Violent Crime has been an issue in America for quite some time, but in recent years, especially through covid, violent crime has increased. Just up the road in in Chicago, IL, for example, there have been over 3,100 shooting victims and 535 homicides this year alone.
In part, I believe that the rise in crime and violence that we have experienced has been due to the
ineffectiveness of the church. This did not merely begin with covid...the church has not been effective and or relevant in the lives of many individuals for a number of years. For example, I would venture to ask, or better yet, ask your pastor, what are the main influences of crime and violence in your church's neighborhood and in your community? Is crime and violence in your area due to drugs, gangs, poverty or a combination of each? How does the breakdown of the family structure factor into this? What is happening at the local school that effects the stability of the neighborhood and community? How is the church positioned to engage and address the issues?
Believe me when I say, I have received more emails regarding Marvin Winan's marriage (God bless him and happy for him) than emails regarding the violent murders that take place every week all over this country.
This tells me that our mission and what gets out attention is misplaced at best...Violence in our communities and the disintegration of the family and destruction of the lives of your youth happen because WE are ineffective and have made ourselves irrelevant to solving the problems. This is not God's fault, nor is it The WORD'S fault. The blame belongs to US. This is why the world viewed the liquor store more ESSENTIAL than the church. While liquor and cigarettes were sold at the highest levels in history during the covid shut-downs, our churches were shut down, told not to worship and or told how to worship and when to worship, and in my opinion, RIGHTFULLY SO!
Off The Soapbox for a second...
I too the time to put together what I call is a topical plan to address crime and violence in my area and community. Although I do not outline "preaching the Gospel" it should be abundantly clear, that we do what we do BECAUSE of the Gospel and who Jesus is, because without HIM we can and will do NOTHING!
I have had this plan for a number of years but was recently sparked into action because the Violent Crime (VC) Rate in my area exceeds 10.4 per 1,000. This is against the backdrop that the State's median is 4.07 and the National avg. is 4.00 per 1,000...so as one can see, WE have a problem!
If you are a pastor or leader, hopefully this can help you and encourage you to develop and implement a plan in your area that will allow you to minister to those hurting in our streets and PREVENT death from taking over our communities and neighborhoods. Remember, this is NOT about building a church name and or reputation, neither is it about promoting your "ministry"...This is engagement that you have to be ready for and directed of the Lord to do. I'll pray for you, and you pray for me...
One of the big reasons for this rise in crime has been the defunding of the police. The black community need the police more than anyone else. The police have been demonized and criminals have been elevated just because they share our skin color.
ReplyDeleteWe'll protest and riot over a violent black criminal if the police wrinkle his shirt during an arrest. Yet that same criminal will shoot you just as quick as he'll look at you. He doesn't care if you look like him.
A big lie going around in the black community is that prisons are full of black men doing years in prison for either no reason whatsoever or are in prison for minor drug offenses. For example, many believe that there are lots of black men in prison doing 50 year sentences for being caught with a joint of Marijuana. There is no such thing.
So the black community then calls for the release of these violent criminals, who rightfully deserved to be in prison. They were doing time for crimes of violence. Despite what many believe, the criminal justice system is extremely lenient (which is also a big reason for the increase in violence). So you have demonization of the police + release of violent criminals back into the streets + a lenient criminal justice system. The results are predictable.
Today, people poo poo the crime bill of the 90s (which was championed by Joe Biden) because it resulted in lots of young black men being incarcerated. But we forget what caused the crime bill to come into effect. We forget about how cities like Detroit, Chicago, Milwaukee, Philadelphia etc were turned into killing fields and outdoor shooting ranges. I grew up in Detroit and was a kid in the 90s, but back then in Detroit, we were having 400, 500, 600 homicides in a year. That's not counting the shootings where the victim survived and all of the other non lethal violence. And the only reason the homicide rates aren't higher today, is because of advancements in trauma medicine. Gunshot wounds that would have killed you in 1991 are now survivable with appropriate treatment. That and the fact that most street shootings are committed with handguns which are generally less lethal than long guns like rifles and shotguns.
As loathe as we are to admit it, the majority of the violence happening in cities like Chicago and Detroit are committed by young black men aged 14-40. So when crime bills are created that go after the ones committing the crime, it will end up with young black men being arrested and convicted the most. It has nothing to do with racism.
I promise you that your 75 year old church mother won't be arrested. There aren't many elderly Church ladies shooting someone for looking at them the wrong way.
Also, on an unrelated note, I don't know if some of your readers are familiar with Mother Norma Burrell, but she recently passed a couple days ago.. She was the jurisdictional supervisor of Women in the Michigan Northeast Jurisdiction. She also was the mother of the late Bishop Walter E. Bogan who was the Jurisdictional Prelate of the Michigan Great Lakes First Jurisdiction and at one time was the Vice President of the National Youth Department of COGIC. So pray for that family.