It's a Class Thing

I'd be willing to wager money that empirical studies could demonstrate that the biggest single predictor of whether a person believes in global warming, considers him or herself to be a feminist and is sympathetic to Marxism is their social location, especially their class.

Now, in North America we supposedly have no class structure and it is true that our's is not as rigid or based on birth as Europe's is, but we definitely have a class structure. To move from the working or lower middle class into the upper middle class is relatively easy in our society, which speaks well for our society. But, ironically, the one thing you need to make that transition is rage. You must be angry at your old class in order to demonstrate that you belong in your new class. So you must angrily reject anything associated with the lower classes in the minds of the upper middle class in order to show that you belong in the upper middle class. You must despise the society that enables easy class mobility in order to claim class mobility. Confused yet? If not, you don't understand what is going on.

Marxism, Feminism and Environmentalism all are upper middle class movements which presume to speak for the masses even though the masses are stubbornly resistant to the beliefs and values of the upper middle class. School boards in Kansas insist on questioning evolution, Texas puts good things about Ronald Reagan into school textbooks, the Senator from Oklahoma presumes to question global warming alarmism. Will it never end? When will the ignorant masses admit that their betters know what is good for them? Abstinence based sex education, anti-abortion views, a stubborn clinging to guns and religion - the fact that the masses refuse to toe the politically correct line leads to rage in the media and academic coastal elites and so the price of admission to the club becomes the willingness to join in the rage against the working classes.

I think that this reality explains why young Evangelicals are often attracted to liberal theology, leftist politics and progressive social movements. It is not a matter of logic or following the evidence; Marxism has been discredited long ago, Feminism is rejected by most women and Environmentalism is more of a tool to fight capitalism than a serious concern for the land, the water and the air. So why are young Evangelicals attracted to leftist causes?

The old joke about where liberals come from has two liberal Anglican bishops talking about the future. One says to the other: "You know, we liberal Anglicans never convert anybody and we don't have enough babies to keep up the numbers, so where will liberal Anglicans come from in the future?" The other bishop laughs and says: "Why, where they have always come from . . . from the ranks of the Evangelicals!"

This joke is funny because it is so true; the puzzle is why Evangelicals would sign up for a ride on the Titanic. I guess it must be because all the cool people are taking that ship and the ticket prices make it something only those of a certain class can afford.

Liberal theology is intellectually bankrupt, ethically incoherent and culturally accommodated. Whatever appeal it has could not possibly have anything to do with truth, justice or the Bible. I guess it must be a class thing.