Hallowed Be Thy Savings

Joseph Campbell once claimed that you could always tell what a culture valued most by the largest building in their community. Many Native American tribes had their shamanistic tents, emphasizing their value of the spiritual; The Vikings had great Mead Halls where they would socialize and eat together; and the Romans had their great coliseum where they celebrated sport and violence. Those of us living in the small, conservative southwestern city of St. George, Utah are no different.

When this small community was established it was centered on the core beliefs brought here by its Mormon pioneer heritage. After coming to Utah’s Dixie those early settlers were quick to build houses of worship, including the St. George Valley’s crowning jewel: The St. George LDS Temple. For decades this building was the largest most prominent structure in the community, acting as a token of the community’s most cherished value system. During the past couple of decades the values of St. George’s citizens has changed and along with them so has the skyline.

If one were to drive through town you’d find the largest buildings in town are Banks, big box stores such as Wal-Mart and Target and of course our state of the art hospital. In an informal survey 92% of people polled claimed that they were actively involved in a religious organization. This would indicate that the larger population in St. George still holds to its religious roots. Of those who claimed to be religious 40% said they participated in some form of worship at least 4 times per month. Interestingly enough 46% of them stated that they frequented a financial or commercial institution over 10 times in a month. So while our community may still hold on to values akin to our founding fathers, a greater percentage of them patronize commercial structures at a far greater frequency than they do religious institutions.

This isn’t to say that the citizens of southern Utah should feel ashamed that their commercial activities outpace their religious activities, but it certainly explains why their architects are designing automatic sliding glass doors rather than steeples.