Class in the U.S. (part 2)

As we have discussed before, the N.Y. Times has recently published an interesting series on class in the United-States. One chapter concerns religion, particularly the evangelical Christians (by ‘evangelicaism’ here, we mean the more conservative version of Protestantism, which is how the term is now often used in the U.S. even though the term in its strictly lexical definition means 'the belief in the gospel') .

It did not come as a surprise to read that the class status of evangelicals has evolved in the last 40 years from a "religion of the disinherited" to a religion of the affluent.
This change is explained by a number of things, including:

• the Sun Belt expansion of the 1970's and the Texas oil boom, (which brought new wealth and businesses to the regions where evangelical churches had been most heavily concentrated),
• the shift of some southern states from the Democratic Party to the Republican and by t
• the growing political activism of those churches. The conservative Christian political movement seldom developed in poor, rural Bible Belt towns.

The article thus explains the new influence of evangelicals in American culture and politics by their growing wealth and education.
Then a large part of the analysis focuses on the power strategy of the new affluent evangelicals who are trying to influence the Mecca of the secular elite – the Ivy League schools ( the most prestigious and selective universities in the U.S.) through the Christian Union, an organization intended to "reclaim the Ivy League for Christ,".
Personally, I'm all for 'freedom of expression' and 'freedom of religion', but the main problem is that of course the lofty ‘spiritual goal’ of organisation such as the Christian Union comes with a very earthly Conservative political agenda, which I think has very little to do with what Jesus has tought us. Their move is clearly not (just? at all?) guided by mere altruism, or by concerns for 'wretched souls' – it is about political influence - the leaders of tomorrow as of today will graduate form those schools. One good illustration to keep in mind - seven of the nine Supreme Court justices are Ivy League grads.

NOTE: it is interesting to note that in France, the evangelical Christians tend to be theologicaly but not politically conservative. In fact there is a great variety of political beliefs within the French evangelical church even though a majority is probably more to the left - for historical reasons
[the French Protestants used to be discriminated by the Catholic church and the catholic elite and so they tend to emphasize social and economic 'equality' and justice. Being in the minority, I think, has made them more aware of the plight of other minorities, and this is still true today]