John Martinez on Nostr: No doubt, churches have historically served as community centers but the heart of ...

No doubt, churches have historically served as community centers but the heart of this article is trying to touch on the importance of communal centers that anyone can intellectually participate in.

Churches, by nature, are institutionalized and have a top to bottom approach of disseminating knowledge.

People go to church for enlightenment from a spiritual source or mentor.

For a brief period in history, coffee houses served as centers for intellectual enlightenment and were battlegrounds for testing/debating ideas. Until that time and there after this only took place in segregated parlors based on class structure or universities and churches where class or institutional hierarchy determined the validity and feasibility of an idea.

I appreciate that there could be and have been really good ideas which generate from churches and I generally agree that communities have degraded over time for a host of different reasons, one among them as you mentioned is the fact that spirituality has all but vanished in local communities.

I'm actually working on a piece right now that delves into community degradation that I'd love some input for if you'd like to DM me!