Photo by John Hoff
It's not MY criticism, let me point that out, first.
But City Councilman Don Samuels (a subject of fascination with me) has said the churches of the North Side are not doing all they can to fight to turn their communities around. Words very much to that effect.
So take a look at this house, where I had to secure the kicked-in front door, this house with all the copper pipes ripped out, and note the relationship of the structure to a nearby church...
Keep in mind this house has a garage in the back where the different metal squares on the garage door are all signed by gang members. I won't say which gang, per the city's habit of not giving the gangs publicity.
So why don't the members of this church walk down the street and take control of their block, and the perimeter streets, and the lovely park where--lovely though it might be--it is scary as all-get-out to hang around in that park with all the gangs and drug dealing. But maybe the churches have an answer to the critique. (Again...it's not my critique and I don't necessarily endorse it)
Yet ever since reading Samuel's critique, I have not been able to get it out of my thought process. Every time I see a church on the North Side, the steps full of people spilling out of the doors on Sunday, I think...why are they letting the neighborhood around them go to Hades in a hand basket while singing hymns to Jesus?
5 comments:
why should churches step in? the majority of church-goers rarely live in the neighborhoods that the churches are located in these days and they mostly just worhsip god, praise allah or tefila yahweh.
churches have a long standing tradition of keeping the money people give them for themselves. things probably won't change now.
not that i'm bitter or anything.
--c
So you're telling me the folks coming to the churches on the North Side are MOSTLY from outside the neighborhood?
Interesting.
Well, then, what about improving the surrounding neighborhood in order to make their own church property more valuable? Or to draw more members who actually live in the community? What stops THAT?
I will point out, however, that during the Hawthorne "Clean Sweep" yesterday, there was a volunteer who showed up who had been sent there by a pastor. It had something to do with community service. To my knowledge, it was just ONE volunteer who arrived through the intervention of a local church (not sure which one) but he was indeed pitching in.
Also, I will have to look up this "tefila Yahweh" business.
So you're telling me the folks coming to the churches on the North Side are MOSTLY from outside the neighborhood?
Interesting.
then it must just be a suburb thing. people drive for miles and miles out here to get to church.
I, for one, am flexible enough to attend a broad range of denominations based on mere proximity.
Oh, plus quality and frequency of pot luck dinners.
Many churches on the north side were started by immigrants around the 1900's. They raised families that worshiped here. They raised their kids with an attitude that success was moving up and out of here. Post WWII saw the 1st outmigration as returning GI went to the 1st ring suburbs for housing and to start new families. Many stayed with the same church the family was with for generations. When one new pastor preached 'civic duty' he was blistered with the response of all the congregation does, from firefighers to LIONS members; all suburban. Pastor just didn't know any better. Like many, couldn't think very well after eating all that food. White flight of the 70's polished off many others, but many of the local churches still have members that come in from surrounding areas for worship with a faith and committment that runs deeper than pot luck suppers.
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