Is It Too Late?

Unfortunately most American churches took the government’s vow to champion the poor as gospel. By the mid 1960s churches were stampeding toward the new Promise Land called suburbia. The fact that the government would champion the poor suited most denominational leaders and pastors just fine. After all the people who mattered, along with most of money, were in the suburbs.

The inner cities didn’t look like good, (strategic), investment; it was a matter of good stewardship for white middle class Christian resources to be invested in the “burbs.” White Flight and affluent living in the suburbs became the agenda for middle class American Christians and Non Christians alike.

The impact is evident in several social institutions, but perhaps it is most evident in the differences between inner city schools and suburban schools. Sometime, when you have nothing better to do, check out the parking lot of a suburban high school; and then do the same at an inner city school. One lot will be over full, with mostly classy newer cars, while the other lot will be half empty with a bunch of “Junkers.” Guess which lot is which. Of course the resources on the inside of the school will compare in a similar way, as do the cars in the parking lots.

When the 18th century Wesleyans saw factory kids, who worked 12 to 14 hours six days a week, spending Sundays in the streets; they hired teachers and started the first Sunday Schools. During the second half of the 20th century many Christians who could send their kids to suburban schools, though often not great places, they were much better than the inner city schools. But I have to confess I am even a worse offender, suburban schools were not good enough for many of us including me. So we started hundreds of private schools for our own kids and paid little attention to the poverty of the inner city. And then we wonder why our culture became a Post-Christian culture so rapidly.