The Road of God
So we were driving down Ashland Avenue today returning to the Beverly area from Downtown via the road as the Dan Ryan was solid traffic going southbound, and I did the same thing I always do when I ride that route. I counted the churches. Between 51 St and 95 th I counted 77 churches. I may have missed a few as a bus was riding along side us on the right for about obliterating my view for about a city block. Even without the possible few I missed, that is a lot of churches for a 44 block stretch of land. I've dubbed it the Road of God.
Sure there are cities and countries that all try to lay claim to a certain amount of holiness. These are the birth places or final resting places of saints and prophets. Some cities like Vatican City and Mecca are the center of worship for an entire religion. But here in Chicago we probably have the highest concentration of storefront on a single Road.
So this begs the question: Why? Why are there so many churches? Are there that many devout people in the area. Are there that many different brands of Christianity represented in a small area. Is there perhaps a tremendous propensity towards sinning in that area and these are not so much churches but an attempt to surround the sin in holiness. If the only thing a person can do it that area s worship how likely is he or she to sin?
Are these all in fact functioning churches or have the people moved from building to building as funds and conditions improved or got worse?
Mow I've always wanted to start up a religion of my own. I figure it would be a good way to make money and meet women and pawn of whatever crazy ideas I believe at the moment as the will of the creator. I think that if I were to go this route I'm not sure if I would want to be locate on the road of god. On the one hand we have 77 pieces of evidence that say religion does good business here. On the other hand the area may actually be super saturated. My church might be the straw that breaks the camels back.
I had considered going down the road with a camera and getting photos of each and every church so as to put together a picture essay on Chicago's Holy land. But then again people probably wouldn't be quite as amused and fascinated as I am and I'd end up offending a bunch of people without ever selling a copy of the book.
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Sure there are cities and countries that all try to lay claim to a certain amount of holiness. These are the birth places or final resting places of saints and prophets. Some cities like Vatican City and Mecca are the center of worship for an entire religion. But here in Chicago we probably have the highest concentration of storefront on a single Road.
So this begs the question: Why? Why are there so many churches? Are there that many devout people in the area. Are there that many different brands of Christianity represented in a small area. Is there perhaps a tremendous propensity towards sinning in that area and these are not so much churches but an attempt to surround the sin in holiness. If the only thing a person can do it that area s worship how likely is he or she to sin?
Are these all in fact functioning churches or have the people moved from building to building as funds and conditions improved or got worse?
Mow I've always wanted to start up a religion of my own. I figure it would be a good way to make money and meet women and pawn of whatever crazy ideas I believe at the moment as the will of the creator. I think that if I were to go this route I'm not sure if I would want to be locate on the road of god. On the one hand we have 77 pieces of evidence that say religion does good business here. On the other hand the area may actually be super saturated. My church might be the straw that breaks the camels back.
I had considered going down the road with a camera and getting photos of each and every church so as to put together a picture essay on Chicago's Holy land. But then again people probably wouldn't be quite as amused and fascinated as I am and I'd end up offending a bunch of people without ever selling a copy of the book.
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posted by Rich Rosenthal II at 1:51 AM
6 Comments:
Sounds like Dallas. Actually, I thought Chicago suburbs was just like Texas: boring and flat.
I started my own religion called Monaism. Currently, only my husband and I are members.
You might be surprised. I think there is quite a market in church buildings. You might want some text to go with each picture though.
The architecture of churches is cool. When/where can I buy this book? Sign me up!
Wheaton has 45 churches within its limits (not to mention thirty in the bordering unincorporated areas) and is rumored to have more churches per square mile than any other U.S. city, a density exceeded in the world only by one or more cities in Italy.
Um these are store front churches so the architectural style may be described as post commercial (as in it used to be a store but now its a church and you can tell by the wooden sign adorning the front of the building that say most holy or the most holy and many have the initials c.o.g.i.c.)
I could of course add captions and I think that is where I would get in trouble.
definitely not on the road of god, rich. its supply and demand; scarcity increases market value.
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