I Left My Heart in San Francisco (or more precisely, Marin County)

Before relocating to northern Utah for graduate studies my family and I lived in northern California in the greater Sacramento area. This is not far from the San Francisco Bay Area, and over the years I had developed relationships with some great people associated with Golden Gate Baptist Theological Seminary in Marin County. This county is one of the more fascinating in the United States from the perspective of religious studies in that it has one of the highest rates of participation in or identification with alternative spiritualities which provides "a case study of particular changes occuring on the religious landscape of America" (Gary A. Tobin & Patricia Y.C.E. Lin, Religious & Spiritual Change in America: The Experience of Marin County, California [Institute for Jewish & Community Research, San Francisco, 2002]). This area also has one of the highest "unchurched" populations of the country (I hate describing people by what they aren't, or by what evangelicals wish them to be ["unchurched], but it's a common label).

As a result of the spiritual climate of Marin County, and my frequent visits to this area before my relocation, I developed a special fondness for it. I recently came across a fascinating quote in a book on Wicca that confirmed the highly influential nature of this region.:

"Within North American Neo-Paganism, California occupies a special position because of its status as the source of much of the 1960s counterculture, a movement that helped popularize Neo-Paganism (as well as other New Religious movements) throughout North America and the rest of the world. California has been at the vanguard of cultural production of a number of fronts, from the film industry to the manufacture and distribution of electronic and technological components; historian Ronald Hutton argues that its importance in the early twenty-first century global cultural scene can be compared to that of Athens in the fifth century B.C.E., Rome in the first century C.E., and Florence in the fifteenth." (Sabina Magliocco, Witching Culture: Folklore and Neo-Paganism in America [University of Philadelphia Press, 2004, ]).

Although the cost of living is astronomical in this region, I would dearly love to connect with Christians who have the heart and finances to engage areas like this (and Salem with Phil Wyman) in the future. The strategic importance is tremendous.