that, but I haven't seen many obviously poor or working class people the few times I've gone. The Presbyterians, as best I can tell, are more "progressive" and "inclusive," but its still mostly white people, educated people, and often affluent people. The Baptists seem to have a mix, but it still looks like its middle class and up, at least here in my lil town. The Methodists...same deal. The Episcopalians...they seem to be popular w/ the well educated, the affluent, and some of the older families, especially the ones that have roots in charleston (I live in SC).
I'm rambling. Now that I've "recovered" from shock, its like...well, I actually notice things and can think about them more in depth. So, this has kind of...well, it hasn't shaken my faith, but it concerns me, the social class thing. And it cuts both ways. When I lived in GA following teen challenge, my parents supported me. I definitely wasn't living large or anything--basic apt., basic car, decent clothes--but I wasn't working and I was living OK. I tried going to a Baptist church headed by a counselor. Well, I didn't fit in with these people (mostly hardworking southerners) because I was unemployed and "too pretty." :-( The homogay thing played a role, but, again: social class. Unemployed, with a decent car, decent clothes, enough money to do some things...just not OK, I guess.
Ugh. And now that I'm thinking "well, go to church!," I'm realizing...social class stuff --is-- an issue, and its complicated for me. I'm unemployed, in recovery from madness (and shock). I receive disability, which usually means a life of state-subsidized poverty. BUT I live w/ my people, so I get decent clothes and I have a decent car...I even make it a point to where respectable shoes, because...well...its the south, lol.
Where do --I-- go to church? With the Presby people who now affirm the gays? I mean, at least they won't be openly anti-homogay. With the Pentecostals? They tend to be very conservative, so even if I'm not actively homogay, being comfortable (but unemployed), mentally ill, and a recovering homogay would all add up to...potential Trouble (note the capital T). Baptists? Ummm...probably never again, unless its the megachurch my dad pops in at now and then, and I even had probs the last couple times I went there (with that many people, as a pariah, you're going to run into some snot nosed hypocrites. happens).
Ugh. I just...this is part personal rant and ramble, part general observation. Why is it that the church is now divided along social class and political lines? And where do I go, where I can be accepted (but not overly pitied, I hope) and challenged and also be led further into All Truth?
What have your experiences w/ Christianity+social class been?
