A fascinating, fascinating series on social class in America. See Class Matters: A Special Section in the New York Times. Its basic premise is that even in our modern age in good ol' democratic capitalist America, the class lines still exist, albeit much more subtly. And the lower classes desire to, and continue to believe that they can, move upwards on the class ladder - while studies show that our society is becoming more fixed along class lines. It then proceeds to discuss how class manifests itself in various areas of our lives - health, marriage, religion, education, immigration, new status markers, etc.

This topic is particularly interesting to me because of our move to New York - a place where the uber-rich and the barely-scraping-by must sit in the same subway cars. And while I've been fortunate to have been raised in middle-class Orange County, last summer when I worked at the big law firm, I discovered how the other third (i.e. the upper class) lives. After attending public schools my whole life, I hadn't met many of the Ivy League prep-school kids whose families spend summers in the Hamptons and winters in the Swiss Alps - i.e. the super-privileged. And there, as well as in New York City in general, I did.

And it's not so much the money, but the culture and social breeding that tend to sit so naturally upon them (though, of course, money is inextricably linked to culture & social breeding.) That is, they always seem to know what to say, what to do, understand references to all sorts of things that I'm not aware of... in short, the slight nagging feeling that I was different somehow, I now realize, has a name. While not underestimating the differences engendered by my ethnicity, I now realize that I was born into and raised in a different social class.

All of this is even far more interesting when I consider all of this in light of my Christian faith. Should I desire to move upwardly on the class ladder (i.e. if I haven't already)? While I already know what Paul has to say about desiring to be rich, what about desiring to be influential? With money, power and prestige surrounding me, it's easy to get swept up into the current. And it's caused me to pause and consider again what God thinks about the rich and the poor, the haves and the have-nots, the knowledgeable and cultured as well as the illiterate and the ignorant. How do I navigate in this kind of place? And how do I reconcile identifying with those we seek to minister to (becoming all things to all men) with Scripture's emphases and commands on being lowly, needy, poor in spirit and meek and thus, blessed?