Planting Churches among the City's Poor - Volume 1

P ART III: P LANTING U RBAN C HURCHES • 299

5. Rise of spiritualism, relativism, secularism, and new age religions in American popular culture

B. Urban America’s radical diversity is directly connected to racial, cultural, and ethnic suspicion, conflict.

1. Dramatic population growth in the world: Over six billion people; in 1900 there were only about 1.6 billion, and as recently as 1970, only 3.7 billion. Almost four times as many people in 2000 as 1900 (World Christian Encyclopedia, 2nd Edition, 2002, 1:4). Most populous continent is Asia 3,683 million, Africa, 784 million, Europe, 729 million, Latin America 519 million, North America 310 million, and Oceania 30 million. (Asia, Africa, and Latin America comprise 82% of the world’s population!) 2. Complex, ethnic diversity in America: hundreds of distinct languages spoken, numbering well over 60 million people who have been drawn to urban areas for economic, social reasons

3. Race issues still matter: note the Hurricane Katrina aftermath

4. Old wounds still remain; unhealed, festering, ready to be ignited with the least amount of effort.

5. The interconnections of genuine race hatred and class conflict are complex and poignant in America (e.g., between poor Whites, Hispanics, Asians, Blacks, etc.). C. Urban America is riddled with broken kinship relationships and decaying social networks among many of its varying ethnic groups.

1. The differences between people tend to alienate and divide groups.

2. Our differences tend to divide us because we are ethnocentric, we prefer our own culture and tend to judge others in light of it.

a. Anthropological roots of division

(1) The enormous power of enculturation