THE LONELY PLANET: If Thoreau's observation was true in the past, it has become increasingly true in the present, and the prediction is that it will become alarmingly more so in the near future. We live on a very lonely planet. • In 1950 there were only seven cities in the world with more than five million people. Only two of these were in the Third World. • Today there are 34 cities with more than five million people, 22 of which are in the Third World. • And by the middle of the 21st century, there will be nearly 100 cities with at least five million people, with 80 of these in Africa, Asia, and Latin America. Most of the world's population will be living in cities and the slums and squatter settlements of Third World countries. People are alone in high-rise buildings that house tens of thousands; people are alone on transits systems that shuttle millions each day; people are alone in houses that are the size of castles as well as apartments that are the size of closets. Loneliness is no respecter of economics or status. Loneliness is not a stranger to more and more people around this city and across the world. Charles Reich wrote in his impacting book a generation ago called The Greening of America, "Modern living has obliterated place, locality, and neighborhood, and has given us the anonymous separateness of our existence. The family, the most basic social system, has been ruthlessly stripped to its functional essentials. FRIENDSHIP has been coated over with a layer of impenetrable artificiality as men strive to live roles designed for them. Protocol, competition, hostility, and fear have replaced the warmth of a circle of affection that might sustain man a
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Pastor John Barnett has been devouring the Word of God for over 30 years. John, now the teaching pastor of Calvary Bible Church in Kalamazoo, Michigan has served congregations in Oklahoma, New England, Georgia and California. He also served on the Faculty of the Master's College...
