To be honest, I have never really understood any of the televangelists and other extremely wealthy yet “devote” Christians I have seen or met. While the Bible says that we are not to judge, it also speaks about charity numerous times, with the (in)famous metaphor about the odds the rich getting into heaven as comparable to a camel getting through the eye of a needle. When reading David Brooks’ discussion about Bobo spirituality, I agreed that often people are “making [them]selves more superficial, by simply ignoring the deeper thoughts and highest ideals that would torture [them] if [they] actually stopped to measure [them]selves according to them.” (246-7)
There was a Times article called Does God Want You To Be Rich? I encountered a while ago that I skimmed again. It discusses how more and more Protestant evangelists were under the impression that wealth was something to which Christians are entitled. Given Brooks’ assertion that Bobos, who are upper class, are looking for refuge in religion and likely compromising at least some of these evangelists, I think that Karl Marx’s point that the “religion of the bourgeoisie will largely involve a justification of their social position.” (Nelson, Lecture 11: “Religion and Social Class”) I actually recently came across a biography Christian musician Canton James that claimed that his “unwavering humility to God is perhaps the only thing that might take you by surprise. Beyond that, there is little difference between him and the industry’s most popular rap artists. He rocks Sean John, Rocawear and Air Force Ones, pushes a black drop-top Benz on 24s, and can get a party crunk without breaking a sweat.”
To me, this is quite a contrast to the music we heard in Lecture 11: “Religion and Social Class,” about preferring to live out God’s word rather than have silver or gold since I am fairly certain that the members of that particular church, who were of lower class status, would not make an exception for platinum, even for spinning rims with a cross on them.
There is a story in acts about people who do not give up everything that they own to follow Christianity and are struck dead; while one could argue that they were guilty of lying and saying that they had done so, are not people who profess to be Christians also lying if they do not uphold the tenants of their faith to the utmost of their ability? Here Max Weber’s ideas about how “religious ideas are produced independently, but achieve social power because of BOTH the social and psychological functions they serve for different groups” are intriguing and seem valid for, as Brooks discusses, Bobos and other social groups are striving to find some sort of malleable structure they can use to provide support to their lives. (Nelson, Lecture 11: “Religion and Social Class”) At the same time, some of my cynicism is also self-directed because I too find myself going to (or running from) religion when it seems convenient for me, so maybe that is the reason why I am so skeptical of others. Nonetheless, the justification of wealth through religion by those with more of it and the justification of poverty through religion by those with more of it speak to both Marx and Weber’s points.
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Martha’s Tangential Cartoon Pick!
Sociology 155- Class & Culture 