The Pit

From Godzman: Street Prophet Called For The Streets

Some time later God spoke to me the words, TEN FINGER MINISTRY. As strange as that sounded, God explained it to me. I saw in my mind a pit full of people, desiring desperately to get out, but could not. God explained, "There Are Some Folks That Would Stand At The Edge Of The Pit, Trying To Pull people Out. But There Are Some That Would Forsake Themselves, Jump Down Into The Pit And Give Them Ten Fingers To Stand On , And Push Them Out." God should know, He made Himself man, (JESUS), and jumped down in to this worldly pit, Suffered, died, and was resurrected, so that we which were captive, would be set free, and free indeed. This was my FIRST PIT, the pit of the streets, where Gangs, Drugs and Death rains. But God has created a people to invade this darkness, and with the Light of His Spirit God has saved many lives to this day.

Go to Street Prophet Called For The Streets and read the rest!

I like this so much that it is now going to be a label to index other posts by.

A Fraction of a Second

So I'm checking some things out on Google. I try using the advanced search. I get search results in less than half a second.

In addition to that, Google advises me that I can save time by hitting "ENTER" on my keyboard, instead of clicking "Search" with my mouse.

But, I need further information from Google, and I don't know who to ask!

1) How much time will be shaved off from this fraction of a second? Is it a significant amount? Like, a tenth of a second or so?

2) How much time does it take to move my hand from my mouse to the ENTER key on my keyboard? Is that more or less time than I will save by hitting ENTER?

3) How could I best use this time that I will be saving? Could I, like, save it up, and go on vacation, or perhaps retire early?

Enquiring minds want to know....

"You 'can't hear' me...."

[An opening scene from the movie Kelly's Heroes. It's France, late summer 1944. Standing in a barn at night, sheltering from the rain and from an ongoing but inaccurate mortar barrage, Big Joe (played by Telly Savalas), a sergeant leading a reconnaissance platoon, is talking on the radio to a guy named Mulligan.]


"You 'can't hear' me. The reason you 'can't hear' me is because you're firing your mortars at your end, and they're dropping here, at our end."

Who's a Gangmember?

From the City of Madison, WI, Police Department's DANE COUNTY NARCOTICS AND GANG TASK FORCE -- GANGS - FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS:

"STREET GANG MEMBER":

An individual shall be considered a "Street Gang Member" when that person meets any one of the following criteria:

1. When the individual admits membership in a gang.

2. When a law enforcement agency or reliable informant identifies an individual as a gang member.

3. When an informant of previously untested reliability identifies an individual as a gang member, and it is corroborated by independent information.

4. When the individual resides in or frequents a particular gang's area and affects their style of dress, use of hand signs, symbols or tattoos, and/or maintains ongoing relationships with known gang members; or has been arrested several times in the company of identified gang members for offenses which are consistent with usual gang activity; and where the law enforcement officer believes there is reasonable suspicion that the individual is involved in gang-related criminal activity or enterprise.

"STREET GANG AFFILIATE":

An individual who does not meet the criteria for a "Street Gang Member," but is known to affiliate with active gang members, and law enforcement personnel have established a reasonable suspicion that the individual is involved in criminal activity or enterprise, or promotes the criminal activity of a gang.

What jumps out to me is No. 4 under the definitions of a Street Gang Member.

Even if a young person is just hanging around with gang members, that young person runs a very serious risk of suffering in the same fate as the gangmembers.

If you dress like a banger, if you act like a banger, if you hang around with bangers, you are considered a banger.

Not only will the Madison, WI, Police Department treat you like a banger, but rival gangs will, too. When they do a drive-by shooting, they are not going to stop and ask you technicalities about whether you have been properly initiated into your set; they're just going to open fire, then beat it.

This is why acquaintances and family members of gangbangers have an alarming tendency to die violently.

And that is part of the reason ganglife is so painful. Bangers watch even the relatively innocent people in their lives get gunned down in the crossfire.

Then, they want to take revenge, so they go and shoot at the people that they believe are their enemies (they're not checking ID's either), and more people die.

Then someone avenges that, and the violence continues....

Isn't that kewel...?

Getting Out of a Gang

Institute for Governmental Research: FAQs about Gangs. (See original for hyperlinks to sources.)

Are youth gangs involved in organized crime?

The “gang” characterization is sometimes broadly extended to mean terrorist gang, prison gang, or criminal gang as in organized crime, and “in each of these instances, the word ‘gang’ implies a level of structure and organization for criminal conspiracy that is simply beyond the capacity of most street gangs” (Klein, 2004: 57). To remain in business, organized crime groups such as drug cartels must have strong leadership, codes of loyalty, severe sanctions for failure to abide by these codes, and a level of entrepreneurial expertise that enables them to accumulate and invest proceeds from drug sales (p. 58). In contrast, “most street gangs are only loosely structured, with transient leadership and membership, easily transcended codes of loyalty, and informal rather than formal roles for the members” (p. 59). Very few youth gangs meet the essential criteria for classification as “organized crime” (see also Decker, Bynum, and Weisel, 1998; Weisel, 2002).

The loose structure discussed above helps explain why, despite threats that a member is in a gang for life and will be killed if he or she tries to leave, many street gang members who try to leave are able to do so successfully.

But, read on....

How do youths become involved in and leave a gang?

[...] research has documented that former gang members, especially marginal and short-term ones, typically left the gang without complication or facing any serious consequences (Decker and Lauritsen, 2002; Decker and Van Winkle, 1996). However, for the more long-term and/or core members, the process of leaving the gang is likely to be more gradual and met with greater difficulty—particularly for youths in more highly organized gangs that have a firmer foothold in a community or neighborhood. Other situational factors that make leaving the gang more difficult include greater dependence on or personal status in the group, continuing perceptions by others (e.g., rivals) that the person is a bona fide member of the gang, and the lack of viable lifestyle alternatives (that is, conventional pursuits such as employment opportunities). Further, more hierarchically structured gangs may threaten or enact certain sanctions for those wishing to leave the gang.

Organization, habit, criminal record and associations are significant factors. Younger kids in loosely affiliated street gangs have an easier time getting out than experienced gangmembers who are involved in more organized criminal endeavors. Still, it is possible even for "hardened criminals" to change their lives.

Younger gangmembers: get out now, while you still can!

More experienced gangmembers: get out now, because you still can!

Eze 18:20-23 "The soul who sins shall die. The son shall not bear the guilt of the father, nor the father bear the guilt of the son. The righteousness of the righteous shall be upon himself, and the wickedness of the wicked shall be upon himself.

But if a wicked man turns from all his sins which he has committed, keeps all My statutes, and does what is lawful and right, he shall surely live; he shall not die. None of the transgressions which he has committed shall be remembered against him; because of the righteousness which he has done, he shall live. Do I have any pleasure at all that the wicked should die?" says the Lord God, "and not that he should turn from his ways and live?"

God does not judge you the way people judge you.

To Him, you are a hardened criminal only as long as you harden your heart and refuse to change. The moment you turn to Him and seek help and healing, you are like a new-born child ("born again"), and He will be happy to work with you.

When you continue to do what is wrong, when you continue to do what hurts yourself and others, this saddens Him; but He is very happy when you decide to change your ways. He loves you, and is very pleased when you turn to Him and give Him the chance to help you. He knows you need it -- and you know it, too.

Eze 18:27-28 "Again, when a wicked man turns away from the wickedness which he committed, and does what is lawful and right, he preserves himself alive. Because he considers and turns away from all the transgressions which he committed, he shall surely live; he shall not die."

Getting Started in Gangs

Institute for Governmental Research: FAQs about Gangs. (See original for hyperlinks to sources.)

Are today's youth gangs different from gangs in the past?

Some of the gangs that have emerged in the past decade are noticeably different from those that emerged before the mid-1980s (Howell, Egley, and Gleason, 2002; Howell, Moore, and Egley, 2002). These gangs are commonly described as having a “hybrid gang culture,” meaning they do not follow the same rules or methods of operation, making documentation and categorization difficult (Starbuck et al., 2001). They may have several of the following characteristics: a mixture of racial/ethnic groups, a mixture of symbols and graffiti associated with different gangs, wearing colors traditionally associated with a rival gang, less concern over turf or territory, and members who sometimes switch from one gang to another. Members of contemporary gangs often “cut and paste” bits of Hollywood images and big-city gang lore into their local versions of gangs. Small town and rural gangs also differ from urban gangs in other important respects (Howell, Egley, and Gleason, 2002), hence urban models of gang development and response do not necessarily apply in rural areas (Weisheit and Wells, 2004).

To me, what this one above indicates is the possibility for a group of wannabes to become a gang by trying to imitate behavior they see in the movies or become aware of through music or videogames. When it comes to taking kids down the wrong path, every little bit can hurt.


What are the major risk factors for gang membership?

Risk factors that predispose many youths to gang membership are also linked to a variety of adolescent problem behaviors, including serious violence and delinquency. The major risk factor domains are individual characteristics, family conditions, school experiences and performance, peer group influences, and the community context. Risk factors predictive of gang membership include prior and/or early involvement in delinquency, especially violence and alcohol/drug use; poor family management and problematic parent-child relations; low school attachment and achievement and negative labeling by teachers; association with aggressive peers and peers who engage in delinquency; and neighborhoods in which large numbers of youth are in trouble and in which drugs and firearms are readily available (Howell and Egley, 2005; see also Esbensen, 2000; Hill, Lui, and Hawkins, 2001; Thornberry, 1998; Wyrick and Howell, 2004). The accumulation of risk factors greatly increases the likelihood of gang involvement, just as it does for other problem behaviors. The presence of risk factors in multiple risk-factor domains appears to increase the likelihood of gang involvement even more (Thornberry et al., 2003). A complete enumeration of risk factors for juvenile delinquency and gang involvement and data indicators can be accessed at the National Youth Gang Center Web site (http://www.iir.com/nygc/tool/).

"Risk factors predictive of gang membership include [...] negative labeling by teachers[.]"

In my short time teaching in the public schools, I saw enough of that. I tried not to do it, but it takes constant vigilance. I can only imagine a young kid teacher (No offense intended to you young kid teachers!), fresh out of college and overwhelmed with "bad" kids (There! I just labeled them!), or a teacher who has been dealing with "thugs" (I did it again!) for many years.

We are very blessed that God doesn't write us off, the way I so often have written others off, but rather, that He insists on saving us, and sent His Son to do so.

Denominations

I love it when evangelical Christian groups tell me that I should be in a "Bible-based" church. They seem to have an aversion to traditions in "The Church" -- even as they establish their own traditions.

Who was instrumental in producing The Bible as we know it?

"The Church."

For the first couple of centuries of Christianity, there was no Bible, and there were many counterfeit "gospels" that kept cropping up like weeds ("The Gospel according to Judas" and trash like that). Finally, "The Church" got together and decided what scriptures should be recognized as genuine, and "The Bible" was born.

How did "The Church" decide what was genuine and authentic, and what was counterfeit? In part, the decision was made based on which scriptures were keeping with the traditions handed down from Christ Himself.

Traditions

2 Thes 2:15 Therefore, brethren, stand fast and hold the traditions which you were taught, whether by word or our epistle.

2 Thes 3:6 But we command you, brethren, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that you withdraw from every brother who walks disorderly and not according to the tradition which he received from us.

1 Cor 11:2 Now I praise you, brethren, that you remember me in all things and keep the traditions just as I delivered them to you.

Christ's Apostles established five patriarchates. Little by little the one in Rome changed its traditions and "evolved" away from the other four, until, finally, after roughly one millenium of Christianity, there was a decisive split of the Western Church (which became the Catholic Church) from the Eastern Church.

Roughly half a millenium later, a group of Christians in the West, reading their Bible (which had been translated, finally, into a language they could understand) decided that the Roman Church had gotten away from the Scriptures, and the Protestant Reformation was born.

Just as Martin Luther accused the Catholic Church of getting too far from the Holy Scriptures, so did others then accuse Luther's movement of doing the same; and, now we have a whole plethora of denominations, thousands of them. Pandora's box is wide open; the genie is out of the bottle.

So, how should you answer someone who tells you that you need to be in a Bible-based church?

The Church should not be founded on the Bible! The Church should be based in Christ Jesus!

1 Cor 3:11 For no other foundation can anyone lay than that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ.

Am I saying that you will not get into the Kingdom of God unless you are Orthodox Christian? Absolutely not!

What I am saying is this:

1) Don't tell me I have to believe what you believe or I'm going to Hell, because that is so wrong as to be quite foolish!

2) And don't arrogantly tell me that you stand closer to the Cross than I do, because that is more foolishness!

It is up to Jesus Christ to decide who "stands closer to the cross" -- and I imagine He will consider who is keeping His commandment:

John 13:34-35 "A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another; as I have loved you, that you also love one another. By this all will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another."

And don't ask me if I have been saved, and when, or tell me that you were saved on thus-and-such a date, as if it were some event, when salvation is, in fact, a process. Rather,

Php 2:12 ... work out your own salvation with fear and trembling;

and, if someone tries to pin you down to a specific moment when you were saved, you would be wise to reply that, like the rest of humanity, you were saved in that moment when our Lord and Savior was crucified for our sins.

God bless you, my friends, and I will see you in the Kingdom of God, if not before!