A better way of dealing with society's neediest

A better way of dealing with society's neediest
Steve Lopez
April 19, 2009

Reporting from Washington -- So what exactly am I doing on Capitol Hill? I'm at a congressional briefing, which wouldn't be entirely out of the ordinary, except that I'm not taking notes and not planning to beat up on anyone.

I'm the keynote speaker.

Yes, friends, the republic is in trouble.

I've been asked here to share what I've learned since meeting Nathaniel Anthony Ayers, a former Juilliard student who has taught me about this nation's triumphs and failures in helping those who battle mental illness and end up homeless.

I'm well aware that Capitol Hill briefings are a dime a dozen and that public policy is not likely to be greatly influenced by my testimony. But I was invited here by officials from the Corp. for Supportive Housing, the National Alliance on Mental Illness, the National Alliance to End Homelessness and other agencies.

My instinct was to decline the offer. It's not in my nature as a journalist to become personally involved in a story.

But that struck me as too convenient an excuse for avoiding my civic duty. There's a new administration now and stimulus money needing to be spent. Maybe there's finally hope for more programs to help the Nathaniels of the world.

So here I am, Mr. Lopez goes to Washington, and just as I'm beginning to experience an unwelcome sense of self-importance, I'm told the actual congressional representatives are in recess and out of town.

What? You mean they skipped out just as I got here and sent their minions to hear me?

I swallow my pride and look out on a few dozen congressional staffers, policy wonks and service providers. I've been given 15 minutes. I confess to listeners that I'm not the expert on housing and mental illness that my fellow panelists are, but I have a story.

I tell them about Mr. Ayers, who lost nearly everything at the age of 20 to schizophrenia. By the time I met him four years ago, he had been living on the streets for decades, with little to keep him going but his love of music.

In helping him find a home at Lamp Community in Los Angeles, I learned firsthand how permanent supportive housing is not only the humane approach, but often the cost-effective one too.

Lamp has rescued hundreds of people from lives of despair and saved taxpayers the cost of churning them endlessly through emergency rooms, criminal courts and prisons.

The homeless population is growing across the country because of the recession and returning veterans who are physically and mentally wounded. It's not that we don't know how to help them rebuild their lives, I tell my audience, but that we haven't provided nearly enough support for alternative courts and for programs like Lamp.

And so vets sleep in Santa Monica parks, not far from abandoned VA barracks; L.A. County Jail serves as a mental institution; and there's a waiting list at Lamp and other agencies with good track records but limited funds.

On behalf of Mr. Ayers, I urge my audience to support a better way of dealing with society's neediest, then step aside so the professionals can speak.

Bob Carolla of the National Alliance on Mental Illness talks about how, while working as an aide to former Sen. George Mitchell (D-Maine), he was overcome by debilitating depression and found himself in handcuffs near the Capitol.

"No one is immune from mental illness," he says.

Hyacinth King, a business school graduate, tells how schizophrenia left her homeless until Project HOME in Philadelphia gave her back her life, including a job as both an advocate and computer specialist, and a home with enough support services to help her thrive.

Deborah DeSantis, chief executive of the Corp. for Supportive Housing, lists a number of cities that have reduced homeless populations and asks congressional staffers to go back to their bosses and tell them how it was done.

"Study after study shows we're going to save money by putting people into permanent supportive housing," she says.

DeSantis and other speakers have a specific request: They want a budget allocation of $2.2 billion this year in the Housing and Urban Development Department's McKinney-Vento grants. That would be an increase of about $500 million over this year's funding, and it would pay for 15,000 new supportive housing units.

They also are arguing for $120 million to support programs that help keep formerly homeless people from ending up back on the pavement.

And what are the chances these pleas will be answered?

Gil Duran, a spokesman for Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.), tells me the senator "supports these programs" and "will continue to work to ensure that California cities get the help they need." But it remains to be seen whether President Obama's budget will include the necessary funds.

A staffer for Rep. Henry Waxman (D-Beverly Hills) tells me that given the current fiscal crisis, it would help convince doubters in Congress if there were more hard evidence that supportive housing can save money over the long term.

I leave it to one of my fellow panel members to make that case. Sister Mary Scullion of Philadelphia is convinced beyond a doubt that with a combination of public investment and private support, investing in permanent supportive housing is humane and cost-effective.

The last time I visited Sister Mary in Philadelphia, she took me to a formerly devastated neighborhood that has been rebuilt by Project HOME, which she co-founded two decades ago. When I asked who did all the work, Sister Mary said, "our people," meaning formerly homeless, mentally ill people who were given homes and jobs rebuilding the neighborhood.

Sister Mary is the last speaker at the Capitol Hill briefing and no doubt the most compelling.

If Congress can find $80 billion to bail out the inept insurance giant AIG, she says, surely it can come up with $2.2 billion for supportive housing. As for the request for $120 million in support services, Scullion adds, that was roughly what AIG paid in executive bonuses.

"I'm not kidding," Sister Mary says as I scribble in my notebook, happy to be back on the other side of the podium.

steve.lopez@latimes.com

President Obama Heads to Cairo

World Cititzen: Obama's Cairo Speech and the 57-State Solution
Frida Ghitis | Bio | 14 May 2009
World Politics Review



When President Barack Obama finally announced the location of his much-heralded speech to the Muslim world, the news came as a surprise. As a candidate, Obama had promised to give such an address during his first 100 days in office, as part of an urgent campaign to repair relations between the United States and Muslims.

Observers wondered where Obama would go for the potentially historic occasion. Many believed the U.S. president would choose a democratic, Muslim-majority country for the event. Favorites included Jakarta, where Obama lived as a child. Turkey, a U.S. ally, also seemed like a good choice. Even Morocco, one of the more open Arab countries, was considered a longshot.

The choice of Cairo proved controversial, as the White House surely knew it would. When it comes to democratic values, Egypt -- America's autocratic ally -- is something of an embarrassment. Critics pounced, highlighting Egypt's dismal human rights record. Why would the Obama administration choose for its speech a country where the president has ruled for 28 years, human rights are routinely violated, and democratic ideals are regularly trampled?

The White House is giving faint hints about the reasons and the strategy behind the choice.

Egypt, declared White House spokesman Robert Gibbs, is "the heart of the Arab world." Although it remains an eminently non-democratic country, Washington would like it to become an example to emulate for all Arab countries.

This signals that the speech to Muslims is gradually morphing into a speech to Arabs. Improving relations with Muslims is important. But when it comes to U.S. strategic interests, the more urgent item on the agenda is creating a strong coalition with Arab countries. The Obama administration has chosen Egypt because Cairo has taken a strong position on the two major crises brewing in the region: the conflict between Israelis and Palestinians, and the conflict with Iran.

Obama will seek to boost Egypt's standing by placing it at the center of a coalition to isolate Iran and bring peace, not just between Israelis and Palestinians, but between Israel and the entire Arab world.

Egypt not only has relatively good relations with Israel. It has also confronted Iran openly and forcefully, especially after uncovering a plot by Iran-backed Hezbollah to attack targets inside Egypt. Egyptian officials have publicly accused Iran of trying to "conquer the Arab world."

In the coming months, the Obama administration will speak frequently and loudly about the Israeli-Palestinian peace process. In reality, however, it will push behind the scenes for a much wider agreement: something harkening back to the old Madrid Process, which sought to bring a comprehensive peace deal for the region. That subsequently went off the rails, pushed aside by the much narrower Oslo Accords between Israelis and Palestinians.

Jordan's King Abdullah, the first Arab leader to visit the Obama White House, is a strong advocate of the plan. He claims that Obama is reaching for a "57-state solution," one that would bring peace between Israel and all 57 member countries -- Arab and Muslim -- of the Organization of the Islamic Conference.

Obama cannot be accused of holding modest aspirations. The plan may be extremely ambitious, but it is also very clever. If it works, it could break the knot that has tied up the prospects for peace between Israelis and Palestinians, as well as play a key role in breaking the impasse with Iran.

Ever since Benjamin Netanyahu became Israel's prime minister, much ink has been spilled noting that he has so far refused to accept the two-state solution. But that is not the main obstacle to peace today. Eventually, Netanyahu will accept two states. When he does, Israel will have seemed to have made a major concession, even though several Israeli governments have already signed on to the plan, and Netanyahu himself has agreed to accept previous agreements.

The biggest obstacle to peace between Israelis and Palestinians lies in the strength of Iran-backed Hamas, relative to Fatah. Israelis and Palestinians know that if Israel withdraws all its forces from the West Bank, Hamas will take over with the same ease with which it took over Gaza in 2006. A Hamas-ruled West Bank is an existential red line for Israel. Obama knows, understands, and accepts this.

Rather than waste energy on a goal that is unachievable in the immediate future, Obama's plan to bring peace between Israelis and Arabs would help isolate Iran, along with Hamas and Hezbollah, two armed groups that vow to fight Israel's existence until the bitter end. By building such an alliance and imbuing it with popular support -- hence the high-profile speech -- Obama would tell Arabs that he is offering them a new path: a path to the future.

Pressure is already being brought to bear on Syria to jump on the peace bandwagon and leave Iran behind. Simultaneous with overt efforts to reach out to Damascus, the U.S. has also just renewed sanctions, charging that Syria's actions "supporting terrorism, pursuing weapons of mass destruction [pose a] threat to the national security" of the U.S. This was the stick. The carrot may have come delivered by the hand of King Abdullah, who visited Syrian President Bashar al-Assad after meeting Obama.

Pressure on Hamas is also mounting. Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, who will meet Obama later this month -- as will Egypt's President Hosni Mubarak -- has reportedly decided to form a new government without Hamas.

Obama will try to build a front for the future, one based on two pillars: peace between Israelis and Arabs, and rejection of Iran's regional goals. If he succeeds in building the foundation for that new edifice, he will have a strategically placed megaphone to speak to the region -- not about platitudes, but about concrete steps for peace. Arab and Muslim countries will hear the presumably persuasive message that they can stand with the U.S.-backed alliance, or remain on the wrong side of history.

Frida Ghitis is an independent commentator on world affairs and a World Politics Review contributing editor. Her weekly column, World Citizen, appears every Thursday.

Photo: President Barack Obama during a press conference following the G20 Summit, London, April 2, 2009 (White House Photo by Pete Souza).

White House Office of Faith-based and Neighborhood Partnerships

Obama Announces White House Office of Faith-based and Neighborhood Partnerships
THE WHITE HOUSE

Office of the Press Secretary

Obama Announces White House Office of Faith-based and Neighborhood Partnerships

Washington (February 5, 2009) – President Barack Obama today signed an executive order establishing the new White House Office of Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships. The White House Office of Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships will work on behalf of Americans committed to improving their communities, no matter their religious or political beliefs.

"Over the past few days and weeks, there has been much talk about what our government’s role should be during this period of economic emergency. That is as it should be – because there is much that government can and must do to help people in need," said President Obama. "But no matter how much money we invest or how sensibly we design our policies, the change that Americans are looking for will not come from government alone. There is a force for good greater than government. It is an expression of faith, this yearning to give back, this hungering for a purpose larger than our own, that reveals itself not simply in places of worship, but in senior centers and shelters, schools and hospitals, and any place an American decides."

The White House Office for Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships will be a resource for nonprofits and community organizations, both secular and faith based, looking for ways to make a bigger impact in their communities, learn their obligations under the law, cut through red tape, and make the most of what the federal government has to offer.

President Obama appointed Joshua DuBois, a former associate pastor and advisor to the President in his U.S. Senate office and campaign Director of Religious Affairs, to lead this office. "Joshua understands the issues at stake, knows the people involved, and will be able to bring everyone together – from both the secular and faith-based communities, from academia and politics – around our common goals," said President Obama.

The Office of Faith Based and Neighborhood Partnerships will focus on four key priorities, to be carried out by working closely with the President’s Cabinet Secretaries and each of the eleven agency offices for faith-based and neighborhood partnerships:

The Office’s top priority will be making community groups an integral part of our economic recovery and poverty a burden fewer have to bear when recovery is complete.
It will be one voice among several in the administration that will look at how we support women and children, address teenage pregnancy, and reduce the need for abortion.

The Office will strive to support fathers who stand by their families, which involves working to get young men off the streets and into well-paying jobs, and encouraging responsible fatherhood.
Finally, beyond American shores this Office will work with the National Security Council to foster interfaith dialogue with leaders and scholars around the world.
As the priorities of this Office are carried out, it will be done in a way that upholds the Constitution – by ensuring that both existing programs and new proposals are consistent with American laws and values. The separation of church and state is a principle President Obama supports firmly – not only because it protects our democracy, but also because it protects the plurality of America’s religious and civic life. The Executive Order President Obama will sign today strengthens this by adding a new mechanism for the Executive Director of the Office to work through the White House Counsel to seek the advice of the Attorney General on difficult legal and constitutional issues.

The Office of Faith Based and Neighborhood Partnerships will include a new President’s Advisory Council on Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships, composed of religious and secular leaders and scholars from different backgrounds. There will be 25 members of the Council, appointed to 1-year terms.

Members of the Council include:

Judith N. Vredenburgh, President and Chief Executive Officer, Big Brothers / Big Sisters of America
Philadelphia, PA

Rabbi David N. Saperstein, Director & Counsel, Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism, and noted church/state expert
Washington, DC

Dr. Frank S. Page, President emeritus, Southern Baptist Convention
Taylors, SC

Father Larry J. Snyder, President, Catholic Charities USA
Alexandria, VA

Rev. Otis Moss, Jr., Pastor emeritus, Olivet Institutional Baptist Church
Cleveland, OH

Eboo S. Patel, Founder & Executive Director, Interfaith Youth Corps
Chicago, IL

Fred Davie, President, Public / Private Ventures, a secular non-profit intermediary
New York, NY

Dr. William J. Shaw, President, National Baptist Convention, USA
Philadelphia, PA

Melissa Rogers, Director, Wake Forest School of Divinity Center for Religion and Public Affairs and expert on church/state issues
Winston-Salem, NC

Pastor Joel C. Hunter, Senior Pastor, Northland, a Church Distributed
Lakeland, FL

Dr. Arturo Chavez, Ph.D., President & CEO, Mexican American Cultural Center
San Antonio, TX

Rev. Jim Wallis, President & Executive Director, Sojourners
Washington, DC

Bishop Vashti M. McKenzie, Presiding Bishop, 13th Episcopal District, African Methodist Episcopal Church
Knoxville, TN

Diane Baillargeon, President & CEO, Seedco, a secular national operating intermediary
New York, NY

Richard Stearns, President, World Vision
Bellevue, WA

# #

Love is Radical

Love is Radical John 15:9-17 Sunday May 17

9As the Father has loved me, so I have loved you; abide in my love. 10If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commandments and abide in his love. 11I have said these things to you so that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be complete. 12“This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. 13No one has greater love than this, to lay down one’s life for one’s friends. 14You are my friends if you do what I command you. 15I do not call you servants any longer, because the servant does not know what the master is doing; but I have called you friends, because I have made known to you everything that I have heard from my Father. 16You did not choose me but I chose you. And I appointed you to go and bear fruit, fruit that will last, so that the Father will give you whatever you ask him in my name. 17I am giving you these commands so that you may love one another.

When we think of love we remember all those diamond commercials we see on Valentine’s Day and Mother’s day. Many of us brought our Mom’s out to dinner for Mother’s day last Saturday. When we think of love we remember all the songs on our airwaves. When we ponder such deep topics we can feel like we are at a coffee shop on the West bank of Paris with berets on. Do we really know what it means to love one another as Christ loves us? Let’s pull up a chair, order another cup of coffee and engage this deep question. Is Christ’s love too radical for us?
Yes, Christ’s love is radical. This notion of compassion, solidarity and sacrifice takes us out of ourselves. We are stretched to love the stranger among us, not just our family and small circle of friends. As Christians, we are called to love as Christ loves us. This can seem like a really tall order! Surely we can never measure up to what the Son of God is capable of. We want to do our best to approximate, but sometimes we feel like it is too pie in the sky for us to live this out in our daily lives. These Hallmark card slogans are nice and all, but is this really realistic in our daily lives?
Jesus’ life and ministry challenges us to love our neighbors, near and far. Jesus meant it when he told us to turn the other cheek and to love our enemies. We are branches of the true vine, who sends us out to our communities to bear the fruit of his love. God’s vineyard is always expanding to reach out to our brothers and sisters who live on the margins. We are not called to merely love the holy huddle of the few. We too are called to lay down our life for our friends, and embrace the strangers among us. Our sense of family and parish are to be ever expanding. In spite of the barriers and prejudgments that society too often creates, we reach beyond the fences to open our hearts and hands to our brothers and sisters who feel isolated and misunderstood.
If we are to embrace the least among us, then we will need to deconstruct some of the social barriers that continue to divide us. As American Christians, we have inherited many of the race and class issues that continue to burden us. It can be hard and sobering for us to be students of history. We can grow depressed and dejected when we see how often we have failed to live up to the radical love that Christ calls us to.
The good news is that we can always transcend the past, and reconnect with God’s vine of love. Our branches have always been there. For every painful chapter, we can find the faithful few who understood how radical God’s love is. Instead of dwelling on how many ways have we failed, we can seek out the beacons of hope who stayed true to our calling as disciples of Christ. There will always be a remnant who get it. They have the courage to live out the gospel of love and grace. They can endure the social isolation, and the hammer of public opinion.
Growing up here in the Western suburbs of the Twin Cities in the 70s and 80s, race relations were framed in the black-white paradigm. The new neighbors, “the strangers” among us were the new black families moving into the neighbourhood. My eyes were opened to their journey when I became friends with my new classmates who lived down the street. I saw how they endured life on the margins of our community. Did they experience the radical love that Christ calls us to in our community?
Several years later, my eyes were opened wider in college when I spent a semester as an exchange student in San Antonio. I began to see America in new terms. I had never seen so many Latinos before. As a wet-behind-the ears Yankee, this was a new learning for me. San Antonio is often called little Mexico. I began to understand that is was not only blacks who endured racism and discrimination in America.
This was a learning for me that our nation as a melting pot was broader and wider than the black and white paradigm of my childhood. As Christians living in one of the most diverse nations, we remember our call to love our neighbours as ourselves. We are called to open our hearts and minds to the journeys and the dreams that our new neighbours have to share with us.
For generations, the Eastside of St Paul has been an Ellis Island for waves of immigrants, the Swedes, the Italians, the Poles. This heritage continues today. Every day I drive Payne Ave and see that many of the shops and signs are Latino. The main drag of the Eastside has been transformed by our new Latino neighbours. How has this been received in the wider community? Are we ready and willing to embrace our new neighbours with the radical love of Christ? Yes there are language and cultural barriers, but Christ’s love transcends any and every obstacle!
As many of you know the Latino community is very religious, the vast majority are Catholic. There is also a growing store front Pentecostal presence. As mainline Protestants, have we fully embraced this sacred connection we have with our fellow brothers and sisters in Christ?
As disciples of Christ’s radical love, we need to take to the time to learn the stories of our brothers and sisters who have travelled north. What did they experience in the Americas before they made the journey? We can’t lose Christ’s grace and compassion in the midst of the immigration debate.
We have something to learn from our Hebrew Bible. The Jewish people have long understood what it means to be a stranger in another land. The Ancient prophets in the Bible remind us that we too were once strangers in Egypt. Therefore, we are to embrace the stranger among us, and extend hospitality and treat them as one of us. This is the radical love Christ is pointing us to.
The next time we see a Latino family, I want us to take the time to look for the face of Christ in their lives. I was moved by a story in the current issue of Christian Century of the Fortin De las Flores, a small town at the foot of mountains in Vera Cruz. They see the Central American migrants making their way north on the freight trains. Many people have lost limbs and some have lost their very lives trying to making it to better life. The local residents in Fortin de Las Flores have established a home for the victims of these rail road accidents. The residents also extend radical love, by breaking their loaves and fishes to share with the pilgrims. They have opened their hearts and minds to the stories of what people have endured on this journey north. Are we too willing to keep our hearts and minds open to their stories?
In recent months we have seen the raids in the Iowa. We have 12 million people in our midst who live out of status, and endure the fear and anxiety that ICE will come knocking and separate their families. What does Christ’s radical love call us to do in these difficult times? Our eyes and ears are to remain open to their story and their journey.
How will we embrace the stranger among us? How will the branches of Christ’s love envelope our brothers and sisters from the south seeking their daily bread? As branches from the true vine, we bear the fruit of Christ’s love. When new neighbours join us in St Paul, let us listen with grace and compassion to their testimonies. We remember our prophetic calling to embrace the stranger among us.
We remember the miracle of the loaves and fishes. God is still with us. The manna from heaven will fall again and again. Many of our new neighbours are pilgrims coming out of their own journey through the wilderness. They have joined us in search of a promised land, a land of milk and honey.
With radical love, we will embrace our brothers and sisters in their quest for their daily bread. We will take the time to hear their story. With radical love, we set aside prejudgments and prejudices. We remember how our ancestors came here with similar hopes and dreams. We share this common dream for our children and grandchildren. With Christ’s radical love flowing in and through us, we lift up the common loaf and trust that it will divide again and again. God’s abundant grace and compassion will provide for us all.
As a fellowship of Christ’s radical love on the Eastside, may our community know the fruit of the Spirit flowing through us. This is the radical love that we are called to share with every child of God.

Evangelical Church of Torture and Jack Bauer

Jonathan L. Walton is assistant professor of Religious Studies at the University of California, Riverside. He teaches courses in African American Religion; Religion, Media & Culture and Religion & Political Discourse. His new book is: Watch This! The Ethics and Aesthetics of Black Religious Broadcasting (New York University Press).
_____________________________________________________________________________________

Last week the Pew Research Center’s Forum on Religion & Public Life released poll data revealing the relationships between religious commitment and support for the use of torture against terror suspects. Those who rarely attend religious services are the least likely to support torture. The more one attends religious service, the greater the level of support. And white evangelical Protestants offered the greatest amount of support for torture with a majority (62%) of respondents believing that torture can at least sometimes be justified.

I am sickened but not terribly shocked.

This glib view of the brutality and inhumanity of torture is bound up in a particular strand of American Christian theology that’s been a growing force for over a century.

Muscular Christianity in America has minimized the vice of torture and extolled the virtue of the Heroic One who endures for a greater cause. The crucified body of Jesus is held up as a paragon of strength, virtue and virility.

This is true not because Jesus offered an alternative conception of society where the first shall be last or the last shall be first. Not because Jesus found virtue rather than vice in the “least of these” among us. And not because Jesus inverted assumptions about authority by his willingness to humbly wash the feet of those who would otherwise worship him.

Rather, Jesus is a moral exemplar because “he was wounded for our transgressions, by his wounds we are healed, and by his blood we are made whole.” Jesus is worshiped as the ultimate “strong man” who could overcome the pain and sting of death for the sake of righteousness. The horror of inflicted suffering is theologically interpreted as an efficient cause toward bringing forth the greater good and thus torture becomes divinely utilitarian.

Is it a wonder why, then, on Sunday morning it is often hard to tell the difference between Jesus and Jack Bauer on Fox’s megahit “24?” Like a long list of American messianic masculine archetypes (John Wayne, Clint Eastwood, and Mel Gibson), Jesus is situated in this tradition of bulletproof heroes who mock the machinations of torture.

What is more, like Jack Bauer, anyone who is willing to endure torture for others is that much more justified in dishing it out. And, unfortunately, since muscular evangelicals so identify with the mutilated body of Jesus who “suffered for the sins of the world,” it is only right that they, too, would condone the suffering of others in order to purge our world of “evil.”

Finding a vision for the future by discovering the past

Finding a vision for the future by discovering the past
Presbyterian church first established in 1846 to be demolished to provide affordable housing for seniors
by Paul Seebeck
Associate for Mission Communications

Editor’s note: This is the 17th in a series of stories about congregations engaged in significant outreach and evangelism ministries, reflecting the General Assembly’s commitment to “Grow Christ’s Church Deep and Wide.” ― Jerry L. Van Marter

QUEENS, N.Y. — Pastor Don Olinger of the Presbyterian Church of Astoria in Queens wears his favorite baseball cap religiously these days.

A friend found it at a garage sale and thought it would be perfect for Olinger when he saw these words: “The only thing worse than being blind is having sight but no vision.”

For Olinger, who is legally blind and uses a cane to get around, it is a sacred reminder of what he has experienced.

“All things work together for good for those who love God,” he said, quoting Romans 8:28. There’s a sense of wonder in his voice even though the congregation he serves was down to 25 members at one point.

The Presbyterian Church of Astoria, where Olinger has been a pastor for 15 years, is about to be demolished. All of the stained glass windows on the gray stone building have been removed. The gas has been turned off. Temporary windows keep the building secure as the congregation waits for the month-long demolition process to begin.

In existence since 1846, the church began construction in this place and space in 1922. Nearly a century later, building maintenance expenses were getting to be too much for the church. The building needed updated wiring and new heating and plumbing systems, and the church was trying to cope with rising utility costs.

Looking forward

In 2002, the church’s session empowered Olinger to begin to explore options for the future.

“All of this started off simply with the idea, ‘What should we do?’” Olinger said. “To save the building would’ve cost us anywhere from $1 to 3 million. Our session said, ‘Pastor, go find out what we should do.”

Olinger began talking with a city council representative and community board, asking them what they would like to see happen to the church. Out of those conversations Olinger went back to the church seeking permission to put together a feasibility study to determine if it might be possible to do some sort of affordable housing on part of or all of the property.

The congregation’s response was clear.

“They didn’t want to lose this place,” Olinger said. “They wanted to serve the community here.”

But at the time, lucrative New York commercial real estate developers kept saying it wasn’t worth their while to develop part of the property.

“They wanted all of our space,” Olinger said. “They wanted us to take the money and get out of the way.”

That’s when Olinger found a “crazy zoning law” that said the church could build a larger facility if it was a “senior domiciliary.”

Even the zoning board wasn’t quite sure what that meant. But research that went back to the 1920s and ’30s told a story of what life was like for senior citizens during those boom and bust years. Before Social Security, there were a lot of indigent seniors with no pensions and no way to support themselves.

Once Olinger understood that this “crazy law” written during the Great Depression could’ve just as easily have been written for today — senior domiciliary is the 1920s phrase for senior affordable housing — he had a moment of understanding.

Olinger remembered what the community planning board had told him in that initial exploratory meeting — that affordable housing for seniors is what the neighborhood and New York City need most because it took most seniors three years to find affordable housing.

Olinger found out the Hellenic American Neighborhood Action Corporation (HANAC) was interested in partnering with a developer that might have interest in affordable housing for seniors. Then out of the blue, the Enterprise Foundation called. The non-profit organization creates opportunities for “low- and moderate-income people through fit, affordable housing and diverse, thriving communities,” according to its Web site.

“‘Don, if you’re still looking to develop your property, we have a group here that is interested in doing an affordable housing for seniors,’” the foundation told Olinger. “God just steered everything in this direction. There were all these serendipitous moments during the time of discovery of that crazy law.”

Olinger could literally see that God’s spirit had been at work through the history of time and space from one economic boom and bust time to another. He had a sense that all things in the church’s time and space were connected, as if he was discovering the future by re-engaging the church’s past.

He went back to the congregation and to the Presbytery of New York City and said, “Listen, we have a sanctuary that seats 500 people and there are only about 50 of us. This isn’t good stewardship. God has put us here for a reason.”

Different points of view

But conflict had broken out in the congregation. Church leadership was very interested in pursuing affordable housing for seniors, but anonymous letters attacking Olinger began to appear and were sent on to the presbytery. Nothing ever came of the attackers’ charges — they were all dismissed by a Presbytery Judiciary Council.

“Presbyteries are overwhelmed by all these churches that just want to survive,” Olinger said. “But Jesus said ‘Those who want to save their life will lose it, those who lose their life for the sake of the gospel will save it’ (Mark 8:35). The majority of us decided we would take that quite literally.”

The decision to replace the church with housing for senior adults though was difficult for the congregation. The final vote was 17-13 in favor of building 94 apartments for 100 seniors.

Community board members believe more than 4,000 people will apply to live here once the two-year project is complete.

There was “creative tension” within the congregation and presbytery as this senior affordable housing project was put together, said the Rev. Arabella Meadows-Rogers, executive presbyter of the Presbytery of New York City.

“It is a remarkable story,” she said. “There were real small congregations with very big economic possibilities. They are usually larger than any one church can fathom or manage. The scope, the breadth, the depth, the mammoth of possibilities makes them afraid.”

The church’s engagement in its community reflects the 218th General Assembly’s commitment to “Grow Christ’s Church Deep and Wide,” focusing on the four areas of evangelism, discipleship, servanthood and diversity.

Developers were ringing doorbells saying, “I want your building. I’ll give you $40 million for it,” said Meadows-Rogers. The current economic crisis “has been very helpful for all of us. It was very easy in that climate for churches and presbyteries to see gold. Astoria kept its mission at the front. It’s not always easy to do,” she said.

While the presbytery tries to partner with its small churches, Meadows-Rogers said that “inevitably it is the tenacity of the small church and its pastor, its faithfulness and sense of hope that keeps things moving and gets them done.”

‘Defining what we’re about’

The Presbyterian Church of Astoria is being paid $4.25 million for its property. Part of this expense is being paid for out of HUD tax credit. In 15 years, the deed for the property reverts back to the church. At that point, the housing project will in all likelihood be managed by HANAC.

In 40 years, the church will have control of 94 units of housing that can be used for anyone; the HUD enforcement mortgage that demands it be used for senior housing will be done.

Once the project is built, the church will have a 5,000-square-foot condominium in the senior affordable housing project that will be used for office space and worship. It will cost the church about $1.5 million to create and outfit this multi-purpose space that will become the sanctuary.

“All churches don’t have to go this model, but I believe we have to be good stewards,” Olinger said. “Zoning and community defined the best mission for our church.”

The congregation at The Presbyterian Church of Astoria is gradually beginning to move forward. Half of their members left because of the conflict. But already the church is back up to 40 people on Sunday mornings. Worshippers who come from their neighborhood are from seven different countries: Ghana, Trinidad, Philippines, Japan, Indian, Portugal and Italy. That diversity doesn’t surprise Olinger because the neighborhood has always served immigrants.

The congregation is worshipping in what was an old doctor’s office and then a non-profit organization near the site where their church will be demolished. Computer equipment was left behind, and the church is trying to resurrect the equipment so that it can offer computer skills lessons to help members get better jobs.

“God is providing us with guidance and resources,” Olinger said. “Through all of what has happened for this church — in the conflict, in everything — as a result, we are defining what we’re about, and who we’re going to be.”

Recently, a young woman the church hadn’t seen in more than a year came to worship. She went over to talk to Olinger, saying that she was sorry to be late but that she had gone over to the other building.

“Why is it all boarded up?” she wanted to know, with tears in her eyes. Olinger told her that it was being demolished so that 94 units of affordable housing for 100 seniors could be built.

Now the woman began to cry. “At that point I told her, ‘Look, we’re all going to miss the building.’’’ Olinger barely got the words out because the woman was interrupting him. “That’s not why I’m crying,” she said. “I’m crying because at last a church is doing it right. You’re serving the community. You’re getting it right.

Our Mentally Ill Should be in Treatment not Prison

Some of you may have been the recent PBS program on the Mentally ill in Prison.
Please lobby your State and Federal legislators for mental health funding and volunteer with the group homes in your community.

The only way to break this cycle is for our communities to embrace our mentally ill brothers and sisters with love and compassion. Prisons should not be the new asylums.

The stigma and fear still keeps many of us from reaching out to the least among us.
On medications, the mentally ill are not dangerous. Sometimes, the media focus can skew reality. I'm grateful for PBS and Frontline coverage of this issue.

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/released/
_____________________________________________________________________________________
Frontline: The New Asylums (1995)


Once released from prison, mentally ill ex-offenders are faced with the challenges of reintegrating into their communities. Those who do not make a successful transition relapse and return to prison. But across the country, community groups and prison and mental health officials are working together to break this cycle.


In 1999, New York City was routinely releasing its mentally ill ex-offenders into impoverished neighborhoods between 2 and 6 in the morning with only $1.50 in cash and two subway tokens. In a class-action suit against the city, several inmates claim that without provisions for continuing treatment of their mental illnesses or help finding housing, psychiatric care and government services, they were more likely to psychologically decompensate, become homeless, relapse into criminal activity, and return to jail. Though this case was settled out of court with the city pledging to provide services for its inmates after their release, variations of this story are being played out across the country.

In 2004, some 630,000 prisoners were released back into their communities, many of them with mental illness and co-occurring disorders such as substance abuse. Studies have shown that 60 percent of released offenders are likely to be rearrested within 18 months, and that mentally ill offenders are likely to be rearrested at an even higher rate. Experts claim that a major cause for recidivism among the mentally ill is the "epidemic" shortfall in community-based mental health services. "While offenders have a constitutional right to receive mental health treatment when they are incarcerated, they do not enjoy a similar right to treatment in the community," writes Lance Courturier, chief psychiatrist of the Pennsylvania Department of Corrections.

Experts and corrections officials like Courturier believe that the solution is to directly link prison mental health services to services in the community. The Consensus Project, a coordinated effort by the Council of State Governments to improve services for mentally ill offenders, recently released a report that recommends planning for post-release services almost from the day they arrive in the justice system. A successful system for reentry would coordinate efforts among specialists in a range of services, integrate treatment for mental illness and substance abuse, combine primary healthcare with mental healthcare, create and improve housing resources for the mentally ill, involve families and the community with the offender's treatment, and ensure that people with mental illness are accessing the full range of government entitlements for which they are eligible, such as Social Security Disability Insurance.

Across the country, communities and organizations are taking up this call, in some cases beginning services a year before an inmate's release and continuing them for as long as those services are needed. One such program, operated by the Allegheny County Department of Human Services in Pittsburgh, has reduced recidivism to less than 10 percent. It helps mentally ill offenders apply for social services, arranges for their temporary housing, supplies them with bus passes, and sets up appointments with community doctors so they can continue to receive their medications. In addition, the program also provides more personal services, such as arranging for someone to pick up offenders at the time of their release and take them shopping for $200 worth of clothing and toiletries.

Compassion, Compulsion and the Mentally Ill

By E. FULLER TORREY
The debacle of deinstitutionalization continues to worsen with each passing year. In 1955, there were 559,000 individuals in America's state mental hospitals. By 2005, there were only 47,000 state hospital beds left in the country, a number that continues to fall. Numerous studies have documented the tragic effects of releasing hundreds of thousands of seriously mentally ill individuals from state hospitals while failing to ensure that they receive treatment.

The latest, carried out by Jason Matejkowski and colleagues at the University of Pennsylvania, found that individuals with serious mental illnesses are responsible for 10% of all homicides in Indiana. That translates into approximately 1,700 out of 17,034 total homicides in the U.S. in 2006. Over the past 20 years – during which time the public mental-health system has progressively deteriorated – that would mean 38,000 of 388,311 total homicides.

The University of Pennsylvania study examined the records of 723 individuals convicted of homicide between 1990 and 2002 in the Hoosier state. The results were published in the Journal of the American Academy of Psychiatry and the Law.

Examples of such homicides include Joseph Corcoran, diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia, who shot four people in Fort Wayne because he thought they were talking about him. And Frank Salyers, also diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia, who killed a policeman in Goshen after his parents tried unsuccessfully to get treatment for him at a local mental-health facility.

Although the Indiana study is the largest research of its kind in the U.S., two earlier but smaller studies reported that seriously mentally ill individuals were responsible for 10% of homicides in Contra Costa County, Calif., and 29% of homicides in Albany County, N.Y.

Most of these homicides were preventable, since the perpetrators in most cases were not being treated. Nontreatment, a past history of violent behavior and substance abuse are strong predictors of potential dangerousness in this population. We have proven options for decreasing such violence, including outpatient commitment. These programs require mentally ill individuals at high risk for violence to continue taking medication as a condition for living in the community.

Kendra's Law, passed in New York state in 1999, established one such program. A 2005 study by the New York State Office of Mental Health showed that physical acts of violence – as well as suicide attempts and arrests – by patients compelled to undergo treatment under Kendra's Law dropped dramatically in just six months; a similar reduction in violent behavior was shown in a North Carolina study.

Despite such data, assisted outpatient treatment is seldom used in the 42 states in which it is available and does not even exist in the other eight states. Even in New York, only a few counties use Kendra's Law widely. Why not? One reason is the reluctance of mental-health professionals to mandate treatment, even for patients with a history of violence and noncompliance with treatment.

Another is the misconception that such programs are expensive. In fact, it is our failure to use such laws that is expensive. Repeated hospital readmissions, incarceration costs, and the costs of homicides and other associated violence take a far greater toll on local, state and federal coffers.

The societal cost of not treating the seriously mentally ill is staggering. They constitute at least one-third of the homeless population. Unable to defend themselves because of their disabilities, they are often exploited and victimized. Approximately 5,000 commit suicide each year – one-sixth of all suicides. An estimated 230,000 are in jails and prisons, 10% of all incarcerations.

According to a 2006 study by the U.S. Justice Department, 56% of state prisoners, 45% of federal prisoners and 64% of local jail inmates suffer from mental illnesses. In fact, there are now more individuals with a serious mental illness in state prisons than in state mental hospitals.

In the end, involuntarily treating people with serious mental illnesses – who, because of their illnesses, are not aware they are sick – does not infringe on their civil rights. The fears of civil libertarians notwithstanding, the paramount civil right of someone who is severely mentally ill should be adequate treatment.

As Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy wrote in 1999: "It must be remembered that for the person with severe mental illness who has no treatment, the most dreaded of confinements can be the imprisonment inflicted by his own mind, which shuts reality out and subjects him to the torment of voices and images beyond our powers to describe."

Dr. Torrey is the author, most recently, of "The Insanity Offense: How America's Failure to Treat the Seriously Mentally Ill Endangers Its Citizens," out this month by W. W. Norton.

Shalom: Peace Be With You

Shalom: Peace be With You


John 20:19-31


19When it was evening on that day, the first day of the week, and the doors of the house where the disciples had met were locked for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood among them and said, “Peace be with you.” 20After he said this, he showed them his hands and his side. Then the disciples rejoiced when they saw the Lord. 21Jesus said to them again, “Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, so I send you.” 22When he had said this, he breathed on them and said to them, “Receive the Holy Spirit. 23If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them; if you retain the sins of any, they are retained.” 24But Thomas (who was called the Twin), one of the twelve, was not with them when Jesus came. 25So the other disciples told him, “We have seen the Lord.” But he said to them, “Unless I see the mark of the nails in his hands, and put my finger in the mark of the nails and my hand in his side, I will not believe.”

26A week later his disciples were again in the house, and Thomas was with them. Although the doors were shut, Jesus came and stood among them and said, “Peace be with you.” 27Then he said to Thomas, “Put your finger here and see my hands. Reach out your hand and put it in my side. Do not doubt but believe.” 28Thomas answered him, “My Lord and my God!” 29Jesus said to him, “Have you believed because you have seen me? Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have come to believe.” 30Now Jesus did many other signs in the presence of his disciples, which are not written in this book. 31But these are written so that you may come to believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that through believing you may have life in his name.




When I visit synagogues I enjoy the greeting we extend to one another, “Shabbat shalom.” When I visit a mosque, we exchange, “ Salaama Laka, Laka Salaam.” Every Sunday we share this peace with one another, “peace be with you, and also with you.” This is significant that peace is such a central part of how the children of Abraham interact with one another.
This world shalom is a Semitic word for peace, but it also means wholeness. Jews say shalom and Muslims say salaama. When we pray for and extend shalom to one another, we work to transform our world into the way God intended it to be. When we pray and mediate on our journey to the New Jerusalem, we remember that the name of our future home is the City of Peace.
For several months, I have been interpreting peacemaking through interfaith dialogue. We are so painfully aware of how little peace there is between the Children of Abraham who share Jerusalem as their spiritual home. The room was full at Mt Zion last month for the Interfaith Passover Seder. God’s shalom moved in our hearts and minds as Jews, Muslims and Christians gathered to remember God’s promise to us. If we are to have peace in our world, we must find and foster peace among the children of Abraham.
Several weeks ago, Professor Reiter was here to reflect on this image in Isaiah 2. This vision of God’s Holy Mountain, where the wolf shall lay down with the lamb. Where swords become ploughshares, and spears become pruning hooks. This is a key passage for us to meditate on when we live out our calling as peacemakers. We remember Jesus’ sermon on the Mount, “Blessed are the peacemakers for they will be called children of God.”
How radical this vision of Jerusalem is when we consider the state of our world. For decades, our global community has been struggling to find peace in the City of Peace. Professor Reiter has invited me to join him this summer while he facilitates conflict resolution sessions with Israelis and Palestinians. This is an honor to work with the former Arab Relations advisor to three Israeli Prime Ministers. When and if, we finally achieve God’s shalom in Jerusalem, I know Professor Reiter’s work will have made a substantial contribution.
Our goal is to reach interim agreements on how the holy sites will be managed and monitored. These holy sites that are to be sources of peace and reconciliation have too often been thwarted into instruments of conflict and violence. As a Christian, I want to join our fellow Children of Abraham in our common quest for God’s shalom in the City of Peace.
In times of fear and anxiety, how we need the peace of Christ which surpasses all understanding! With our economic crisis, and life in a post 9-11 world, how we need to know and find this peace. Sometimes we forget that we have been through difficult times before, but we made it through the rain. Don’t worry I will spare you a Barry Manilow karoke moment.
We find courage and a sense of groundedness when we remember how Jesus breathed his peace on his frightened disciples huddling together behind closed doors. A week after Jesus appeared to Mary Magdalene, Jesus moves through the walls and locks to find his scattered flock. It can be hard for us to fathom how scared and anxious these disciples must have been. Whose next? Will they come and pick us all up?
When we think of frightened people behind closed doors we remember the Jews in Europe in the 1930s and 1940s. Many of us know Anne Frank’s diary. She is one of heroes of the 20th century. She gave voice to millions of Jews who had to go into hiding. Jews in Europe living under the looming threat of Hitler could understand what the disciples were going through these first weeks after Good Friday. There is an entire discipline of holocaust studies where scholars examine the letters, memoirs and narratives of holocaust victims and survivors. In this research, we see the resiliency of the human spirit in the midst of the darkest of days.
Victor Frankl, the founder of logotherapy was a holocaust survivor. While in captivity he helped facilitate small groups in the camps. People would lead others in visualizations of some the redeeming moments in their lives, hikes in nature, and memorable milestones in their lives. These stories enabled others to transcend the horror they faced day after day. I hope and pray that they found God’s peace, God’s shalom in the midst of the tragic chapter in human history. God’s peace was present with them, breathing through them peace in the midst of their fear, anxiety and despair.
Our Loving God is a God of promises. God does not direct the cruelty and hate that persists in our world. God loves us enough to give us free choice. As human beings we walk on this razor edge of good and evil, because God makes us in his image. We have the gift and awesome responsibility of choosing whether to live in the image of God or to choose to defy walking in his path. We should put on God what really rests with us and our poor choices.
When we find our brothers and sisters locked behind closed doors living with fear and anxiety, God is not the source of this oppression. Rather God is the healing peace that comes to us beyond the locks and chains. Our Good Shepherd seeks out his sheep when we have taken shelter from the wolves and thieves of this world.
Who are the frightened children of God who are huddled behind lock doors today? We remember the persecuted Christians who lived under communist rule. Today, there are still Christians risking their very lives under theocratic Muslim rule. We should not take for granted the freedom we have here in America. Nor should we use our privileged position to oppress and marginalize others.
Many of our Muslim brothers and sisters have struggled to live here after 9-11. Just this week, Somali women in Minneapolis had to endure racist slurs as they walked to classes at the U of M. Many Muslims in America are living in fear and isolation. May we be instruments of God peace blowing and blessing them with a sense of God’s shalom in our communities.
We practice what Jesus taught us. We must turn the other cheek; we are to love our enemies. As faithful disciples of Christ, we do not return the hatred and intolerance that some fundamentalist have resorted to. We need to remember that all children of Abraham wrestle with this temptation to presume to have the Truth and then oppress their fellow descendants of Abraham. The CNN God’s Warriors effectively makes this point.
Another community among us who lives in fear behind locked doors are the 12 million people who live out of status with INS. We have families in our congregation who endure this fear and anxiety. The Cameroonian government is controlled by the French speaking region. Many of our English speaking Cameroonian brothers and sisters have been oppressed by the government because they seek to know and see God’s justice in their homeland. If they are to go home they face political persecution and the very real threat of torture. Lady Liberty’s torch still burns, and she embraces our Cameroonians brothers and sisters and their quest for liberty in their homeland.
Instead of being intolerant and lumping 12 million people together, we need to take the time and open our hearts and minds to hear each person’s story. Bearing a compassionate witness to their testimony, we are vessels of God’s peace blowing. As we learn more of their stories, we call for compassionate and just resolution to the immigration problem. Our brothers and sisters must be able to come out of the shadows. Most are merely trying to put bread on their table for their children. May the peace of Christ blow in their lives.
Our compassionate Shepherd comes to us in our places of fear and anxiety and blows his Spirit again. These words are shared among us again, “Peace be with you.” God has been assuring us everyday, “Do not be afraid, I am with you. I will give you my peace to sustain you.”
From the locked rooms, Jesus sends us out with the Holy Spirit to reach out to our brothers and sisters who are huddled in fear. Together, we seek to find the courage and wisdom we need to break the chains and open the doors. Many times these locks are on our hearts and minds.
God’s Holy Spirit is the key that breaks every chain and picks every lock that keeps us from being one. Jesus’ ministry of peace and reconciliation sends us into many upper rooms. Peace be with you, come with us and go out into this daunting and frightening world with courage. Hold on and trust that Jesus Christ will blow his breathe of peace on us and give us strength and hope.
Breathe deep God’s peace and share it with others. May the closed doors and locks in our hearts and minds be opened. May God’s peace blow through us and give us his eyes and ears of Grace. God give us hearts of compassion for the people who live in fear today behind closed doors. God, may our witness to your Shalom give others the courage to walk out into the streets with us. Together, we profess and proclaim your Peace. We breathe your eternal Spirit and let it flow to all of your children.

Washington Post Editorial: AIDS at Home

AIDS at Home
The Obama administration starts to combat complacency in the United States.

Tuesday, April 14, 2009; A16



WHEN IT comes to fighting the HIV/AIDS epidemic in the United States, there is an alarming complacency among Americans. Perhaps it's the success of antiretroviral drug treatments. In the eyes of many, those drugs have transformed the disease from one with no cure to a manageable ailment. Or maybe it's the view that AIDS is more of a worry in Africa or Southeast Asia. But it's not just happening "over there." And the Obama administration took a first step last week to remind people that it's happening right here, right now.

"Act Against AIDS" is a five-year endeavor announced last Tuesday with the mission to snap us out of our somnolence as the epidemic rages around us. The $45 million effort by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Department of Health and Human Services will highlight the fact that every 9 1/2 minutes, someone in the United States becomes infected with the human immunodeficiency virus, which causes AIDS. A multimedia ad campaign will direct people to the Web site http://www.nineandahalfminutes.org, which is a portal to a wealth of information on the epidemic, how people can protect themselves and their partners, and where they can seek testing and treatment.

The initial targets of this focus are African Americans. According to the CDC, while blacks make up just 12 percent of the population, they account for "roughly half" of all new HIV infections and AIDS deaths. The agency reports that the disease is the No. 1 killer of black women age 25 to 34 and the second-leading cause of death among black men age 35 to 44. Those frightening statistics are part of a troubling larger story of AIDS in America. Last year, the CDC estimated that 56,300 people became infected with HIV in 2006. The previous estimate was 40,000. The agency defines the epidemic as "generalized and severe" when HIV/AIDS affects 1 percent of the overall population. Last month, the District's HIV/AIDS Administration announced that 3 percent of the city's population has HIV/AIDS.

We applaud the administration for bringing together 14 African American civic organizations to help highlight the importance of testing and treatment among their memberships. But more needs to be done. Many, most notably Robert C. Gallo, one of the scientists who uncovered HIV as the cause of AIDS, have called for a domestic version of the President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief, which has been successful in sub-Saharan Africa. President Obama has charged Jeffrey S. Crowley, his director of the Office of National AIDS Policy, to craft a national AIDS strategy over the next year with three goals: lowering the rate of HIV infections, increasing the number of people in care and reducing disparities in care. For the sake of the nation, we hope the administration maintains its focus on this domestic challenge.

We Are A Resurrection People

We are a Resurrection People Easter Sunday 2009

Gospel Lesson

John 20:1-18

20Early on the first day of the week, while it was still dark, Mary Magdalene came to the tomb and saw that the stone had been removed from the tomb. 2So she ran and went to Simon Peter and the other disciple, the one whom Jesus loved, and said to them, “They have taken the Lord out of the tomb, and we do not know where they have laid him.” 3Then Peter and the other disciple set out and went toward the tomb. 4The two were running together, but the other disciple outran Peter and reached the tomb first. 5He bent down to look in and saw the linen wrappings lying there, but he did not go in. 6Then Simon Peter came, following him, and went into the tomb. He saw the linen wrappings lying there, 7and the cloth that had been on Jesus’ head, not lying with the linen wrappings but rolled up in a place by itself. 8Then the other disciple, who reached the tomb first, also went in, and he saw and believed; 9for as yet they did not understand the scripture, that he must rise from the dead. 10Then the disciples returned to their homes.

11But Mary stood weeping outside the tomb. As she wept, she bent over to look into the tomb; 12and she saw two angels in white, sitting where the body of Jesus had been lying, one at the head and the other at the feet. 13They said to her, “Woman, why are you weeping?” She said to them, “They have taken away my Lord, and I do not know where they have laid him.” 14When she had said this, she turned around and saw Jesus standing there, but she did not know that it was Jesus. 15Jesus said to her, “Woman, why are you weeping? Whom are you looking for?” Supposing him to be the gardener, she said to him, “Sir, if you have carried him away, tell me where you have laid him, and I will take him away.” 16Jesus said to her, “Mary!” She turned and said to him in Hebrew, “Rabbouni!” (which means Teacher). 17Jesus said to her, “Do not hold on to me, because I have not yet ascended to the Father. But go to my brothers and say to them, ‘I am ascending to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.’” 18Mary Magdalene went and announced to the disciples, “I have seen the Lord”; and she told them that he had said these things to her.

Sermon

He is Risen. He is Risen indeed! All the power and pain the world threw at his Jesus could not keep him down. We are a resurrection people, a people of eternal hope. We know our Messiah has conquered death, once and for all. In a world where jaded pessimism is the order of the day, we must hold fast to our calling as a resurrection people. We gather every Sunday to remember that Easter morning when the stone rolled away and Mary hears Jesus’ voice again.
Billions of our brothers and sisters in Christ throughout the world have gathered today to celebrate and praise our Risen Lord. Can you see the rainbow of God’s children, with tears and smiles of joy? People who are enduring their own personal Good Fridays are holding on to hope that a resurrection day will come. God will make a way, where there seems to be no way. Yes, all things work together for good for those who love God.
On Easter Sunday, and every Sunday we gather to be nurtured and equipped as a resurrection people. Part of witness to the Gospel in our world is to tend the flame of hope. We remember this definition from Hebrews: “Faith is the assurance for things hope for, the conviction of things not seen.” In Paul’s letter to the Roman’s he reflects on the faith of Father Abraham, who hoped against hope. In our Gospel lesson, Mary Magdalene, Peter and the beloved disciple need to see with their own eyes what has happened. It can be that Jesus has risen. Someone must have stolen his body. Later Thomas will need to place his finger in Jesus wounds to believe. As a resurrection people, we need to hope and believe with our mind’s eye, with the eyes of our heart. Deep within we can see a new day dawning in spite of the pain and suffering that surrounds us day in and day out.
This is our unique Christian mandate and calling to interpret what is means to be a people of hope. We don’t turn our heads or lower our gaze. We hold on to find the glimmers of hope and the testament to the human spirit. We know that in time this Good Friday will pass and Easter morning will come. Like Mary Magdalene, we keep vigil at the Empty tomb waiting to hear the voice of our Risen Lord speaking through the gardners of our day.
Over the centuries many scholars and poets have reflected on this theme of hope and how critical it is for us to preserve our humanity.
“Hope springs eternal in the human breast.” A. Pope
“If it were not for hope our hearts would break.” John Ray
“Hope is the pillar that holds up the world.” Piny the Elder
Our people will perish without hope.

Hope is a poignant theme in many of our urban churches, where people of color are the majority of the residents and congregants. Unemployement, drugs, gangs and violence pervade the streets, but on Sundays we gather to lay our burdens down and breath deep God’s Spirit of hope. In spite of all we have seen this past week, we know that change is coming. Many of us are going through a Good Friday cruxifixion, but we know God will see us through to the empty tomb. Many of these hardships were never part of God’s plan for us, but God the Good Shepherd is always with us in these valleys. We hold on to hope and the faith that God will see us through.
As a Resurrection people, we resonate with our African American and Latino brother and sisters who do their part to foster this flame of hope. At the end of one of my favourite PBS programs Tavis Smiley closes every program with, “Keep the Faith.” Throughout the 80s, Rev Jesse Jackson’s anthem was “Keep Hope Alive.” Mexicans and Mexican-Americans are familiar with these two adages, at many gatherings people chant is Si Se Peude, “Yes we can” and “Hope dies last.”
People of color who have had to endure far too many Good Fridays, have a deeper and more profound hunger for the hope that our Risen Lord brings on Easter and every Sunday worship.
In our Gospel lesson, like many other moments in Jesus' life and ministry, the women are present to faithfully to tend to Jesus. In Jesus’ life and death, we see how central women are. We remember the alabaster of oil, the washing of Jesus’ feet with tears and the drying with her hair. The women in Jesus’ life keep vigil at the foot of the cross. When Jesus felt betrayed and isolated by his disciples, the women in his life never left his side. This is the eternal truth of the church. Many of our sisters in the church continue to teach us how to focus on the majors not the minors. Let’s keep our egos in check and stay focused on our call to sacrificial service. The women in Jesus ministry had a lot to teach and model for the disciples and the same is true for today.
In the midst of this crisis, the gospel writer makes it a point to note who was winning the race to the tomb. Doesn’t it seem weird to focus on such details at this point in the story? Who cares who get’s there first? Men and their egos! Everything seems to boil down to a competitive sporting event. I hope the beloved disciple did not intentionally trip Peter.
Many scholars have noted this conflict between Peter and the Beloved Disciple. Was this Lazarus? This competition between these two could be a window into the conflict playing out in the early church. Peter represents the growing hierarchical authority of the apostolic tradition and the Beloved Disciple represents the more grassroots, egalitarian church. There is this tension and anxiety in John’s gospel that the church does not turn into the very Pharisees and temple authorities they have been challenging.
One of the telling pieces of this story is that Peter and the Beloved Disciple come and go. It is only Mary Magdalene who stays to keep vigil in her grief. Blinded in her grief she can not hear what the Angels have told her. The folded clothes mean nothing. Until she knows that her Lord’s body is able to rest in peace, she will not leave. Mary is tenacious in holding on until she finds an answer. When Jesus appears to her she thinks it’s the gardner, and pleads with him too.
Many of our brothers and sisters in pain and grief cannot hear the messages God sends them. It is only when we hear the voice of our Good Shepherd speaking directly to us that we understand that our Good Friday is finally over. Like Mary, many of us will encounter the voice of our Risen Lord. Our wrestling with angst and doubts clear away in an instant, when we hear God’s voice calling us by name. All Jesus had to say was Mary, and she knew it was her Rabbouni, her teacher.
On Friday, I was blessed to have the opportunity to attend the Hubert H Humphrey Lecture Series. Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, the first woman President throughout the African continent gave a speech. When she walked on stage and thousands of Liberians sang their national anthem this brought many tears. The wave of hope that filled the Northrup auditorium was phenomenal.
Liberia is a testimony to hope and the resiliency of the human spirit. Out of the ashes of Civil War and far too many Good Fridays, they are in the garden and celebrating hope as a resurrection people. We have 10-15k Liberians here in the Twin Cities. Just last week President Obama granted an extension for their visas. We can be proud of how many our Minnesota communities have embraced our Liberian brothers and sisters. We walk with them through these Good Fridays to joyous Easter moments.
Yes hope is alive. The Iron Lady of Liberia and the Liberian Christian Women’s Association have continued in the path of Mary Magdalene. They would not leave until they got the answers they needed. They held on with faith and hope in what many people would dismiss as impossible. Resurrection people hold on to hope!
Hearing the roar of the audience brought me back to South Africa, and the Durban stadium in 2002 when we cheered for Nelson Mandella’s entrance for the inauguration of the African Union. Mandella and President Johnson Sirleaf are modern day prophets who bring their people hope, and foster peace and reconciliation.
Like Mary Magdalene, we are a resurrection people, we need to keep vigil in the garden and listen for how God is calling his sheep by name. Every Sunday is an Easter Sunday. We gather at the empty tomb again to remember God’s victory over evil. We don’t need to cling to Jesus, we can hear the voice of our Good Shepherd. Jesus sends us out from the empty tomb every Sunday to bear witness to the hope in the impossible. Our Risen Lord has conquered death. Nothing in this world has a hold on us. We are freed captives!
Hope is alive. We humbly walk beside our brothers and sisters who still have not heard the voice of our Good Shepherd. Could we be a gardner in their lives. Maybe we could be the angels assuring them that yes He is Risen. Each of us have been casted into this eternal production of Resurrection Hope. We witness to our world that the storm is over. No matter how dark the skies may turn, No matter how great the odds may seem against you, these Good Fridays are not the end but only the beginning. Our Lord is victorious. Listen for the voice of our Good Shepherd. Hold on to hope and trust in him.

Bearing Compassion for the Lepers of our Day John 10:1-11

Bearing Compassion for the Lepers of our Day April 1, 2009

Isaiah 61:1-4
The spirit of the Lord God is upon me, because the Lord has anointed me; he has sent me to bring good news to the oppressed, to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and release to the prisoners; 2to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor, and the day of vengeance of our God; to comfort all who mourn; 3to provide for those who mourn in Zion— to give them a garland instead of ashes, the oil of gladness instead of mourning, the mantle of praise instead of a faint spirit. They will be called oaks of righteousness, the planting of the Lord, to display his glory. 4They shall build up the ancient ruins, they shall raise up the former devastations; they

John 10:1-11
Very truly, I tell you, anyone who does not enter the sheepfold by the gate but climbs in by another way is a thief and a bandit. 2The one who enters by the gate is the shepherd of the sheep. 3The gatekeeper opens the gate for him, and the sheep hear his voice. He calls his own sheep by name and leads them out. 4When he has brought out all his own, he goes ahead of them, and the sheep follow him because they know his voice. 5They will not follow a stranger, but they will run from him because they do not know the voice of strangers.” 6Jesus used this figure of speech with them, but they did not understand what he was saying to them. 7So again Jesus said to them, “Very truly, I tell you, I am the gate for the sheep. 8All who came before me are thieves and bandits; but the sheep did not listen to them. 9I am the gate. Whoever enters by me will be saved, and will come in and go out and find pasture. 10The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have life, and have it abundantly. I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep.

Today we reflect on the last of the Lenten passages before we enter Holy Week. Jesus’ public ministry is coming to an end. The showdown in Jerusalem and the garden of Gethsemane is upon us. Can you feel the suspense and how high the stakes are? These three years of public ministry are coming to the end, will the center hold? Can the disciples stay awake and stay faithful after their shepherd is taken from them. Will the sheep scatter and scurry? Will they ever find their way back to the fold?
We will be looking at another MDG (Millennium Development Goal) set by our world leaders at the UN. To halve the number of people living with HIV/AIDS but still do not have access to the essential medicines. The lepers of our day are not only people with HIV, but also our brothers and sisters living with TB and Malaria. The term often used is for this trinity of tragedies is “Diseases of Poverty.” Our UN leaders in New York and Geneva have joined the church in our sacred calling to work for an abundant life to be known by all of God’s children.
Yes, we are our brother’s and sisters’ keeper. Any time a fellow child of God dies of a disease because of poverty this abundant life has been denied to them. Who are the thieves and robbers climbing over the fence to scatter God’s flock? What are the ways and means of the power and principalities of this world that deny our brothers and sisters the abundant life Christ call us to live into being? We must release the drug patents and fully fund the public health ministries so these living saving medicines are accessible to the billions of people who live on one and two dollars a day.
Several years ago in Accra, Ghana I attended the World Alliance of Reformed Churches gathering. Worldwide, there are 74 million Christians who trace their heritage to Calvin’s Reformed tradition. I saw a beautiful tapestry of God’s humanity. Several days in Accra reinforced the reality that the Church of Jesus Christ is growing in leaps and bounds in Asia, Africa and Latin America. In many respects, the face and voice of Christ’s church will be transformed by this new day that is dawning. Will North American and European Christians be open to this new reality? Are we ready and willing to listen to how the Holy Spirit is speaking through our brothers and sisters in the Southern Hemisphere? God’s Spirit will blow where it will. Will we flow with it and soar like an eagle or will be like a stubborn salmon working against the current?
Access to medicine for people living HIV/AIDS is one of the issues where we need to open hearts to the testimonies of our brothers and sisters. All of God’s children should have abundant access to HIV prevention and treatment services. Our Good Shepherd calls us to love our fellow sheep. “If you love me you will feed my sheep.” As Jesus said, "there are sheep of many folds", but we all one have one Good Shepherd, who calls us to our common calling to help secure the abundant life for all of God’s sheep.
This was the theme for WARC conference “I have come that they may have life, and have it in abundance.” HIV/AIDS and the diseases of poverty were critical points of concern. Here in America, the issue of HIV/AIDS has become passé. We are complacent because we think the crisis is over. Isn’t this just a chronic illness now? “Just take your pill and life will go on.” We think we are off the hook of having consciences pricked because of President Bush’s emergency plan. Yes, we have made some progress, but we are far from that marker or mile stone that would justify a reduction of our sense of urgency.
People living with HIV/AIDS, TB and Malaria are the lepers of our day. We remember Jesus’ healing ministry and the powers bestowed upon his disciples to heal and cure the sick. Embracing the lepers and restoring them to a more abundant life is at the core of our mission. We look back to another era when our churches sent out doctors and nurses to the four corners of the world. Some of the fruit we see blossoming in the global church comes from these historic mission hospitals and schools our ancestors in the faith established.
We can’t be satisfied with a token representation of the people we canonize. A few Mother Theresas are not enough for the millions of our brothers and sisters in Africa, Asia and yes here in North America who continue to die from HIV/AIDS. This crisis of humanity is far from over. The media cycle has runs its course, and they have moved on to the next “If it Bleeds it Leads Story.” As disciples of the Good Shepherd, we must keep our eyes and ear’s open to all the sheep of Christ’s fold. We need to remain connected to the Christ’s global church and commune with them in their struggle to bring abundant life to their communities ravaged by the scourge of AIDS.
We need to open our eyes to the new face of AIDS. Here in North America, the leading cause of death for African American women is HIV/AIDS. Many folks in our pews think of AIDS as primarily a concern for the gay community and Africa. Last fall, the CDC acknowledged that they had underreported the infection rates in North America by forty percent. Last Month, the CDC reported that the infection rate in our Nation’s capital has reached 3 % of the population. In America, the land of milk and honey, we have a community with an infection that is eqaul to many countries in sub-Saharan Africa. The face of AIDS has changed. Will we open our eyes to this new reality and respond accordingly?
The face of AIDS has changed, do we see it? African American and Latino American women are part of the new face of AIDS. Will we rise up and speak out for an abundant life for all of God’s sheep? Our Black and Brown sisters are bearing the burden of this enduring tragedy. Will we love and embrace them with compassion? Why do they not receive adequate prevention services? Why are they struggling to secure the essential medicines they need? Why are so many of our sisters living in silence and isolation because of the stigma that still exists?
We are not sent out from the shelter of the flock to judge others who have contracted HIV. It’s irrelevant how the virus entered their body, what matters most is how we love our fellow sheep enduring the modern day leprosy. We are not sent out to judge or condemn. There is only one Good Shepherd. We are merely fellow sheep. We are called to love all of God’s sheep and ensure they can find life in abundance.
Last week I saw the musical Rent at the Orpheum in Minneapolis. If you have seen the play or movie, you will have a sense of what my first encounter was like with someone living with HIV. My senior year in college I moved to NYC and worked in a private psychiatric hospital. I helped counsel heroin addicts in recovery from their addiction. Many IV drug users contract HIV because they share needles.
One day, I saw first hand the stigma and discrimination that people with HIV endure. One of my nurse colleagues was not discrete about his HIV status, and I saw how the other clients on the unit shunned this fellow child of God. For several weeks, I walked with my brother as he went from doctor to doctor learning how low his CD 4 count was dropping. Soon the cancer would come, soon pneumonia would take its hold. He is no longer with us. But his story is seared in my heart and mind.
There is a scene in Rent when Roger, Angel and Tom join a HIV support group. When I hear this song, tears flow for my brother lost long ago:

“Will I lose my dignity, will someone care, will I wake tomorrow from this nightmare. (4x)

My journey with HIV positive IV drug users was a conversion experience. Deep in my bones, I know that no child of God should have to go through this. We must love and embrace all of God’s sheep. We must do everything in our power to secure and preserve abundant life for all. This means everyone should access to healthcare. This is a basic human right. Anyone working to deny this to a fellow child of God is a thief and bandit trying to climb over the fence. The Good Shepherd has a large hook and in God’s time, God’s judgment will be known. Did you love my sheep? Or did you rob them of the abundant life they were entitled to?
Our Good Shepherd stands at the gate. Jesus is calling us on our greed and complacency. How is that we can put a man on the moon, and rovers on mars, but we still cannot provide prevention and treatment services for people living with diseases of poverty?
In Luke’s gospel, when Jesus began his ministry he opened the scroll to Isaiah 61

“The spirit of the Lord God is upon me, because the Lord has anointed me; he has sent me to bring good news to the oppressed, to bind up the broken-hearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and release to the prisoners; 2to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor, and the day of vengeance of our God; to comfort all who mourn.”

Our brothers and sisters living with the leprosy of our day need to the know the year of the Lord has come! They need to be released from their captivity! Yes, we will do all we can to love our fellow sheep and to help secure an abundant life for them. Jesus, we will show our love for you, by loving your sheep, near and far. We will confront the thieves and bandits who would try to climb in over the fence and deny our brothers and sisters their access to life saving medicines. As faith partners, we will do our part to achieve the UN MDG of halving the number of people who do not access to these life saving anti-retroviral medicines.

We will not just stop there. We will proclaim your reign of peace and wholeness until the day you come again to bring us all into your great banquet. May we all sit together with you and hear those precious words, “Well done good and faithful servant. You have loved and fed my sheep.” Our Good Shepherd stands at the gate. Through our hearts and hands, may the Holy Spirit use us to bring abundant life to the lepers of our day, our brothers living with HIV/AIDS.

The Cross and the Cross Fire

The Cross and the Cross Fire
Sojourners Magazine April 2009

Robert Brenneman

I am a sociologist. I’m also an Anabaptist. Two years ago, I began work on a dissertation motivated by a relatively straightforward research question: Why are so many members of the transnational gangs of Central America reportedly converting to evangelical Christianity?

The identity transformations required of a gang member who rejects the gang in favor of a teetotaling, tobacco-shunning, domestically oriented evangelical congregation seemed the perfect place to engage my sociological curiosity about religious conversion. But my motives were also personal. As an Anabaptist who’d spent several years working in peace education in Central America, I wondered if the conversionist religion of the conservative, largely Pentecostal evangelicals of Central America can have any this-worldly consequences for the peace so desperately needed in the region.

A wave of criminal violence has bedeviled Central America’s “Northern Triangle” of Honduras, Guatemala, and El Salvador since the end of the civil wars. They are still among the most violent countries in the hemisphere. All of them have murder rates that approach or exceed 50 homicides a year per 100,000 inhabitants—more than seven times the murder rate in the United States. Many of these murders are carried out by members of the transnational gangs Mara Salvatrucha (MS-13) and Mara Dieciocho (M-18).

These gangs emerged in the Latino barrios of East Los Angeles as immigrant youth struggled to find jobs, housing, and a distinctive identity, often with an “illegal” status that made them outlaws in their own communities. With the crackdown on immigration in California in the 1990s, thousands of youth—especially Salvadorans who came to the U.S. with their parents as refugees from

El Salvador’s civil war—were rounded up and deported to their “home” country. Between 1994 and 1997, more than 150,000 Central Americans were forcefully deported from the U.S.

With weak Spanish and few employable skills, the deported youth began organizing local gang cells in the barrios of San Salvador. The gangs soon fanned out over the rest of northern Central America. Meanwhile the U.S. “war on drugs” targeted sea and air routes from Colombia to Florida, leading to the opening of new, overland drug routes and the creation of a Mesoamerican bridge to the U.S. drug market. In these weak post-war economies, the infusion of drugs, weapons, and cash provided enormous income opportunities for local gangs willing to serve as foot soldiers for the violent but lucrative drug trade.

Today, Salvadoran police report that 30 percent of the homicides in their country are perpetrated by gang youth, although some observers argue that the figure is somewhat lower. Thousands of Central American boys and men, and a few girls, have traded their youth for protection in the close-knit but extremely violent social world of the MS-13 and the M-18. And there is no question that many of these young people and children have engaged in criminal activity, from petty crime to extortion to murder.

TO UNDERSTAND WHAT was happening, I began collecting stories. Take “Julio,” for example. Julio left his home in a coastal town of Honduras when he was 12 years old. He had grown up accustomed to abuse from his parents, but one day when he asked his mother for money to pay for a school fee, she told him to go find the money himself—she said he was not her son anyway. Angry and disoriented, Julio dropped out of school and fled to the city to live with an aunt. He bought a bicycle and sold newspapers to pay for his keep, but he was small for his age and unable to defend himself against MS-13 gang members who took his money and stole his bicycle. When Julio told his employer about the stolen bicycle, instead of helping him find safety the man sold him a handgun.

At 12 years old, Julio told me, he felt powerful for the first time in his life. He tucked the gun into the front of his pants. Sure enough, the gang members noticed the weapon. They left him alone and his aunt stopped abusing him. The gun, however, couldn’t last forever as only a threat. Before long he had fired the weapon, injuring his aunt. This led to more than a decade of life on the streets.

When members of the M-18 gang invited him to join, Julio felt he finally had found a family that would stick by him. Meanwhile, gang leaders had plenty of “missions” for an adolescent who owned his own gun and wasn’t afraid to use it. Soon even non-gang members were seeking him out to request missions and paybacks. By the time he reached his early 20s, Julio had become a professional hit man, with more than 40 notches in his belt.

JULIO’S STORY, while one of the more violent I encountered, is not unique among the youth of Central America’s gangs. Gang members find that their violent experience and marginal social status equip them with employable skills for Central Amer­ica’s thriving drug economy and world of organized crime.

After decades of war and increasing insecurity, however, Central Americans are growing weary of violence. So it comes as no surprise that the tattoo-bearing, pistol-packing, ultra-macho gang youth have become public enemy number one.

In working-class neighborhoods, where local gangs levy “war taxes” and buy off police, angry residents seek safety and retribution in vigilante justice and hired killings. “Social cleansing,” the elimination of gang members by police or hired hit men, has become alarmingly common. Most gang deaths are never investigated. Meanwhile, politicians in El Salvador and Honduras have launched their careers by promising “zero tolerance” and mano dura (iron fist) security reforms, including mass incarcerations, repressive police tactics, and the lowering of evidentiary standards in court.

But not all Central Americans advocate addressing gang violence with heavy-handed repression. A surprising number of religious groups—especially the largely Pentecostal congregations of the marginal barrios—have taken a decidedly different ap­proach by founding ministries, houses of refuge, and work programs aimed at rescuing gang members from their allegiance—or captivity—to the gang.

LUZ’S STORY is a good example. The Honduran homemaker lives with her husband and four young daughters in a modest house on the dusty outskirts of a coastal town. In 2002, she began a halfway house for gang members in her home, hosting as many as 14 gang members at a time during the intense crackdown between 2002 and 2006—a time many Hon­durans still refer to as “the hunt.” Eventually, Luz received financial and technical help from the Honduran Mennonite Church’s gang reconciliation project.

One of the more remarkable programs in the region, Luz and the Mennonites began by bringing together members of two opposing gangs in adjacent neighborhoods for soccer matches, worship services, job training, conflict transformation workshops, and community service. Over the course of several years, more than 25 of those youth managed to leave the gangs and many have started families and found employment.

The commitment of Luz and the Mennonite church reflects more than simply compassion for those in danger. Their motive, like that of so many other evangelical gang ministry workers I interviewed, is rooted in a deep faith in God’s ability to change individual lives.

“I love to do the Lord’s work,” says Luz. “And what I love, what gives me passion, is when I am with them and I can see the change.” Indeed, many of the young men who lived in Luz’s home have been transformed. Julio, now an itinerant evangelist, is one of those men, and he still refers to Luz as his madre. Julio dates his transformation to the day he met Luz. As a last resort, he had decided to visit a church. Luz sought him out after the service and, sensing his need for an advocate, stated, “From now on, I’m your mother.”

Luz and the Mennonites’ gang-reconciliation project are far from alone in their faith and risk in gang ministry. Of the 27 organizations I found working with gangs and gang members, 19 were religious. The majority of those were led, inspired, or funded by evangelicals. Most of these evangelical-Pentecostal organizations include few, if any, paid staff. They have meager resources and rely on the deep convictions of volunteers. Without exception, the ministers and practitioners describe their work as “restoration”—a term that draws snickers from sociologists and secular nonprofit leaders because of its religious flavor.

Yet I can hardly think of a better term for the kind of transformation that many of the youth from these programs reported. Restoration indicates a reconciliation that is both spiritual and social. By providing youth with individual attention and with social networks for reconstructing their lives, the ministries create opportunities for transformation that few others are willing to extend. Their biggest contribution, however, is their belief that no one—not even the worst gang criminal—is beyond hope.

The Anabaptist sociologist in me still has nagging questions: Are these conversions making a dent in the endemic violence of Central America? Or do they simply distract evangelicals from the hard work of nonviolent peacebuilding? The epidemic of gang violence plaguing northern Central America cannot be magically resolved with revival meetings. Much work remains to provide barrio youth with attractive alternatives to the gang.

A number of Catholic parishes have opted to work with children in at-risk neighborhoods, thus promoting prevention as the best means of fighting gang violence. Furthermore, without structural reforms that provide better public schools and expanded economic opportunity, many children and adolescents will continue to view the gang as the most realistic pathway to opportunity. Neither is police repression likely to stop the violence as long as the U.S.-supported “war on drugs,” which emphasizes crime fighting rather than lowering demand, continues to enable the Capone-like cartel bosses in Juarez and Cali.

IF ANYTHING IS to be done for the thousands of youth caught in the death spiral of gang violence, if aging gang members are to be kept from sinking further into the underworld of organized crime, then it must begin with a mustard seed-like faith in the possibility of human transformation.

But believing in transformation is not easy. Sociology has taught me to recognize the structures that bind people in poverty, addiction, and crime. While understanding how structures contribute to violence has made me more sociologically astute, it has hardly increased my faith in individual transformation, religious or not.

Such is the confounding nature of evangelical faith. “For God’s foolishness is wiser than human wisdom,” wrote the apostle Paul. Perhaps it is naive to believe that a Christian conversion can transform a life deformed by gang violence. Perhaps it’s more foolish to hope that individual transformations can make a difference in a society rife with violence. But if it’s foolishness, then it’s God’s foolishness.

In Central America, evangelicals are among the few willing to take the risks associated with offering gang members a second chance. Personally, I’ve come to believe that peacebuilding begins with something as simple and unassuming as insisting on the possibility of human transformation when society has given up such hope. To believe that even the most hopeless of criminals can be turned upside down by the Holy Spirit is to extend a new possibility to someone who believes that his only way out, as one gang member put it, is in a “pine-box suit.”

Robert Brenneman is a Ph.D. candidate in sociology at the University of Notre Dame.