Thread: Speaker: Churches ‘Failing’ With Gang Outreach

http://www.leesburg2day.com/current.cfm ... wsid=11806

Speaker: Churches ‘Failing’ With Gang Outreach
Dan Telvock

Mar 23, 2006 -- During a seminar Monday on the influence of religion and churches on gang prevention, an assistant professor of philosophy and religion at Claremount McKenna College in California told a Leesburg audience that churches across the nation are not doing enough to influence gang members to take a more positive path in life.
The professor, Dr. Gaston Espinosa, focuses his work on Latino history and religion. During the seminar, he said young people of El Salvador and other Central America countries grew up in a civil war torn region. Many children are recruited into military or guerilla groups at the age of 12. Gangs, such as MS-13, which is known as one of the country’s most violent gangs, surfaced as an alternative to school, the military and broken homes.

He started off his presentation by showing a short clip from the movie “Innocent Voices,” which is based on the true story of a young boy faced with violence, war and gangs. The clip illustrated why MS-13 is in this region. The scene showed three young boys captured by a military force and later two of them were shot in the backs of their heads while on their knees. The main character witnessed both shootings, and as the gunman prepared to take the boy’s life, gunfire erupted from opposing forces and the child was able to escape. Those viewing the segment are left wondering what happens to the boy next.

“The film is very powerful,” Espinosa said, and it gives a glimpse of what life was, and continues to be, for some gang members who now live in America. These conflicts, poverty and broken homes shaped the minds of the young people, the professor said, and those hard feelings came to America and more recently Northern Virginia.

“And people say, ‘Why is MS-13 so violent?’” he said.

Many of these children who grew up in violence and in tough inner cities, have come north as refugees. Most already knew how to use a gun.

Espinosa said there are 21,500 gangs in the United States, with a total of 731,500 members—a “small army.”

Leesburg Police Chief Joe Price said there are about 5,000 gang members in about 23 cliques in this region. Forty-nine percent of gang members are Latino, the fastest-growing minority group in America, and the U.S. Census estimated there will be 106 million Latinos in America by 2050, nearly 24 percent.

Young people of Central America join gangs for many reasons, but mostly because they offer protection, a sense of family, status, money, power and drugs.

“If you’re not in a gang you will get beat up,” he said.

But there is also another thing gang members have in common—faith. Showing photographs of gang members, many had religious symbols tattooed all over their bodies. So, then why are churches failing to reach out to these gang members and help convert them?

Espinosa said that’s because many churches ignore the gang problem.

“You can’t just think of gangs as bad people born bad,” he said.

Churches in America lack unity and a comprehensive vision, are not connected with current pop culture, have not been addressing poverty and suffering and have failed to read the Bible prophetically, he said.

Religion offers hope, he said.

“A lot of these kids don’t get a fresh start because they have rap sheets,” he said.

In Los Angeles, Espinosa said two churches led a significant charge to help former and current gang members turn their lives around. Father Gren Boyle’s Roman Catholic Church and Homeboy Industries focused on economic development, offering jobs and entrepreneur opportunities to gang members trying to rebuild their lives. Victory Outreach International Church focused on conversion and social development.

“Our communities are crying for help,” said the Reverend Lewis Holmes, the senior pastor at Oakton Baptist Church in Chantilly. Holmes said the government has not helped the situation at all by removing all references to the Bible and religion in schools.

“I think the community sees us fighting each other much of the time,” he said.

Chief Price, who is co-chairman of the Northern Virginia Gang Task Force, said its strategy is to not only treat gangs as a law enforcement problem, but as a societal problem as well. He said the approach must be multi-jurisdictional, and he thanked U.S. Rep. Frank Wolf (R-VA-10) for helping the region obtain federal funding to start the gang task force that serves 13 jurisdictions.

He said the U.S. Attorneys Office has made gang crimes one of the top three problems in this region and prosecutors have stepped up efforts.

“We rival California in the information we capture and use,” he said, adding that the teamwork involved in anti-gang efforts is refreshing in law enforcement where egos often get in the way as they seem to do in most fields of work. “It’s not the big guys telling the little guys that this is what we are going to do.”

The gang task force and law enforcement in general has been proactive, the police chief said.

“We are keeping them on the run,” Price said.

When the task force was formed in 2002, there were 950 reported gang-related crimes in Fairfax, Herndon, Leesburg, Loudoun, Manassas and Prince William County. Of that number, 593 turned out to be actual gang crimes, with most being graffiti.

In 2003, the number of gang crimes skyrocketed to 1,557 in 11 jurisdictions. Although most of the crimes continued to be graffiti, the assaults, malicious woundings and weapons violations continued to rise.

In 2004, there were 1,710 gang crimes.

In 2005, there were 1,415 gang crimes in 13 jurisdictions. In that same year, Price said the task force received intelligence that MS-13 gang members once known to be in this region are now engaging in criminal street gangs in other parts of the country or south of the border. As an example, he showed a mug shot of a gang member called “Midget” from July 2004 who was known to operate in this region. He disappeared and investigators would later see Midget in a magazine photograph of a gang arrest in Central America.

In those four years of statistics, Price said if graffiti is excluded, you see far lower numbers. In 2002, there were 662 non-graffiti crimes, 1,011 in 2003, 1,002 in 2004 and 604 in 2005. Since the task force’s inception, it has made 1,316 arrests, gathered 941 intelligence reports, served 88 search warrants and forwarded 350 cases to U.S. immigration authorities.

“We’re convinced the approach we’re taking is having positive effects and that we’re right on track,” Price said.

To report gang activity, the task force has set up a 24-hour toll free hotline at 1-866-NO-GANGS.

But there is also another thing gang members have in common—faith. Showing photographs of gang members, many had religious symbols tattooed all over their bodies.

I've never met a gang member who had faith in God. Where did they get that idea. Lots of people are into the crucifix that are non-believers.