As much as I dislike the suggestion of single solutions to complex problems, jobs are as close as we will get to a single, effective answer to the enormous problem of gangs.
If the Los Angeles Police Department had enough officers, it could focus on one part of the community and stay there long enough to know and respect the people the officers are called on to protect and serve.
Jesus did not only serve the needs of the people, but truly hoped that the people and Jesus would be one.
Kids are different from adults. They are not as developed as far as brain science, controlling impulses, and maturity, and fall prey to all kinds of pressures.
So complex are all the ingredients that cause gang membership that it seems virtually impossible to isolate one solution that can address them all and thereby manufacture a hope for the future upon which these kids can rely.
At its best, an injunction creates a kind of vigilant heat that moves kids toward the light.
The highest religious and spiritual ideals of any faith would invite us to a compassion for all lives destroyed by the violence that plagues us.
If you are paying attention, then the day is going to be pretty joyful, and a lot of delight will fill it.
As a society, we come up lacking in many of the marks of compassion and wisdom by which we measure ourselves as civilized.
I kinda don't do guilt. I gave it up for Lent years ago.
I want to be prophetic and take stands and stand with those on the margins, and I want to laugh as much as I can.
We need a pope to oversee not simply a modernization of the church but its total transformation.
The power of community policing is in the relationship. This can happen only if an officer sticks around for a while.
We don't need a specialized gang unit. We need patrol officers who specialize in knowing their community.
Most citizens viewing the tape of Rodney G. King being beaten by police officers were stunned and uncomprehending. Most citizens, that is, but the urban poor.
The Church should say, 'I'm frightened that women will be ordained;' that's honest, say that. But don't say, 'It's a grave sin,' because that's nonsense.
God seems to be an unwilling participant in our efforts to pigeonhole Him.
You don't really get Jesus saying very often there'll be pie in the sky when you die. He's really talking about now and today, and it's supposed to be like that. You're supposed to delight in what's right in front of you.
Delegations from all over the world visit Homeboy Industries and scratch their heads as we tell them of our difficulty in placing our people in jobs after their time with us. Americans' seeming refusal to believe in a person's ability to redeem himself strikes these folks as foreign indeed.
Reactive and proactive policing are both necessary. Still, we need to lower expectations that such efforts can ever be responsive to crime.