Marginal Christianity

http://iasc-culture.org/THR/channels/Common_Place/2014/12/there-goes-the-neighborhood/ by Stephen Assink First published as an article in 1995, Robert Putnam’s famous book,   Bowling Alone: The Collapse and Revival of American Community ,  solidified many Americans’ concern about the disappearance of community life. Nearly 20 years later, this worry has only increased, as other scholars— Charles Murray , Claude Fischer , Bill Bishop , and Theda Skocpol —have continued to document this social trend. Marc Dunkelman’s  The Vanishing Neighbor: The Transformation of American Community  is the latest iteration of this ongoing dialogue. At the core of Dunkelman’s transformation thesis is the subtle hollowing-out of the “middle-ring” relationships that historically defined American social life. These relationships according to Dunkelman: are defined by a familiarity that allows acquaintances to carry on conversations about personal subjects eve...

http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/08/03/crumbling-american-dreams/ By ROBERT D. PUTNAM Andrew Borowiec for The New York Times The demolition of the old Port Clinton Middle and Jefferson Elementary Schools in Port Clinton, Ohio. My hometown — Port Clinton, Ohio, population 6,050 — was in the 1950s a passable embodiment of the American dream, a place that offered decent opportunity for the children of bankers and factory workers alike. But a half-century later, wealthy kids park BMW convertibles in the Port Clinton High School lot next to decrepit “junkers” in which homeless classmates live. The American dream has morphed into a split-screen American nightmare. And the story of this small town, and the divergent destinies of its children, turns out to be sadly representative of America. Growing up, almost all my classmates lived with two parents in homes their parents owned and in neighborhoods where everyone knew everyone else’s first name. Some dads wor...