How sad it is for Christians near major cities to not love the city and then live as far away as possible from "city people" (too much Wendell Berry, I guess),
and how pathetic it is for churches to exist for their own self-preservation, survival, and isolation from "outsiders," and how sad it is to be a Christian and raise kids who have no passion for the poor and the oppressed because they never see their parents involved in such activities as a regular part of life (outside of thanksgiving, Christmas, the one-weekend inner city "missions trip," or the 10-day trip to poor country X) but the kids love soccer and know Bible stories.
Posted by anthony at September 23, 2007 11:30 PM | TrackBackI both love, and hate, to see Wendell Berry cited among evangelical Christians; Berry nails the reality that too many of us have become slaves to mammon and separated from that for which God made us. The way he gets there, though, isn't exactly orthodox, IMO.
Posted by: Robert Perry at September 24, 2007 05:51 PMI think we make draw too much of a dichotomy between the city and the country--our society, our economy, and the Church need both together. They serve different functions, but that doesn't mean we ought to value one above the other. Berry gets it wrong by basically saying cities are what's killing our society, when they really perpetuate and enrich our society.
The city's important as a cultural center, for progression, for the sending out of ideas (and the spread of the gospel--obviously, the apostles didn't go into cities for nothing), but we need farmers not just for agriculture, but for the preservation of other good parts of our culture and tradition. It's like most other things--we need to have balance.
Posted by: Manders at September 27, 2007 09:22 PM