God-Mart, Gated Communities and Gasoline

By BlackJack

I'm not the only one to notice a disturbing trend over the last half century in America. It seems we've begun desensitizing ourselves in all aspects of our lives. We've slowly been removing opportunities to encounter other humans in a meaningful, personal way. Now it's happening in our spiritual lives as well.

As with most social ills, there's no single cause for this trend, but rather a sort of perfect storm of societal developments. There was the gradual suburbanization of our cities that started in the 1950's. Over time what we had once called neighborhoods had become subdivisions where the streets curved around into and endless maze of cul-de-sacs. Many of these newer developments have no sidewalks at all since the people who live there apparently drive everywhere they go. The unfortunate side effect is that nobody knows their neighbors and there is no sense of community.

In some regions the fear and paranoia have led to 'gated communities' - large sprawling fenced-in residential fortresses designed to keep out the huddled masses. In many ways it's what's happened to society at large - we've built walls to keep each other at a comfortable distance. If we don't interact with each other there's no opportunity for fear, embarrassment or conversation.

The American car culture that bloomed in the decades following World War II led to further distancing ourselves from each other. The nation became so enamored with our vehicles that we didn't want to get out of them even when we reached our destination. Suddenly the urban landscape sprouted drive-in and drive-thru everything's - restaurants, liquor stores, movie theatres, pharmacies and even churches.

Over time Americans began to shun walking almost anywhere - even a few blocks. Being able to drive across town to save a few cents on provisions meant the end of the neighborhood grocery store. Without the local traffic created by the grocer, and with civic zoning laws, other local icons began to die off. Soon there were no more barber shops and hair salons, doctor and dental offices, filling stations, magazine stands or restaurants. The neighborhood as community was dead.

Strip malls began to dot the landscape and soon everywhere you went in America looked a lot like anywhere else in America. A street corner between a K-mart and a McDonald's in Massachusetts looks pretty much the same as a street corner between a K-mart and a McDonald's in Mississippi. As the shopping districts moved away from the traditional downtowns, towns lost their local flavor.

Civic leaders, in an honest attempt to save their downtowns, demolished many classic structures hoping to mimic the shopping malls by building modern glass and concrete monoliths. Instead, they destroyed the very character of their home towns.

Television, and now the Internet, have played no small part in our further desensitization and homogenization. We've begun to believe that different is bad. We find it easier to belong to a global village then the one outside our own door.

How far has it all come? Do we really leave our homes, drive around town, do all of our shopping and arrive at our destination having never pulled the cell-phone from our ear? How many people did we avoid interaction with by never putting that thing down? And how rude is that?

When was the last time you smiled at a stranger? If you did, did they look at you like you were insane? And when did lending a helping hand become such an oddity as to cause distrust?

And now we have God-Marts springing up all over America. We're living in the age of the super-church - massive evangelical monuments to Christianity. Huge God malls where you can fill all your spiritual prescriptions without ever having the inconvenience of any real participation. Many of them now have espresso shops, bookstores, medical clinics, music storesﾅ everything a good Christian needs to fend off the cluttered, dirty, uncomfortable world outside those walls. What was it Jesus did to all those merchants in the temple?

There is a new trend called 'New Urbanism'. The concept is to build small self-sufficient communities, within larger urban areas, complete with stores, pharmacies, restaurants, churches and everything else we lost in the last 50 years surrounded by a balanced mixed of single and multi-family homes. Everything is built within walking distance to encourage a sense of neighborhood and community. I hope it's not too late. We seem to have forgotten how to be neighbors.