Читать книгу Field Guide to the Wild World of Religion: 2011 Edition - Pamela J.D. Dewey - Страница 4

Indeed it was different, in one way. There would have been a time when most of these buildings would have been filled close to capacity. If you visited those same neighborhoods in 1955, you might well have found the sidewalks crammed to overflowing with families dressed in their Sunday best coming out of each of the churches. And in addition to the big churches on the main street corners, out at the edge of town you would have found one or two much smaller, much humbler little buildings. They, too, might have been filled close to capacity with worshippers. A hand-painted sign on the side of the buildings would announce that here was a “Pentecostal” or “Holiness” church. What they lacked in size, they would make up for in the enthusiasm and volume of their singing and shouting.

But the reality wasn’t exactly that there was much more deep “interest in religion” by the average American back in the Fifties. It was that attending church was much more of a cultural expectation in those days. A family planning a move to a new town would look for three things as soon as they settled on the purchase of their home—how close were the schools their children would attend, where was a convenient bank nearby, and what churches were nearby. Their choices would have been few and simple for all these. For the Fifties were, in many ways, a much simpler time in history.