My Relation With The Middle Class
What bugs me about the middle class:
Their arrogance—Just because they are successful within themselves in this life—the life that they themselves had the power to establish— they think they can tell everyone else how to live. (This is what really bugs me above all else).
Their paternalism—They always assume the one-up position, especially for someone they are “helping”; They also assume that they know what help another needs, without even asking them.
Their cultural blindness—They don’t have any idea what others are going through or how there are other standards that are different than their own, but equally significant.
Their work—They only recognize someone as “working” if they have a job, and that if it is full time. They don’t recognize people as working if they scrape a living twenty hours a week by walking and recycling. They don’t recognize anyone as working if they do not live up to their minimum standards of living.
Their standard of living—Their salvation is to own a house, have personal entertainment systems, have a car, have a family, have and have and have, as if material things make up for their lost souls.
Their economics—To succeed is to sell; to make a profit is the bottom line; the bottom line—whatever it is—is most significant, as if importance can be boiled down to a single power point. “Money is the root of all salvation.”
Their charity—They want to give, but only if they will obtain certain goals, one of which usually is a payback of some kind (a tax break; a sense of accomplishment).
Their irrationalities—Like most who have a power base, their greatest fear is losing what power they have. And so they react harshly against the poor and the helpless because they do not understand them. That which we do not understand, we fear, that which we fear, we attack.
Their wars—All fear usually is responded to with anger and often violence. And so they react with violence against those whom they irrationally fear, but when others react against them in their fears—often founded—then they react with violence against them. One-sided, even when bi-partisan.
Their hopes—Their future is secure because of insurance, retirement, savings and more.
Their evangelism—They spread their message of salvation, their “good news for the poor” as one of materialism, hatred, and spiritual impoverishment. And should anyone not accept their gospel of the American Dream via capitalism, they treat them as ignorant, outcasts, uneducated, hopeless.
Are these sins worse than the sins of the homeless, poor, the mentally ill? Of course not. But there remains one difference—The middle class doesn’t recognize these things as sin. They think they are “normal”. And what is worse, their evangelism campaign is so successful that everyone else calls them “normal” as well, and the poor and mentally ill are considered, not different, but sub-normal, outcast, needing to catch up—even by themselves, because they have adopted middle class standards.
Why should I connect with the Middle class?
Because I see this about them and they desperately need to be saved.
Because the outcast need to have some positive connections with the middle class.
Because they need to give their money to the poor, not just to wealthy organizations that “help the poor”
Because, dammit, I AM a part of the Middle class, or was and I know how they think, as much as I hate it.
Because, in the end, I come from the Middle class and I need to gather at least some of my support from it, because no one else will actually understand my perspective.
What I will not do with the middle class:
I will not represent them
I will not claim to be a part of them.
I will not look like them.
I will not feed their sins—I WILL NOT ENABLE THEM!
This means that I need to go out of my way to minister to them, but I must set boundaries so as not to let them think that I am in agreement with their sins. I must challenge their sins, but, somehow, I must find a way to communicate to them without compromising who God has called me to be.
Because if Anawim is going to survive, there must be some converted middle class people—converted to be the Anawim—who will help me sustain this community.
Their arrogance—Just because they are successful within themselves in this life—the life that they themselves had the power to establish— they think they can tell everyone else how to live. (This is what really bugs me above all else).
Their paternalism—They always assume the one-up position, especially for someone they are “helping”; They also assume that they know what help another needs, without even asking them.
Their cultural blindness—They don’t have any idea what others are going through or how there are other standards that are different than their own, but equally significant.
Their work—They only recognize someone as “working” if they have a job, and that if it is full time. They don’t recognize people as working if they scrape a living twenty hours a week by walking and recycling. They don’t recognize anyone as working if they do not live up to their minimum standards of living.
Their standard of living—Their salvation is to own a house, have personal entertainment systems, have a car, have a family, have and have and have, as if material things make up for their lost souls.
Their economics—To succeed is to sell; to make a profit is the bottom line; the bottom line—whatever it is—is most significant, as if importance can be boiled down to a single power point. “Money is the root of all salvation.”
Their charity—They want to give, but only if they will obtain certain goals, one of which usually is a payback of some kind (a tax break; a sense of accomplishment).
Their irrationalities—Like most who have a power base, their greatest fear is losing what power they have. And so they react harshly against the poor and the helpless because they do not understand them. That which we do not understand, we fear, that which we fear, we attack.
Their wars—All fear usually is responded to with anger and often violence. And so they react with violence against those whom they irrationally fear, but when others react against them in their fears—often founded—then they react with violence against them. One-sided, even when bi-partisan.
Their hopes—Their future is secure because of insurance, retirement, savings and more.
Their evangelism—They spread their message of salvation, their “good news for the poor” as one of materialism, hatred, and spiritual impoverishment. And should anyone not accept their gospel of the American Dream via capitalism, they treat them as ignorant, outcasts, uneducated, hopeless.
Are these sins worse than the sins of the homeless, poor, the mentally ill? Of course not. But there remains one difference—The middle class doesn’t recognize these things as sin. They think they are “normal”. And what is worse, their evangelism campaign is so successful that everyone else calls them “normal” as well, and the poor and mentally ill are considered, not different, but sub-normal, outcast, needing to catch up—even by themselves, because they have adopted middle class standards.
Why should I connect with the Middle class?
Because I see this about them and they desperately need to be saved.
Because the outcast need to have some positive connections with the middle class.
Because they need to give their money to the poor, not just to wealthy organizations that “help the poor”
Because, dammit, I AM a part of the Middle class, or was and I know how they think, as much as I hate it.
Because, in the end, I come from the Middle class and I need to gather at least some of my support from it, because no one else will actually understand my perspective.
What I will not do with the middle class:
I will not represent them
I will not claim to be a part of them.
I will not look like them.
I will not feed their sins—I WILL NOT ENABLE THEM!
This means that I need to go out of my way to minister to them, but I must set boundaries so as not to let them think that I am in agreement with their sins. I must challenge their sins, but, somehow, I must find a way to communicate to them without compromising who God has called me to be.
Because if Anawim is going to survive, there must be some converted middle class people—converted to be the Anawim—who will help me sustain this community.
posted by Steve Kimes at 11:41 AM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home