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Living Next Door to God


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A Domino's Pizza millionaire is building a town where the streets are named after saints, almost all the residents are Catholic, and, if he had it his way, no contraception or pornography will ever be sold.
vigliotti

22 responses // Living Next Door to God

  • This will not encourage diversity. Hiding away in a community that's comfortable only enforces your own arguments with like minded people.
    The street where I live has much diversity and i have held preconceptions about the people who live here, but I take delight when those points of view change. This has only happened when I communicate with these people and that's when they become my neighbours and I become more tolerant.

    I have just started to look around your site and I'm excited about exploring the rest, good work!!
    andrewnewman
  • Awesome response Andrew. You bring up very valid points. In my personal experiences diversity has fostered tolerance... especially in a place like New York City and Miami where I live now.

    Some of the homeowners at Ave Maria believe the town will naturally attract visitors (of different backgrounds) who will, as a result, learn more about Christianity and develop tolerance.

    By the way... welcome to Current.
    vigliotti
  • i don't find it unusual that people would be attracted to a homogeneous community. my major concern is what type of children a community like this will produce. will they be tolerant and accepting of others when they go out into the big, bad world? will they be able to cope with a world that isn't catholic? will they revolt against the community in droves like the amish in pennsylvania? by bringing their children into this community, parents may be ill-serving their children by either making them unable to cope with a world that they aren't used to or pushing them away from faith by being over zealous.

    good pod

    i may never order dominos again...
    boycalledbutter
  • Wonderful shooting and respectful interviews, Bravo. Great hosting.
    rawbird
  • http://current.com/items/77914501_divo
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    Fascinating!
    What a fascinating story, a brand new town founded in 2007 with its own University! I'm all for values but it sounds suspicious to me. You are very handsome John and are a great host.
    hisStoryFilms
  • Great job Jonathan! Well shot and edited, interesting topic, and you were wonderful on camera - easy to watch, not annoyingly over produced, very natural. I enjoyed your piece very much! Glad to have you as a participant!
    Tori
    • Tori
    • 11 months ago
  • I am going to have to agree with everyone else so far. Great Pod, great shooting, writing, and editing.

    A place like Ave maria, has its plus sides and negative sides. It will encourage people to feel safe, and secure. It can help them to find a voice, and opinions. And it can encourage them in their spiritual life. But when a town is so similar, it can then cause people to be afraid and even dislike the different. Like someone said about the amish, for example, the children might have a rude awakening to the outside world. I mean everyone has a time like that but when a town is so similar it can be pretty rough. I won't go and say I won't eat dominio's pizza but this is definitly something people should know about since it was created so fast, and will become so large.

    a question for the producer, was this town built on everglades?
    sircamels
  • Hey Sir,
    Ave Maria was mainly built on farm land with some surrounding swamp. Two years ago the place was tomatoes and alfalfa. As part of the towns commitment to the area, officials have promised to not touch any of the swamp land. Of course there are issues of run-off, and everything else associated with building a a town of 10,000 from scratch, but that's another story.
    vigliotti
  • Disturbing.
    damnneargenius
  • I think this is interesting and also sad when you think about the children. Who is funding the "largest construction site on the earth"? What are they teaching at the university? I think it would be interesting also to get a point of view of someone who is not catholic and living in the community, just to see how "welcoming" the town really is...
    automatedaj
  • one of the most beautiful pods on current

    thank you friend
    Emmhisattva
  • Personally I would be stifled in a town full of religiously monolithic people, but the true test would be how they treat me, presuming I did choose to live there. What would happen if they found out my wife had an abortion, for instance? What if they notice I never attend their church?
    And I echo the thought of a previous poster about the children born there. They're in for a rough ride when they leave home for the real world, which is increasingly multifaceted. [Of course, if they watch Current, maybe they'll at least be "forewarned".]
    symbiont
  • To each his own I guess. I would never live here, but I can see why people would choose to. I don't think it hinders or hurts cultural diversity. It is just another outlet.
    Bcooper
  • While I believe that te people who conceived this community may be looking to do good and bring together the actual citizens of that community, I feel that it will also 'stunt' diversity, as Emile questioned in his pod.

    I cannot foresee this community fostering activities that are not readily encouraged by the 'global' sentiment, seeing that this community is going to be mainly Catholic. While they may maintain the stance of accepting anyone for who they are or may be, it just seems to me that they want to enclose themselves to similar-minded folks who are looking to create a homogenous community.

    Great pod.
    RyanParker
  • I'm sure most of the people moving there and those involved in the project aren't meaning any harm and probably believe they're doing something wonderful for the future citizens, but I think the result will be quite the opposite.

    Firstly, I don't believe the man who said the 25,000 people would be very diverse in religion. I can't think of many reasons someone who isn't Catholic would choose to move into a very religious community with only a Catholic church. And if we want to understand what a lack of diversity in religion creates, we should look at similar situations in present and past communities.

    Take the Middle East for example. Most areas are predominately Muslim and governed by Islamic law. It's created an intolerance for diversity; for example people of homosexual orientation are persecuted and hanged in Iran. Extremist groups have come out of the Middle East (although that can be partly attributed to recent wars in the area) expressing hatred for the ways of Americans/Christians. Ave Maria may be a much smaller scale and more stable area, but will the effect still be a similar situation? Will gays and others who don't follow guidelines be shunned or worse? Will harmful cults come out of such a place? Perhaps keeping a close eye on this town would be a good idea.
    PaintedAura
  • Great POD!

    Now...This new town may not be good for diversity, but that's why we have NY, LA, Chicago, etc. I think it's an interesting and creative way to bring people of the same background/religion closer together. You can't ridicule what they are trying to do just because it is religious based. People have their choice of where they want to live. For example, I know people who move to NY b/c it's full of diversity, and people who also move to Utah to be closer to G-d. What's the difference and problem when it becomes Catholic?

    I applaud thier effort, yet, even being a Catholic myself, I could never call Ave Maria home! I love diversity too much.

    Cheers.
    mexisurfer
  • Jonathan Vigliotti... or do you like emile vig? did you shoot, write and edit all of your work? I have the feeling you do which makes you a very valuable man in this business. congrats on your work. I registered on this site because I saw your work on TV.
    esloan
  • Great pod... but very disturbing. I definitely wonder about the children growing up in this environment.

    I make it a point to foster diverse cultural information for my daughter (age 7). We live in a microscopic town in NC, and she has had a big eye opener while watching Current. THANK YOU!

    I am with 'automatedaj', what are they teaching at that Univ?
    Opnthbx
  • great pod, you shot it perfectly and I liked the little reflection piece at the end. Super classy.
    CYoung175
  • Thanks Esloan and Cyoung. I appreciate the comments (I do shoot, write and edit all my work) . do you guys have any work on Current I can check out?

    Opnthbx:

    I'm glad you got a chance to see the pod. To answer your question, Ave Maria has a core curriculum which is the tradition of most Catholic Universities. Students are required to take courses in theology, philosophy, history, literature, the sciences and the arts (I think the list goes on).
    vigliotti
  • I think that they have a good point: You should be around people like you.
    I also think this is dangerous because we may not choose to be around others with different views because we fear conflict. However lack of conflict does hinder diversity. If you wanted to live in a well-rounded town that accepted all the strengths and weaknesses of other religions would you really elect leaders that are all of the same faith?
    pyropalmtree
  • I definitely think that this new town stunts the growth of diversity. Especially the fact that it’s in Florida, I believe a few years ago people had said that Florida was a 3rd world country. What can come from that, obviously we needed some type of saving…

    Look at the prices for houses, I would rather move up state than spend money to live there, and for an extra $42,000 you can get a pool!
    Cher214

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