Here's a good addendum to the Success Sequence conversation. "If You Stumble, A Strong Family Can Lift You Up"
I see this play out in kinship networks here in Appalachia, especially for young women who have children before marriage or completing education.
The problem, tho, is that is only works as long as there is strong family, Once the stumble becomes generational norm, the family is no longer strong enough to support individual.
Ideally, religious communities should be a kind of foster family for those w/out strong families--able to support those stumbling on road to success, but our individualism gets in way here.
We generally don't see ourselves as responsible to other people. Church community is a kind of reward for those who already have their lives together.
If you already have a stable life, you can join in with other people who also have been able to achieve a stable life.
Here, kinship can act as a bridge back to church if one member of family has remained involved--it can be a mix of family/church community to help stabilize individual.
Given cost of higher ed & acceptance of free sex, I suspect we'll see more & more folks stumbling. Solidly middle class folks will slip into poverty. The Church needs a game plan for that reality.
Folks w/ stable families can choose to shelter themselves away from broader decay, or they can see themselves as lights along path, supporting friends & family from stumbling down path.
This will require a clear-eyed understanding of sexual brokenness as the norm, not exception. An ounce of prevention is still worth a pound of cure, but we've got an epidemic on our hands.
If we're doing our job right, church pews should be filled w/ families & people being put back together, not simply families who followed the Success Sequence.
