Christianity and Privlege

Hi everyone! I’m new to the forums, and I had some questions.

  1. What do you think is a Christian perspective on issues such as income inequality, privilege, and class struggle?

I find that both in Christian and in Furry spaces, people can tend to be glib and superficial when discussing these issues, so I think it’s important to talk about them with sincerity.

I should probably start by defining what I mean when I use these words:

Privilege:

“Privilege” refers to certain social advantages, benefits, or degrees of prestige and respect that an individual has by virtue of belonging to certain social identity groups.

Income Inequality:

That some people make more than others. Oftentimes due to possessing specific forms of privilege at a very important time in their life and not because of their merits or hard work.

Class Struggle:

The political tension and economic antagonism that exists in society consequent to socio-economic competition among the social classes or between rich and poor.

  1. What do you think is an appropriate response to concerns that Christianity has been co-opted by those who wish to perpetuate economic disparities?

If I may, along with the normal rules of the forum I would also ask that responses be considerate and not glib or superficial.

Christians are supposed to address inequalities and love those who are less fortunate. The details of that, however, is where there are a great deal of viewpoints. I don’t think different solutions are fundamentally incompatible with Christianity, but, I feel like many people in Christian-adjacent cultures deemphasize this, and that’s where things get dangerous.

I really dislike when people are like, “You don’t agree with my specific political solution to poverty; you’re not as Christian as I am!” However, Jesus spoke a lot about how privileged people should act. If helping the less fortunate and toppling oppressive power structures isn’t a priority for us, we’re doing something wrong. I think there’s room at the table for different strategies for solving the problem, on all sides of the political spectra. So long as we, the body of Christ, are actually trying to solve it.

Which is why I think “well, if poor people don’t want to be poor (or marginalized people don’t want to be marginalized) they should work harder” is such a toxic mindset. Because it excuses more privileged Christians from our God-given responsibility, suggesting we have to do nothing and nothing is expected of us. “We’re doing all we can, they just need to do their part.”

2 Likes