An Overlooked Social Injustice That Lurks in Every City and Every Neighborhood
When we think of social injustices, our brain typically defaults to the AIDS epidemic in Africa, impoverished third world countries that do not have clean drinking water, or even the incredibly tragic miscarriages of justice and civility with the genocide that has taken place in Darfur. Sadly, people die every day due to these and many other global social injustices.
Having said that, let me clearly state that these are incredibly heinous injustices in other parts of the world. However, in this post, I want to communicate a hidden, missed, or even intentionally overlooked social injustice, and it’s happening right here in the U.S.
I recently finished reading a quite intriguing book on this hidden or overlooked social injustice that has invaded the lives of Americans with full force. It assaults all Americans on some level, and it keeps them locked in the dark places both in their homes and within their own minds.
The title of the book is “Bowling Alone” and it was written by Robert D. Putman. Putnam is a highly recognized Sociologist and Political Scientist at Harvard University. The thesis for his book (which actually reads like a university sociology textbook) lies in a simple analogy, but true attrition of Americana – “After Work Bowling Leagues.” That’s right, Putnam researched many trends in Social Change over the 20th Century. He refers to the rapid decline of Social Capitalism in the late 20th Century. In context, social capital is a sociological concept, which refers to connections within and between personal social networks. Much like the “After Work Bowling League” metaphor.
Putnam describes how the 1950’s were full with vibrant social and personal networking. From business men, to older adults sitting on the front every evening after dinner chatting with their neighbors. Putnam also included Americans involvement in National Chapter Based Associations, like the Rotary Club and the Local Ladies Auxiliary. People’s involvement in the civic organizations shot up during the first half of the 20th Century. However, there began a steep decline around 1960 in the participation in these civic clubs, evening chats with the neighbors on the front porch, and other viable personal networks. This is when the social injustice, in which I am referring to, began to rear its head in the lives of most Americans. Well, the obvious question is: What took place in the 1960’s that began to erode the foundation of the vibrant, healthy, and personal social networks? The T.V. That’s right, the television was introduced into the homes of Americans in the mid 1950’s; however, it truly became a force of driving people away from their personal networks and friends, and glued them to it’s riviting stories and moving pictures. Events like the lunar landing in 1969 was a further impetus that drove Americans into what we now face as one of the most overlooked but devastating injustices in our fabric as Americans today, and that is social isolation and loneliness.
The introduction of the T.V. was the first catalyst driving people inside. It still remains a driving force in spreading the epidemic of isolation and loneliness in America, in our cities, and even in our cul-de-sacs.
What’s more with the advent of the internet, and its advanced technology through interactive web-based video games, chat rooms, and of course the New Social Network Phenomena, does nothing but further push us into isolation and loneliness, which often times leads to addictions, serious depression, suicide, poor health, among other issues plaguing many Americans today.
The biggest and overlooked social injustice Americans face today is loneliness….this, in much part, is due to the retreat of Americans into their homes where they have access to a flat world and globalization right within their own homes.
The Glocal church must take up this issue and seek to eradicate it from the throes of American Culture. The church is perfectly positioned to achieve this mammoth goal. However, we can’t do church like we always have. We have to become a “Marginal Church” because we serve a “Marginal Savior.” Jesus went to the margins of society and life, and brought forgiveness restoration to the multitudes. John 4 tells how Jesus met the Samaritan Woman at the Well, in the Margins of society. John records in John 8 that Jesus met the woman caught in adultery and who was about to be stoned. And he delivered her physically and spiritually. He even went to the margins of society by going to Zaccheaus’ house to have dinner. Zaccheaus was a loathed tax collector and thief. Nevertheless, He met him in the Margins and made him new.
If the 21st Century Church doesn’t wake up from its elongated slumber, and become a “Marginal Force,” we could easily see the bedrock foundations of American culture, which is personal relationships, erode and wash away.
