What’s wrong with America today? There are a lot of answers to that question, but one that we Americans are most likely to forget is the collapse of our communities. We tend to be caught up in individualism, and so focus on fixing individuals (work harder, get government assistance, transform your attitude/body/job, etc). But what if the biggest problem is that our neighborhoods are sick? This is the subject of Seth Kaplan’s recent book Fragile Neighborhoods: Repairing American Society one Zip Code at a Time.
This is the kind of book I’d encourage all Americans to read–how are we unhealthy together, and how can we get healthier together? What does it mean to live next door to somebody? How can I help make my street, my block, or my community a better one? These are the kinds of questions that Americans used to excel at answering, and which have fallen off our radar in recent years. Kaplan’s Fragile Neighborhoods puts these questions front and center, and encourages us to think through possible solutions.
Christians have a unique advantage here: we have a built-in community whose health we are obligated to pursue. The church is not exempt from fragility, and as we work with other believers to build its health in the Gospel, we have before us a model of what this might look like for society as well. The strength of our faith is related to the strength of our church family. In the same way, the health of our nation and our rights and freedoms as individuals are tied to the health of our neighborhood. Remembering that can be a challenge, but it is a challenge we have to meet head on if we want to weather the current political and social storms.
All that to say, Fragile Neighborhoods is a book I am happy to recommend as useful for all citizens, but of special interest to believers.
Dr. Coyle Neal is co-host of the City of Man Podcast an Amazon Associate (which is linked in this blog), and an Associate Professor of Political Science at Southwest Baptist University in Bolivar, MO
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