Good lord, don't shoot

[cbayer]

http://www.economist.com/blogs/democracyinamerica/2014/12/religion-and-guns-chicago

Religion and guns in Chicago

Dec 29th 2014, 17:26 BY V.V.B | CHICAGO


Getty Images

MASS on Christmas evening at St Sabina, a Catholic church in Auburn Gresham, a largely African-American neighbourhood on the south side of Chicago, is a three-hour extravaganza. There's a soul and rock band, floating dancers dressed in white, a cartwheeling redeemer dressed in glittery pink, and a tableau vivant of young black men with placards around their necks bearing the names of Eric Garner and Michael Brown (two black men killed by police in 2014) and Trayvon Martin (a black teen killed by a vigilante in 2012). In “A Mother’s Cry to God”, a woman bewails the fate of black Americans in a 20-minute monologue about the police, poverty, unemployment, the lack of adequate health care and foreclosures, all of it interspersed with cries of “I can’t breathe!”, Eric Garner’s dying words.

This performance is the warm-up act for the sermon of Father Michael Pfleger, an outspoken anti-gun activist who has been at St Sabina, one of Chicago’s poorest and most-rundown neighbourhoods, for 33 years. (Outside of the church is a Christmas tree decorated with pictures of children killed by guns.) “Invade!” shouts Father Michael into his microphone, encouraging his audience to rise up, invade and chase the devil out of the home, the community, the school and government. Jesus, he tells the assembly, was an anti-establishment figure who strove to put an end to the existing order. Sitting under a gigantic neon-lit Jesus sign, the congregation joins in, whooping when the priest talks about the Prince of Peace and murmuring approval for his call to action.

Father Michael’s sermon was hardly the stuff of reconciliation and healing. And Chicago is not doing as badly as he implies. The city is on track to register its lowest murder rate in decades for the second consecutive year. Chicago Police reported 390 murders in the year to December 20th, a slight decrease compared with last year and a 20% drop compared with 2012, when 504 Chicagoans were murdered.

Rahm Emanuel, Chicago’s mayor, tried to ban guns from the city; but a federal court ruled that such a ban would be unconstitutional. Mr Emanuel also severed the city government’s ties with companies that make or sell assault weapons. In mid-December his office released a report with 28 recommendations for tackling youth violence. These include the addition of eight “peace rooms” in public schools for counselling and conflict resolution. The report also explores alternatives to arresting first-time juvenile offenders, such as community service.

more at link

[Fred Sanders]

1. Emanuel's total smart on crime campaign has worked, in Chicago guns have been de-mystified and

properly demonized.

"Get the devil out of your home", said Father Micheal. A gun is not the devil, but it is his chosen tool, next to nuclear winter.

[cbayer]

2. That is really good to know.

Any approach that works is ok by me.