We Must Be Born Again
Gang violence has once again ripped through Pasadena, this historic and iconic Crown City of the San Gabriel Valley. There have been nine murders in nine months and 20 or more assaults and stabbings, one that left the victim paralyzed. In this city of Rose Parades and beautiful craftsman homes, nestled at the foothills of the San Gabriel Mountains, the violent underside has reemerged. Just when we thought that gentrification had priced that element out of town, the bullets began flying and the helicopters started circling, disturbing not only our peace and quiet but also our shopping; the gangs have taken their feuds even to the upscale Paseo Colorado mall.
You’d think that all of the trendy shops and eateries, all of the latest shiny electronic gadgets, all the current fashions in clothing, would distract them from their fighting, make them think about assimilating into the rest of society so they can live the good life like the rest of us. But apparently our way of life doesn’t appeal to them; they already have phat clothes and ipods, and they’re doing very well in the drug business, thank you.
Meanwhile, voices throughout the city call for better parenting, community policing and more programs for youth, which, when viewed from the perspective of the larger forces at play in our society, appear as mere bandaids that we’ve applied before and to little effect since the malady runs much deeper than the surface. Historic and systemic causes of this mayhem go largely unexamined partly because we’re tired of talking about racism and partly because the moral and spiritual harvest of a free market, capitalist empire gets virtually no play in mainstream media and culture.
We seem to be aware that consumerism and materialism daily undermine the more authentic human values that we wish our young people would somehow absorb from us. Reports often warn us of the ever greater and greater disparities of wealth and power in our society. Occasionally we are reminded of the incredible and unprecedented power that has been accumulated by the large corporations who now seem to mold just about every aspect of American life. We have even come slowly and painstakingly to the conclusion that our nation is once again mired down in a completely insane and unwinnable war for no good reason. But seldom is any of this put together to explain why disaffected young people in our beautiful city might want to gun each other down in the streets. We seem to think that our plunder of the world’s resources and the wars we wage against civilian populations elsewhere should have no moral repercussions here at home.
We can play off these larger societal concerns as impractical for us to address given the very local problems right in front of us, but we will find ourselves returning over and over again to the same community forums to discuss the latest wave of violence. And there are things that we can do to confront the larger forces arrayed against us while also putting the necessary local programs in place. We could, for example, severely limit corporate advertising in Pasadena - on billboards, cable and elsewhere. We could ban from Pasadena corporations that profit from exploited labor or war (e.g. Parsons). We could stand continuously and unequivocally against imperial war, not just with a city council resolution (and our council has refused to do even that), but also with constant parades, marches and public statements and making ourselves a sanctuary city for soldiers who refuse to deploy. We could get rid of the military recruiting centers that are positioned right across the street from our community college, beckoning the young adults from low income families to leave their education and go kill even poorer people somewhere else. Then our real commitment to justice and peace would eventually reshape the soul of our city, and our messages of nonviolence to our young people would not ring so hollow. One city can do things to transform its moral core. The question is whether we have the moral and spiritual determination to make the sacrifices necessary – we would have to forgo the kind of economic prosperity that we are used to. No more Iraq war money flowing down through Parsons.
A society that promotes overconsumption of the earth’s resources on the backs of the world’s poor and then makes war against anyone who gets in the way should expect to find moral decay and violence among its youth. And a city that participates in or colludes with such savage behavior should not expect to be spared the same spiritual consequences. The road to spiritual transformation will not be quick and easy, but neither did our society, begun with slavery and genocide, get to this place overnight. Spiritual and moral transformation is our only hope for real and lasting change.
Jesus warned us about the boomerang effects of our choices when he declared that “the one who takes up the sword will die by the sword.” He also called us to be spiritually transformed, “born again,” into a society, not of violence, patriarchy and nationalism, but of love, justice and mercy. May we soon acquire the honesty to repent of our sinful collusion with the powers of evil and hear once again the Gospel of Peace that can transform our souls.