But they have been losing membership for years (even the newer evangelical churches have started shrinking) and ministers can find their position precarious if they stray too far from the predominant thinking of their congregations.
Churches can lead to some extent, and they played an important part in the civil rights movement of the 1960s. In a similar vein, McKibben describes how churches (including the mainline protest denomination he grew up in) have had only limited success in addressing America’s ills. It was only many years later that he came to understand how the suburbs (including Lexington) were a central part of the history of white flight from the urban core and restrictions on affordable housing, factors that have resulted in racial inequality to the present day. As a teenager, he assumed those principles were still at work. It was also the site of the first gun battle of the American revolution, which led McKibben to learn a lot about the founding principles of the country.
McKibben was raised in Lexington, Massachusetts, a Boston suburb. McKibben’s book is divided into three sections, each representing an important component of his suburban upbringing: The Flag (about patriotism and the concepts of freedom and equality), The Cross (about the role of the church), and The Station Wagon (about suburban mobility). But his take on other topics, including the central role of suburbs in several of America’s problems, was unexpected. It’s no surprise to find McKibben, a tireless and outspoken environmental advocate, writing about the climate. He makes the case that suburbanization was deeply involved in several of the problems we are dealing with today, including racial inequity, the decline of religion, and the climate crisis. Bill McKibben’s new book, The Flag, the Cross, and the Station Wagon, takes a critical look at the role of suburbs in the post-war growth of the US.
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