Although I’m still technically a little shaky about blogging in general, I am firm in why I want this work – I believe that faith groups have a critically important role to play in the reduction of violence in our cities. But our churches are largely absent in their emerging role.
There’s a terrible disconnect between churches and faith groups, and the people who are at the heart of violence in our neighborhood. And it is illustrated when you hear church folk talk about how they are going to address the violence when a homicide occurs. They talk in terms of us vs. them, or God vs. the devil. Church leaders organize “Take Back the Street” or “Take Back the Night” marches, and they end up portraying the young men and women embroiled in gangs as minions of evil.
The truth goes beyond their actions and into something much deeper and sadder. Rather than “take back the streets”, we must come to the realization that the streets were never taken from us in the first place. With the rise of the middle class, the failure of education and housing policy, and the retreat on the war on poverty, we abandoned our streets, and left the city, and we allowed those who remained to cope on their own and create their own worlds. And we have the nerve to call them demons…