In a link I posted earlier, a number of prominent Protestant pastors (nice alliteration, eh?) commented on the most crying need of the church in America today. Many offered good responses, but one in particular stuck out to me. It came from Tim Keller, a well-spoken and well–written pastor. Keller leads Redeemer Presbyterian Church in Manhattan, ministering to a huge group of young, New York professionals. Coming from that context, he says the following:
If our cities are largely pagan while our countryside is largely Christian, then our society and culture will continue to slide into paganism. And that is exactly what is happening. Christians strengthen somewhat away from the cities and they have made some political gains, but that is not effecting cultural products much. It is because in the center cities (NYC, Boston, LA, Chicago, Seattle, San Francisco, Washington DC) the percentages of people living and working there who are Christians are minuscule.
Jim Boice proposed that evangelical Christians need to live in the major cities at a higher percentage than the population at large (See Two Cities, p.163ff.) Currently 50% of the U.S. population live in urban areas (and 25% lives in just the 10 largest urban areas.) Boice proposes that evangelicals should be living in cities in at least the same percentages or more. As confirmation of Boice’s belief consider how much impact both the Jewish and the gay communities have had on our culture. Why? Though neither is more than 3-4% of the total population, they each comprise over 20% of the population of Manhattan (and in other center cities. )
Keller offers a situation that isn’t commonly discussed. As a Catholic, I think there is much more to explore here, things beyond my capacity or knowledge. But what I do know is that the Catholic Church has traditionally had a strong urban presence in this country–and in Europe–with Churches acting as centerpieces of urban design. That has changed over the last hundred years or so. Spurred on by the advent of the automobile, urban populations disseminated throughout rural landscapes and suburbs. As a side effect to this, the diversity of cultures and religious views that the city provided dried up. People began to live and interact primarily with others of similar religious views, ethnicity, or backgrounds. This has led to the problem that Keller describes above. Christians in the suburbs, for the most part, primarily interact only with Christians in the suburbs. All the while, non-Christians in urban environments not only are sealed off from the provocation of the Spirit, but they have taking the political and cultural reigns of the country and have taken it to questionable destinations.
Now, imaging that I was a demon, hell-bent on destroying the will of God–which is a redeemed society in which overwhelming love and unity reigns between God, all his people, and His Creation–one of the first actions I would take would be to de-centralize the Christian population. I would scatter them around the rural countryside and suburbs while packing non-Christians into tight, separate clusters. I would do pretty much what has been done in terms of social geography.
So, I think Keller makes a great point: as Christians–people who aim to be “salt” and “light” to the world–we should seek the spiritually “bland” and “dark” places to reside. And that may lead us to the great cities of our country.