The first I heard anything about gangs was probably in about the sixth grade from our class DARE officer. And the very idea of them scared the crap out of me. I was a middle class white girl, living in a middle class white town of about 7,000 people. The concept was mentally foreign to me though the city of Springfield – which has a high drug/crime rate and several active gangs – was less than thirty minutes away.
I grew up, moved to a big city, eventually ended up in eastern North Carolina. Someplace that “gang activity” wouldn’t cross my mind to be a problem. But it is. Today driving home, I saw about five young men decked out in blue which I know, despite my fairly sheltered upbringing, means Crips. I think the worst part was realizing that two of them were still in school uniforms.
I think, as I learn more, I feel more angry that the church as a whole (as Josh says, “Big C church”) has failed. People will always try to fill holes that are meant to be filled with Jesus. Sure there are those that are the typical go-tos for sermon illustrations – drugs, alcohol, sex. But what about family? What if what’s missing is the knowledge that somebody will love me, look out for me, protect me? We are a broken world, with sinful broken people in it. But what if the church could be known as the place that will always be there for you?Think of the implications that would have!
The other thing I have a problem with is how lightly we (middle class white people) take these issues. We joke about making gang symbols and being thug. All the while, people are being shot for those same symbols, going to jail for those same colors and desperately searching for something real. I have a feeling that nobody in South Central LA dresses up as a “gangsta” for Halloween. No one who’s ever been involved in a drive-by jokes about how thug they are.
I’m done with my soap box. It just bugs me to feel helpless I guess.
Adventures with the Morgans 