Thursday, October 22, 2009

Chicago Peace Campaign

Derrion Albert was walking home from school on Friday, September 25th when he got caught up in a gang mob fight. He would not make it home as he was beaten to death by fellow teens right in front of The Agape Community Center, a ministry that attends the Legacy Conference.

Read the following article written by Chris Butler of the Chicago Peace Campaign (a ministry of Vision Nehemiah).

Derrion Albert did not die because of a lack of jobs or social programs. He died because we expect more righteousness and leadership from our government and civil institutions than we do from each other.

As I watched the video of Derrion Albert's beating death, I couldn't help but notice the conspicuous absence of anger or passion. From the voice of the young person filming the mayhem on his camera phone to the faces of the perpetrators of the violence; there was no hatred, no rage. This was simply a leisure activity. Derrion's death was not the goal, just an unfortunate outcome.

Those young people were not doing something that they were forced to do; they were doing something they wanted to do.

As director of the Chicago Peace Campaign, an effort to fill the city with peace and drive out violence, I have worked in many neighborhoods across the city organizing and mobilizing churches and other Christian organizations. We have adopted schools, conducted all-night prayer-and-praise meetings on dangerous corners, beautified streets, and conducted activities for young people. But clearly we have not done enough.

I know that there are those who say the solution to our problems in America's inner cities is that we need more jobs and more afterschool programs. I say not so. We have in this city more afterschool programs and jobs available to youth than we did in 1959. But we did not see young people beating each other to death in the streets back then.

Derrion died just outside the doors of a faith-based community center that would not have turned a single member of that mob away if they were looking for afterschool recreation. As I watched, I realized that it's time for the church to come forth and lead. Allow me to explain.

In practically every generation prior to this one, the great problems in America had to do with civil rights. From the unjust system of taxation without representation which led to the Revolutionary War to the unjust Jim Crow laws that led to civil rights movement of the '50's and '60's, we have struggled as a nation to overcome problems that were a matter of public policy. Since those problems were emanating primarily from the halls of government, we struggled to shift public policy discussions, change laws, and elect men and women to national and local government who could make necessary changes and hold the line on previous victories. And as we did this, things improved.

I humbly submit to you that those days are over. Public policy and government statute are not the great source of our problems, and the methods of previous movements have been and will continue to prove ineffectual in our time. It is time for a new approach. I do not mean to assert that every law in this nation -- or even in this city -- is now just; this is certainly not the case. But the law and public policy discussions of our time are not the cause of our problems as they have been in the past.

In the past the law dictated that people of color could not vote. The accepted public policy held that people of color were somehow less human than white people. The clear solution for that kind of injustice is to change that law, to shift that public policy to something more just and humane. This is the basic ethos and methodology of civil rights. Civil rights can be demanded and won from the government.

But today we have laws against drug sales, we have laws against illegal drug possession, we have laws against murder. There is not a respectable public policy professional or organization anywhere in this nation that would make an argument against those laws.
So, why is Derrion Albert not alive today?

Perhaps, the answer is demonstrated better than it can be articulated by the radio DJ who plays endless hours of violence and debauchery, by the policeman who drives 70 m.p.h. the wrong way down a neighborhood street, by the crowd of misguided teens who dispassionately beat one of their peers to death with a piece of wood and their bare hands.

Imagine the impact that we could make if every believer in Chicago truly began to pray for peace in our city, then allowed that prayer to motivate and strengthen us toward action. What if every school in Chicago was adopted by a handful of churches? What if believers in every neighborhood began to take responsibility for a block, a train station, a bus route, and went out to meet the people there, serve them, and act as a presence for peace? What if we turned the power of protest onto the drug dealers by coming to the hottest spots at the hottest times (usually nighttime) and exposing their activities done in darkness with bright lights, singing, and prayer? What if there were a prophetic voice coming out of the church that, through both its words and actions, could consistently afflict the comfortable and comfort the afflicted? That would be an appropriate movement for Chicago -- and for every urban community.

The great problems of our time -- and, as such, the violence problem in Chicago -- are not a matter of civil rights, but human rights. They are not caused by problems in our public policy and government structures; they are caused by great flaws in our values and cultural structures. The solutions cannot be demanded and won from the government; they must be demanded and won from one another. The challenge is not to turn an unjust government toward justice, but to turn an unrighteous culture toward righteousness.
And that's precisely why it's time for the church to come forth and lead.

Thi’sl will be ministering at the Agape Center (342 W. 111th St. Chicago, IL) on Friday, October 30th at 7:00pm. Please come and join us as we seek to pass on the message of peace that can only be found in Christ.

2 comments:

Maureen R. Perkins said...

Thanks for writing this article Chris. We need more "voices crying out in the wilderness" in a time as this. Thank you for allowing God to use your voice.

Maureen

Unknown said...

Hey bro this is some real ministry application I have been looking for. A 13 year old girl got killed a couple of weeks ago from a stray bullet here in Flint,MI and violence seems to be all these kids know. I and my sister was also were victims, I was 9 years old my sister was 7 and we were shot on the same day by strays. The Lord kept us living and with no complications and have saved us both. I have been to two of Legacy conferences and learned a lot and want to apply it with some other brothers. This article gave some goods ways of impacting the streets for Christ that I have been looking for thanks. I will make sure I share this with them. Cephas