“Churches are not transforming people but rather servicing them,” says Sylvia Ronsvalle of Empty Tomb, Inc., in Champaign (www.pnnonline.org). She’s coauthor of a new study, “The State of Church Giving Through 2000,” which found that benevolent giving–contributions that support the broader mission of the church–reached its lowest point since 1968 in 2000, while giving for internal operations of the congregation remained strong. “People are concerned about keeping the lights on and the staff paid at their churches, which are valid needs. But those activities ought to be the platform from which to reach out to a hurting world as Christians practice their religion. Instead, congregation members appear to be emphasizing their own comfort over the needs of their local and international neighbors.”
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Square miles urbanized in the Chicago and northwest Indiana area, 1970-’90, according to U.S. census figures (www.sprawlcity.org): 307.3. The Chicago area ranks 13th in the country by this measure of sprawl, behind Atlanta (702), Houston (639), New York (541), and even Oklahoma City (307.7). Adding more than 300 square miles of city in 20 years sounds pretty dire unless you know one fact not mentioned on the Web site: the state of Illinois contains 55,593 square miles of land.
And she’s just getting ready to talk about the pollution. “Nobody cares about rural people,” writes Becky Bradway, a native of downstate Buffalo (E Magazine, September/October). “Let’s be real about that. They’re the butt of jokes; they have no power. A friend who teaches in Illiopolis joked that everyone in the town is inbred. They all have the same last names. Uh-huh, I said. Tell me about it. Feuding strands of my cousins’ family, the Pattons, wind all over Central Illinois. The inbreeding isn’t a matter of genetics, but of attitudes and ideas and career options and life choices that limit them to a 10-mile radius. Kids look to the chemical plant, figuring they can get a job there after they get married. They marry soon after they graduate high school, or even before. Some want to leave but lack opportunity or nerve, so they stay stoned, vandalize, fight, or maybe kill themselves driving too fast on the curving country roads.”
