I’ve made a commitment to blog daily. My guess is there may be readers that are appalled by what I write. Living in the ghetto often means ugliness. Whether or not I write about it, this stuff is happening.
What is social justice? People feel good about being all for social justice sometimes they will put a bumper sticker on their car to promote it. A good intention here, a program there, let’s write about it, talk about it, attend a seminar about it and hopefully we can usher in a grand new age of social justice, peace, and prosperity.
For me, social justice starts with understanding the true nature of the problem. Here, on this blog from now on, you will read about the realities of gangs and drugs and prostitution and homelessness and alcoholism and crime. Ugly crimes — vicious robberies, theft, assaults. You will read about the crushing hopelessness too many young people feel about themselves and their futures, or lack of a future.
Wouldn’t it be lovely if we could create a program and spend some of that trillion dollars to solve the problem of poverty or crime or homelessness? Programs may do some good but they don’t get to the heart of the problem. Programs are institutional and that means they are vulnerable to being exploited. These “kids” (in quotes because many of them are over 18) don’t trust programs because people are being paid to help them. They don’t feel the heart connection, a real relationship.
What the inner city needs is missionaries. It needs people willing to insert themselves long term in the middle of broken lives and love broken, hurting people. And that means loving gangsters and criminals. What is ministry and does ministry differ from missions? Why are Christians willing to spend money to send missionaries to far away lands but don’t understand that the inner city needs MISSIONARIES?
Here was my day.
Calvin came over at 10:00 this morning still drunk from the night before. I asked him if he has a plan for the day. Yep, he’s going over to a girl’s house and getting drunker. He doesn’t want to live. He’s not suicidal but he wants to put himself in a situation where someone will kill him. He hates himself and hates his life, but he’s not unhappy. He is unhappy in jail and he’s been in jail twice this week. He is living at a friend’s house but his living situation is precarious at best. He’s been homeless most of the summer. He is lonely and feels hopeless that his life will ever be good.
Then I went shopping to buy food for Q’s birthday. When I came home Q, Lisa, Calvin, and Matt were well on their way to getting drunk after Lisa supplied them with a bottle of Vodka. I took Lisa and Q to Cub to pick up the last things I needed for his birthday dinner and standing in the line at Cub I discovered he’d broken his hand AGAIN.
By the time we got home from Cub, Calvin had left to go party at a girl’s house. Q was not happy because that girl is associated with a rival gang. He was worried that if they discovered Calvin was associated with him Calvin wouldn’t be safe. They all have a conversation about the best way to retrieve Calvin from the party and while they are discussing the problem Calvin appears with a duffel bag full of food that he stole from someone’s house. The duffel bag was full of meat. Then Calvin disappears.
I asked the guys to try and find out where the food came from so we could return it. While we were trying to figure out the food situation two girls appear and head up to Matt and Q’s room. I had a fit. NO way are you having girls in your room. That is unacceptable. They can come and visit but they are not allowed in your room. Period. While I was lecturing them on the girl situation I discover a glass of pop sitting on the floor in the bedroom.
I couldn’t believe it. The week before Matt spilled Tahitian Treat pop on the carpet in his room. Tahitian Treat is the worst pop to spill on a carpet because of the red dye. It can’t be cleaned. It cost me $150.00 to have a carpet repairman come in and cut out the stained carpet and replace it. (Matt paid $80.00) I told him if I ever found pop upstairs again I would dump every bit of pop in the house, including the refrigerator, down the drain. Can anyone guess what happened to the pop in the house after that discovery? They were very apologetic.
Q and Matt left to find the owner of the food and thankfully they found her and returned all her stolen food. Then Matt left with the girls to “party”. That left Q and me alone. We spent several hours talking together. The more I learn about him the more amazed I am by his intelligence, strength, and character. But to the rest of the world he is a gang-banging criminal nobody.
Four o’clock in the morning Calvin wakes me up knocking on our door. He is roaring drunk and looking for Q. Two and a half hours later I’m wok up again by someone knocking on the front door. Minneapolis Police. “Do you know a Matthew?” “Yes” “Could you put your jacket on and come out to the police car and get him. I found him passed out at the light rail station.” “I wish you would have taken him to detox. Then he could have spent the rest of the weekend sitting in detox with Bill and maybe he would have learned a lesson.”
One question Q asked me during the evening is, “What is Christmas?” This may sound like a strange and obvious question. But it’s not for someone who has spent the last five years, ever since he was sixteen years old, locked up. And the majority of that time he was in solitary confinement. Before that he was in 43 placements.
So what is Christmas? He wondered if he could celebrate Christmas if he isn’t a Christian. Is Christmas in America a religious holiday or can you celebrate it even if you aren’t Christian? Santa Claus isn’t Christian. And Tots for Tots and other programs like that don’t donate toys for only Christian children.
How would you answer this question?
