It is not unusual to see marketing for suburbs include words like "pristine" and "calm". For many these are key selling points of getting out to the burbs. They are seen as an escape from the hustle and bustle of city life. The burbs are marketed as an oasis from life's chaos.
In fact, this type of marketing finds its roots in some of the earliest suburbs. Partially, because religious imagery permeated our culture they were described as a new Eden. They were a place that was midway between the disconnection and difficulty of rural life and the difficulties of the city. But I think the religious and Edenic words stuck for another reason. You see at its core the drive toward the suburbs has been a spiritual quest.
At the core, we are trying to get back to something that we know or at least hope exists, a type of heaven. Now I don't necessarily mean heaven as it is described in the biblical terms but a heaven of our own making. One that centers on us. One that where my comforts, securities, and desires are met. And the road to suburbia seems like a way by changing my surroundings to conquer that elusive misty land.
There is a key problem though. At the core our problem is not an external environmental one. Yes, it is nice to have better surroundings, easier living, and creature comforts but all of those factors don't ensure anything. In fact, in my experience and observation they tend to be a temporary anesthetic to the true issues. Some take the painkiller of the suburbs so much that they no longer feel the real issues. But they're still there, only masked under houses, big screens, and scented soaps. You see what is needed is not more money or better surroundings but a switch of the internal environment.
I have lived in suburbs much of my life and one thing I have found is that we have not found Eden because even if we did we would corrupt it the moment we moved into it with our sinful hearts. Even in the "churchianity" of the South this is true. In fact, I have found more personal difficulties in those around me in the suburbs of the south then in the suburbs of Southern California. The main difference is that people here have more disposable income and a greater sense of shame so both of those factors tend to hide the reality of people that are entangled by their possessions, difficult marriages, sexual issues, and child-rearing problems. And then, add to that an innate fear that what they now have could be lost with the loss of a job and you have a swirl of issues that are no Eden. In fact for many, I think it is a lonely, scary, personal version of Hell.
What is needed then is heart transformation not financial translation. And that is only possibly through the Gospel.