I was chit-chatting with a lady at work the other day an some kinda way we got on the subject of church. I ask her about her church family. Her whole demeanor and attitude change. She began to inform me she no longer attended any church. I asked why not! Her answer I don't feel welcome and the people seems to look down on her family. She said she once attended one of the largest non-denominational churches in the area but she no longer did.
Classism is prejudice and/or discrimination on the basis of social class. It includes individual attitudes and behaviors, systems of policies and practices that are set up to benefit the upper classes at the expense of the lower classes.
The culture of money ,power ,fashion and social groupings is supposed to stop at the door of the real Church. None of that stuff matters to Jesus. I know the world has its "power elite" and its "insiders and outsiders."But that should not be in the church. Folks need to come into a group of Christians and feel a warm sincere welcome, no matter how they look, no matter what they have, no matter what their background. Anything less is a shameful contradiction of everything Jesus is about - grace - unconditional love. I believe the church should be a level playing field where all the stuff from world just doesn't matter. It should be the kinda of environment in which people can be all that God has call them to be.
If we are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus...There is neither Jew nor Greek (that's racial differences), slave nor free (that's class differences), male nor female (that's discrimination based on gender), for we are all one in Christ Jesus. I wonder how class- ism crept into the church? "Man looks at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart" (1 Samuel 16:7 ).
Question: Would you knowing belong to a church family that practiced Class-ism?
