When Ministers and Their Parishioners Have Different Social Class Positions

Although being a member of the upper class has obvious economic and social advantages, it may also have disadvantages, especially to service workers who are involved in close, continuous, and diffuse social relations with clients whose class positions differ from the practitioner's. An investig...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Mitchell, Robert Edward (Author)
Format: Electronic Article
Language:English
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Published: Springer 1965
In: Review of religious research
Year: 1965, Volume: 7, Issue: 1, Pages: 28-41
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Summary:Although being a member of the upper class has obvious economic and social advantages, it may also have disadvantages, especially to service workers who are involved in close, continuous, and diffuse social relations with clients whose class positions differ from the practitioner's. An investigation of minister-parishioner relations suggests that the meaning of a minister's social class position depends on the class position of the congregation he serves. The values and orientations associated with a person's class position affect the way he interacts with others, in that there is a tendency for people with similar class positions to more easily relax, identify, and interact with each other than with people with contrary class positions. Therefore, rather than a minister's upper-class background serving him as a source of influence, it more likely will deprive him of this if he is located in a lower-class church. A lower-class minister in an upper-class church labors under similar difficulties, as seen both in the way parishioners and ministers react to role partners whose class position differs from their own.
ISSN:2211-4866
Contains:Enthalten in: Review of religious research
Persistent identifiers:DOI: 10.2307/3509832