A Youth Worker's Manifesto pt. II

These are our youth. They should not be treated the way they are. They deserve our assistance. They deserve our time. They deserve our love. They deserve not to be abandoned or rejected, for who they are or what has happened to them. They deserve to be seen as people, and people of worth.

You want to fight crime and poverty in our city? It's easy. Frighteningly so. You look after the kids that are in greatest danger of becoming the next generation of criminals. You don't subject them to a system that dehumanizes them, and shuffles them, like a worn pack of poker cards, drawn at random.

These are the kids that will sell your son pot. These are the kids that get into the adult entertainment industry because it's easy money, and nobody's told them the consequences of those actions. These are the kids that will steal bikes to sell for drugs. These are the kids that are enticed into gangs because that is the closest thing to family they've ever had.

You want to stop vandalism? You want to stop theft and drug crimes? You want to stop drive by shootings? You want to stop seeing that guy under the bridge, or the guy that asks for your change outside the liquor store? Stop them from becoming that man or woman. It's easy. Frighteningly so.

These kids are not animals. These kids are not monsters. They are like us, but a with a crappy hand of cards. They've had less to start with. They've had more to fight through than most of us can ever imagine. They are resilient beyond what you give them credit for. They have inner resources that beggar me.

Our church shares this burden of our society. Jesus calls us to look after the least of these. Jesus calls after us to look after the children of our neighborhood, of our city, of our province. It is not always some starving child across an ocean that he's calling us to look after. It is not always some face on the tv that stares blankly into the camera. It is the child that is in the rough part of town. The kind that you drive past on the way home and are thankful you don't live there. It is the child of the mom that's in the woman's shelter, who isn't going to school, who doesn't know what home is. This is not to say that the people across the ocean don't deserve our help. They do. But they aren't hungry as a result of our choices. The kid down the block is. He's hungry because dad can't make it past minimum wage, and has a drinking problem that soaks up all the money that should go to food. He can't make minimum wage because we have a government that doesn't support our poor. We have that government because we voted it in, or failed to vote to begin with. THAT is a result of our choice. We ARE our brother's keeper, and we've steadfastly ignored him.

We been comfortable in our cars and SUVs, walking the +15s, and it's time for us to consider the teen that's sleeping under the bridge, a block or two away. It's time for us to consider that the teen that is the same age of your own teen, and you were once the same age as well.

They should be in homes that care and love for them. They should be in foster homes where there isn't abuse, or a lack of compassion and love. They should be in foster homes that aren't overburdened. If they can't get in, they should be in grouphomes that have the staff, the time, and the space for them. They should be in a home where there is consistent people around, with fewer kids per staff, with a house mom and a house dad.

You hear about Focus on the Family, why don't we focus on our family growing larger, opening our hearts to include those that have been excluded. Why don't we consider, as a part of our society that seems to support family values, the notion that family should count for all people, not just the ones in polo t-shirts that sip lattes on the way to another church service in the car that cost more than these kids can even imagine. Why don't we think about loving the people who are unloved, the ones that are hard to love and easy to ignore, forget, and dismiss. We are called to love the least of these. We are called to love the unlovable. We are called to touch the untouchables. They do not exist a continent away, they exist a block or two away. They do not demand your attention the way your radio does, they do not demand your attention like prime time tv does, because they have not been given the voice, and its time we listen to it. Listen! Compassion is what Jesus was about! Compassion is letting go of our privilege and opening our eyes and hearts to those around us. Get involved in street ministry, give money to the poor. Don't ignore the dude that asks for a little bit of change. Feed him lunch instead. Find out who fosters in your church and support them with everything you got. Foster kids yourselves, consider adoption. There are so many kids that want homes, and we have families, with family values in abundance. You want to make a change in society, change this world around you? You want to stop this slide into apparent degradation? Make room in your heart for those that society has spit on, stepped on, and walked on by. Are we willing to be the Samaritan, heretical and rough around the edges? Or are we going to simply push the status quo and just walk on by, deaf to the cry of a society in pain?

Listen!