Class

Sadistic was the being who first nurtured the brainchild some call social ranking. This way of advancing one’s self by degrading another to the point of stripping away humanity from both parties is not only cruel but also costly. For such an act blurs the image wrought into humans before time, and likens us more to animals.

Wealth, or the accumulation of resources, is the factor that defines class across cultures. Or perhaps it is the desire to see one’s self raised above another, with a disregard of what happens to that other. There are three levels of societies that have class systems in place: Egalitarian, rank and stratified.

Egalitarian societies have little or no segregation based on wealth. It is interesting that the societies that have this level of social class are people who live and depend on people. People groups who live in community with each other are less willing to use their neighbor as a human stepladder to increase their own standing.

Rank societies are sort of like the typical medieval society, in which the king and his nobles all get special privilege and everyone else must work harder to see that they get it.

Stratified societies are those that are most inhuman. These societies hold up those who are wealthy, powerful and prestigious and ignore or push down those who aren’t. Marginalization is a huge side effect for this type of society. These are found in industrialized societies that have political systems. I’m sure that some sort of popular media telling people what to love and what to hate plays a hand as well.

I'll give you fifty guesses which type of society we Americans live in, but you're only going to need one. This is why the Christian church is moving toward small home communities. Even within a larger church, it is important to be in a small community in which the members care and rely on each other. That's what we do at Endeavor, the church I belong to. Our Missional Communities are the places to meet needs and to have your own needs met.