A Heterogeneous Middle Class Faith

41. The Protestant Christian community is a predominantly middle class community (Clammer 1978; Sng and You 1982). The Singapore middle class is, however, neither homogeneous nor static, and so too the case of the Protestant Christian community. The complex historical and political forces that have resulted in strong links between economic status and language proficiency in Singapore (Hill and Lian 1995; Kwok 2001) have also affected the Protestant Christian community, such that differentiation in social class and status are also reflected in the social organization of churches.

42. Generally speaking, the findings suggest that our respondents from the mainline denominations, as well as those from independent churches, are part of the established English-proficient middle class while megachurch-goers constitute part of the emergent middle class. Our Anglican, Methodist and independent church respondents were more likely to have better educated parents from more privileged socio-economic and English-speaking backgrounds, and lived in private property. These respondents were also more likely to have parents who are Protestant Christians. Meanwhile our megachurch respondents were more likely to have less educated parents, to have come from less privileged socio-economic and non-English-speaking backgrounds, and lived in public housing. They were also more likely to have parents who were non-Christians.

43. From this we can infer that our mainline and independent church respondents are more likely to have inherited their middle class status while our megachurch respondents are recent entrants into this class. Not only does this show the Singapore middle class to be dynamic, it also indicates that the transition from working or lower middle class backgrounds to middle class status makes the middle class a heterogeneous one in terms of perspectives and experiences.

44. Although megachurch respondents are themselves as highly educated, if not more so, as our mainline and independent church respondents, the inherited class status of the latter suggests social distinction through cultural capital. According to Bourdieu (2002), economic class status is not the only way groups distinguish themselves from each other.