Disintegration

There Goes the Hood

The crumbling of order and resulting self-destruction of the community start with broken windows not being fixed; next prostitutes and vagrants are allowed to loiter; soon delinquents and youth gangs realize they can act with impunity; and by then the neighbourhood is well on its way toward disintegration.  [Andrew Peyton Thomas]

Man is not an island.  Man was created to live in community.  Communities share a common life; they can exist only so long as common values, beliefs hold it together.   This is a fundamental Christian doctrine, traced all the way back to the Garden of Eden, when God declared it was not good that man should live alone.  To fight crime and the disintegration of a neighbourhood, the community has to exert itself.  This requires a co-ordinated effort between civil authorities, the police, and citizens above all.

For centuries this biblical view of communal order dominated Western thought.  In the last century, William Wilberforce, the great evangelical British statesman, noted that "the most effectual way to prevent the greater crimes is by punishing the smaller, and by endeavouring to repress the general spirit of licentiousness, which is the parent of every kind of vice."

The same philosophy influenced the original principles of policing laid out by Sir Robert Peel in 1829.  The first job of the police, said Peel, is not fighting crime by keeping the peace.  Seventy years later, in the first New York City charter, the same principles were repeated: "it is hereby made the duty of the police department to especially preserve the public peace, . . . remove all nuisances in the public streets, . . . restrain all unlawful and disorderly conduct."  As a result, at the turn of the [nineteenth] century it was the police who developed the first food and soup lines; they built police stations with extra space where migrants could stay until they found work; they referred beggars to charitable agencies; and yes, the even helped lost children find their way home.  [Charles Colson and Nancy Pearcey, How Now Shall We Live? (Wheaton, Ill.: Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., 1999), p. 366.]

In rebuilding community, or a common life, Christians and churches can play a huge part--provided they understand the Bible's teachings on the matter, and provided they are prepared to be patient.  Many years ago we were introduced to the remarkable ministry of John and Vera Mae Perkins of Mississippi.  Chuck Colson describes their life and influence:

John (Perkins) grew up picking cotton in Mississippi, suffered beatings during the civil rights movement, and then founded Voice of Calvary ministry in Mendenhall and Jackson, Mississippi.  Today these ministry have grown to including housing rehabilitation, a thrift store, job training, a school, day care, a food co-op, and a medical centre.  The Perkins's model of Christian community development is now being imitated across the country.

In recent years, John and Vera Mae have taken their vision to the drug-infested northwest corner of Pasadena, California.  The first time I visited the Perkins's new home, I saw drug dealers on the street outside, pulling up in their limousines to do street-corner deals amid the garbage and litter.  I prayed with John and Vera Mae in their livng room, sitting by a window that still had a bullet hole from a drive-by shooting.

But within months, the Perkinses had turned their backyard into a play area where the neighbourhood kids could play safely and listen to Bible stories.  Soon they bought up adjoining properties and renovated them; they opened a youth centre and additional family services.  They encouraged other Christians to buy properties close by and open related ministries.  Over time, the drug dealers disappeared, crime abated, and children were playing in their front yards once more.  When I returned for another visit, I could not believe the transformation.   [Charles Colson and Nancy Pearcey, How Now Shall We Live? (Wheaton, Ill.: Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., 1999), p. 371f.]