Hi

The dictionary said that a ghetto is an isolated or segregated area of a city. I don't see how on the www. these ideas could be isolated, since the flow of people through here freely comes and goes.

So I looked for metaphors in Elvis Presley's "In the Ghetto." It would be overly dramatic to say that these lyrics create an analogy with what happens here, or with other NA groups.  Therefore I think 'ghetto' does not apply.
     
Title: Elvis Presley - In The Ghetto lyrics

As the snow flies
On a cold and gray Chicago mornin'
A poor little baby child is born
In the ghetto
And his mama cries
'cause if there's one thing that she don't need
it's another hungry mouth to feed
In the ghetto

People, don't you understand
the child needs a helping hand
or he'll grow to be an angry young man some day
Take a look at you and me,
are we too blind to see,
do we simply turn our heads
and look the other way

Well the world turns
and a hungry little boy with a runny nose
plays in the street as the cold wind blows
In the ghetto

And his hunger burns
so he starts to roam the streets at night
and he learns how to steal
and he learns how to fight
In the ghetto

New Age ?
I think it's a massive, collective, psychotic chemical flashback for all the drugs smoked, swallowed, shot, and absorbed rectally by all Americans from 1960 to 1990.

I wish we had more words for these things that currently all fall under the "New Age" umbrella.

Because if I had to describe my spirituality, New Age comes to mind, but that term covers a ton of stuff I don't associate with, so I'm not willing to admit it socially because I don't want to be misunderstood.

We need more words!

Be careful, Calypso; I need to be handled with kid gloves!    You are of course right; I am dismissed as a godless liberal by some of my more conservative Christian brethren and cistern.  All I want them to do is recognize that biblical revelation is very incomplete, even if valid, and that many vital questions about faith, miracles, healing, and the afterlife remain unanswered on biblical grounds.  Failure to recognize this creates a Christian Ghetto because new issues like NDEs fall under suspicion as inspired by the wrong source.

Don