Some great new restaurants have opened in downtown Collinsville, and one is the “Old Herald Brewery and Distillery.” The name comes from the building, the old home of our defunct local newspaper, the “Collinsville Herald” or “Herald Journal,” through the years it went by several names. As a pastor here in the 1980’s, I often took news stories about our church into the Herald building.
I think about the old Herald because of something Timothy Snyder, a professor at Yale University, said. “What I would say is missing is ‘local reality,’ local news. If local news were stronger, we’d all have a stronger sense about how the elections actually happened. And if local news were stronger, people would have an easier time talking to one another about the things happening to them, rather than everything becoming a national spectacle” (“Reliable Sources,” CNN, January 3, 2021). Diane was an election worker for many years, she knows how it really works. Beyond elections, the lack of one major source for local news, like the old Herald, has created a void. Local Facebook pages are fine, but limited, not a one source for all local news. The void is being filled with national news, dysfunction, headstrong partisans, tragedy after tragedy, and in it all little me, little you, don’t count.
Nothing God-centered or neighbor centered in the national news. “Individualism tends to weaken mediating power centers that stand between the individual and the nation as a whole—from families to local communities (including local governments), (and) religious institutions…. In their place, it strengthens individuals, on the one hand, and a central government, on the other, since such a government is most able to treat individuals equally by treating them all impersonally. For this reason, a hyper-individualist culture is likely to be governed by a hyper-centralized government, and each is likely to exacerbate the worst inclinations of the other.” (Yuval Levin, The Fractured Republic, 99-100).
Which is why, I think, the local congregation is more important to the community than ever before. Yes, it’s the place where God’s Word and Sacraments come to us, and that should always be foremost, but the second great commandment is, “Love your neighbor as yourself.” Local newspapers are not likely to come back, but a congregation can be a caring, outgoing presence that is aware of community needs and interests, and in the name of Christ strives to help. We're not in the church world of the 1950's anymore.