Yesterday, I wrote a post about why the working class can seem so frustrated in their engagement with the evangelical church. You can read it here. As regular readers will know, I’m not on most social media platforms anymore so I’ve no idea if anybody has picked it up beyond the comments on my blog itself and I’ve no idea what, if anything, people had to say about it. But I am fairly confident (because I have heard it all before) that the point will be well and truly proven. Here is a rundown of comments I suspect will have been made (you can tell me if I am close).

Class isn’t a problem anymore

This is the favourite comment of middle class people who belong to the majority culture. I have suffered no loss as a result of class therefore working class people don’t face any issues of class either. Never mind – proving the entire point of the post – working class people routinely insist they do face these issues in church. Middle class people don’t, so working class people don’t either because they say so.

There is no such thing as “working class” now

This is a sub-category of the above comment. If nobody is really working class anymore, we don’t have to listen to anybody who claims to be working class because they’re basically either lying or deluded. If nobody is working class anymore, they can’t really have problems that relate to their class in the church. It is, to all intents and purposes, just a way of saying class isn’t a problem any more. Which is, per the original article, just another way of dismissing working class voices who maintain that it is.

The “working class” aren’t homogenous

This one has the benefit of at least being true. The working class aren’t a homogenous group if, by that, you mean they don’t all think, act and behave in literally the same way all the time. It is comprised of individuals. This is equally true for the middle classes and (I imagine) the upper classes too.

Where this one goes wrong is failing to recognise that there are shared characteristics, cultural tendencies, etc that allow us to recognise somebody belongs to a particular class. There are traits, behaviours and cultural assumptions that are common among people who belong to the same class. They may not be held by every member of the group, but they are typical of people in the group. More to the point, it fails because working class people are the ones saying these things and we think that they can be dismissed because they’re not a homogenous group. Such an argument proves the point the original post was making: we are quite quick to dismiss working class voices.

“Working class” can’t be properly defined

Again, another sub-category of ‘class doesn’t really exist anymore’. Because we can’t define “working class” anymore because it’s not homogenous (so the argument goes), we can’t really listen to working class voices because they don’t speak for everybody. It is always amusing that the same people who insist class isn’t an issue anymore are also the same people to insist “working class” can’t be defined. I’m not sure how they know class isn’t an issue anymore if they don’t know what it is or how they know working class people don’t have any issues of class when they can’t tell us who working class people are.

Nevertheless, this still fails as an argument. Ultimately, just because you can’t define something, doesn’t mean the people who identify as that thing do not have a point. Nor does it change the fact that, whether you can define it or not, there are working class people making these noises and they are routinely dismissed (not least through these kinds of comments). Moreover, when a middle class person – even an academic – makes the same points (ones even they acknowledge have been made already), we are more than happy to listen. I’m unclear how this isn’t then a means of actively dismissing certain voices?

This is just class war

It isn’t. However, I am amazed how the same people who insist class is not an issue any more are also the same ones to insist that there is some sort of class war going on. Either class isn’t an issue, in which case there is no war between the non-existent classes, or raising these things is an attack on middle class people, in which case that speaks to some grievance that people of a different class have. At some level, you have to pick your argument here. But whichever you choose, it is hard to avoid the fact that this is just thrown out to dismiss working class voices. If we can call it class war – better yet, I’m quite sure someone will label it “ungracious” or “divisive” which Christianises the grounds to dismiss legitimate concerns – we don’t actually have to engage. Claiming legitimate concerns that emanate from class culture is just “class war” is simply to dismiss working class voices. Indeed, I would argue it is those who dismiss legitimate concerns in this way who are being divisive, not those pointing out that issues exist.

It’s not gracious

I mentioned this above, but it warrants tackling specifically. Middle class voices tend to be listened to by the middle classes, and working class ones dismissed, in large part on this ground. Nobody stops to ask whether “graciousness” is being read through the lens of class culture and what middle class people call graciousness is, in the eyes of other cultures, less than honest and quite indirect. This is not a specifically class-based critiqued – it is a common issue raised by those from other countries concerning British culture (which is dominated and normed by middle class culture). Working class voices are often dismissed as ungracious when, in fact, they are simply being direct and honest. The working classes could equally dismiss middle class people are a bunch of deceivers and liars, which would get read as a very ungracious view of nuance and diplomatic, indirect tactfulness (as they judge it). But the favour is never returned. The working classes are not consider gracious simply because middle class people centre the term around their culture and then define a person as ungracious when they depart from their cultural norms. Again, it is a tool often used to dismiss working class voices and favour middle class ones that speak the same language and meet the cultural norms.

Proving the point

I wonder how many I have managed to get right. Someone will have to let me know in the comments and tell me how I did on my bingo card. But all these comments simply prove the original point being made: we are quick to find ways to dismiss working class voices and favour middle class people over them.