The lack of public places in Suburbia.

There are often two responses to my strong opinions against suburban development within cities. There are those who have not really considered it, and also don't think it is really important, they remind me of the apparent positives of suburban development - privacy, comfort, and ease. Then there are those who have thought about urban development a bit, or perhaps even a lot they almost always respond by agreeing.

The book Suburban Naiton by Andres Duany, Elizabeth Plater-Zyberk, and Jeff Speck have offered me some more insights on some of the underlying stories of suburban development.

“Dollar for dollar, no other society approaches the United States in terms of the number of square feet per person, the number of baths per bedroom, the number of appliances in the kitchen, the quality of the climate control, and the convenience of the garage. The American private realm is simply a superior product. … Americans might have the finest private realm in the developed world, but our public realm is brutal. Confronted by repetitive subdivisions, treeless collector roads, and vast parking lots, the citizen finds few public spaces worth visiting. One’s role in this environment is primarily as a motorist competing for asphalt.” (41)

The (North) American private realm is a superior product... I have to agree with this statement. We have created more private space that seeks to serve our comforts than one could possibly imagine. What is considered a tiny home today, was a normal to large sized home just 20 years ago. While a private realm which exceeds our needs is problematic enough, I think more worrysome is the fast decline of our public realm.

“To begin with the obvious community cannot form in the absence of communal space, without places for people to get together to talk. Just as it is difficult to imagine the concept of family independent of the home, it is near-impossible to imagine community independent of the town square or the local pub. Christopher Lasch has observed that ‘civic life requires setting in which people meet as equals. Thanks to the decay of civic institutions ranging from political parties to public parks and informal meeting places, conversation has become almost as specialized as the production of knowledge.’ In the absence of walkable public places – streets, squares, and parks, the public realm – people of diverse ages, races, and beliefs are unlikely to meet and talk. Those who believe that Internet web sites and chat rooms are effective substitutes vastly underestimate the distinction between a computer monitor and the human body.” (60)

The public realm is degraded to a mere emptiness. The public square, the public street, and the sidewalk have been reduced to a roads 40 feet wide, lined with sidewalks leading to nowhere, and a landscape where the variety of garage door sizes are the high point of aesthetic playfulness.

Public places have been reduced to this:
(I will not make a sustainability argument against suburban development right now, because this post would become to long)

Faith

Sola fide - the doctrine of justification - the idea that we are justified by faith alone. We are made right with God by our faith not by our actions. I think it is something I have assumed for a long time. I don't think I have thought about it to much though. Being raised in the Calvinistic tradition it is perhaps something that is often just assumed. Dr. Payton made me think about this again... these thoughts are mainly his or at least by inspired by his words.

Romans 3: 21-24 tells us "But now a righteousness from God, apart from law, has been made known, to which the Law and the Prophets testify. This righteousness from God comes through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe. There is no difference, for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus." This being made right with God is through faith in Christ. Through faith alone, not through deeds because we all no matter how good fall short to God. However, being justified through faith alone does not mean that we can sit on our lazy bums. It is not a one time, and now we are good for life commitment.

Yes, only by faith we are justified. However, faith is not something that stand on its own, it can't. Without the body of believers nourishing our faith, without being challenged in our faith, our faith stands alone. When it stands alone is cannot be living. Faith in Christ is not an one-time thing, it is something that changes over the span of our life. We sin and get raised again with Christ, we fall down and get picked up by His love that we can see in the body of believes. If this, our faith, is this one time commitment it is dead. We run the danger of becoming a mouse in a cooke jar, to steal an idea from Soren Kierkegaard. All around us are Christians who have made a faith commitment, and their faith might be alive, but they are all around us, and so we assume we are also a Christian whose faith is alive. However, we need to be aware that our surroundings don't determine where we think our faith is at. Perhaps my faith is not something living, and I am just someone trusting on the idea of justification throug faith.

To me being safe in a Christian environment is a huge encouragement, however, within my heritage we run the risk of thinking we are cookies. Whether it is in our church, school, or work communties our faith should not be lazy, it should spur us to a more active life rooted in Christ and the faith we have received by His grace.