By Chris Steenhof
In 2024, musician Taylor Swift reportedly grossed more than $1.2 billion, with her actual income totaling approximately $400 million (Scheid). During the same year, the average teacher salary in the United States was approximately $72,000. A teacher would have had to work for over fifty-five hundred years to earn the same amount as Taylor Swift’s 2024 income. While difficult to accurately calculate, it is estimated that Elon Musk earned over $24 million an hour in 2024 (Isadore). The average worker during the same period earned approximately $27 an hour. Depending on the calculation, Musk made the same amount as the combined earnings of all 1.6 million employees of Walmart, one of North America’s largest employers.
Although Christians may disagree on the causes, ethical implications, and appropriate responses to income inequality, its presence is impossible to overlook. It is a part of our everyday landscape and has a direct impact on Christian school students, teachers, and parents, as well as on the larger realities of these institutions, including admissions, tuition, and a school’s relationship with the larger community. Although addressing inequality is undeniably complex, it also offers Christian schools a meaningful opportunity to engage deeply with core principles of justice, equity, and compassionate care for those who are most vulnerable.
Although addressing inequality is undeniably complex, it also offers Christian schools a meaningful opportunity to engage deeply with core principles of justice, equity, and compassionate care for those who are most vulnerable.
In this article, I aim to explore the complexities of addressing income inequality, the importance of engaging this issue directly, and the resulting implications for the Christian school curriculum. Finally, I’ll address the various ways we should consider adjusting the practices and structures of our institutions.
The Challenges
The biggest challenge in discussing income inequality in the Christian school classroom is the increasing polarization evident in our student and parent populations. However one frames this reality—left versus right, Republican versus Democrat, conservative versus liberal—this divide has made discussions around this topic and others seemingly impossible to navigate. In our midst we have those who have embraced social justice as a contemporary expression of the Christian faith, while others are extremely skeptical of this movement, believing that it emphasizes woke ideology over biblical teaching. The fact that we have rooted our identity in where we see ourselves on the political spectrum makes these conversations even more difficult.
While this is certainly not true of all Christian school communities, statistically, we are wealthier than the general population.
Another reason why this discussion is difficult is that, on average, Christian school participants, including those who give generously to our schools, are on the higher end of the income scale (Murnane 2). While this is certainly not true of all Christian school communities, statistically, we are wealthier than the general population. Moreover, on average, those who are part of Christian schools—particularly when compared with other nations and with previous generations—experience unprecedented levels of material prosperity alongside widening gaps in wealth and income distribution among the wider population. With this comes a collective guilt (and sometimes apathy rooted in comfort) that makes addressing the topic difficult.
Why We Must Address It
Recent studies have shown that Christian school graduates are leaving traditional Christianity and instead embracing various forms of social justice (Yagel). In essence, justice issues such as the environment, homelessness, poverty reduction, and racial injustice—and commitment to organizations that deal with these issues—have become the new religion for many youth. Many in this generation see the church as failing at addressing what they see as issues fundamental to the true expression of the Christian faith. While this may not be a totally fair conclusion, being willing to address justice issues that surround income inequality may help convince Christian school students that institutional Christianity is not ignoring these important topics.
[J]ustice issues such as the environment, homelessness, poverty reduction, and racial injustice … have become the new religion for many youth.
Additionally, central to our calling as Christian educators is the concept of shalom. God calls us to be people who work actively toward restoring wholeness and order to a broken world. In Teaching for Transformation, a framework for Christian education popular in Canada, one of the throughlines is the concept of justice seeking, where “learners pursue restorative transformation, seeking to bring wholeness where there is brokenness” (Teaching for Transformation).
The increasing divide between rich and poor is a signpost that we live in a broken culture in need of God’s healing. There is growing concern that the income gap is resulting in the disappearance of the middle class, resulting in increased poverty, homelessness, and food insecurity for many. If we aim to prepare students for faithful engagement in today’s world, we must move beyond financial literacy alone and equip them to grapple with the justice issues inherent in income inequality.
What This Means for the Classroom
An important starting point for addressing justice issues in the classroom is to help students talk about difficult topics in a meaningful manner. That means establishing a safe environment where all voices are respected and students can speak authentically and truthfully. Students must understand that when their views and perspectives are discussed and even challenged, their identities are not under attack. At our school, we have drawn on a training program called WayFinders, created by the organization The Colossian Forum, which helps individuals and groups embrace conversations around difficult cultural topics with wisdom and sensitivity.
Students must understand that when their views and perspectives are discussed and even challenged, their identities are not under attack.
In this environment, students need to tackle the various aspects of the topic of income inequality. This includes studying income inequality in other countries and historical periods in order to understand potential reasons for the growing gap, and exploring the consequences of a society where this is a reality.
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Works Cited:
The Colossian Forum. “Differences Don’t Have to Divide.” colossianforum.org/. Accessed 8 December 2025.
Hollinger, J. E. “A Christian Response to Economic Inequality.” In All Things, Dordt University, 4 Mar. 2025, digitalcollections.dordt.edu/faculty_work/1556/.
Isidore, Chris. “Elon Musk, The Richest Man In The World, Is Estimated To Earn Over $23 Million Every Single Hour Of The Day – Here’s How He’s Spending It.” Yahoo Finance, 21 Jan. 2025, finance.yahoo.com/news/elon-musk-richest-man-world-151517895.html.
Murnane, Richard J., and Sean F. Reardon. “Long-Term Trends in Private School Enrollments by Family Income.” AERA Open, vol. 4, no. 1, 2018, pp. 1–26.
Schneid, Rebecca. “Here’s What We Know About Taylor Swift’s Net Worth as She Reaches a New Milestone.” TIME, 6 Oct. 2024, time.com/7050535/taylor-swift-net-worth-estimations-billionaire/.
Teaching for Transformation. Center for the Advancement of Christian Education (CACE), 2025, www.teachingfortransformation.org/.
Walmart. “Life at Walmart: Careers, Culture & Growth.” Walmart Corporate, 2025, corporate.walmart.com/about/working-at-walmart.
Yagel, Gary. “Should Christians Pursue Economic Equality?” The Ministry of Gary Yagel, 13 May 2023, forgingbonds.org/blog/detail/should-christians-pursue-economic-equality?utm_source=chatgpt.com.
Chris Steenhof is the principal of Bulkley Valley Christian School in Smithers, BC. He loves to fish, golf, coach, and officiate basketball and spends time in the outdoors with his wife, children, and grandchildren.
