Gangs - Tony Campolo

Today I was listening to a Tony Campolo podcast on gangs. There were a lot of interesting and thought provoking comments. At one point Tony shared insight from a Harvard study on gangs. The study asked why young drug dealers continue to live with their mothers. It showed that most of their earnings end up in the hands of kingpin drug traffickers. They suggest that these kids only earn 4 US dollars an hour. Tony shared another story about a young African American who came to work with Tony and challenged popular understanding of youth groups. He argued that young guys (primarily) cannot find identity and worth from hanging out for only an hour a week. Instead he suggested that he start his own faith based gang. Although it was very time consuming it proved to be successful. I would encourage you to listen to his talk on gangs. Whether you agree with his convictions or not, Tony raises important questions. Campolo also has many provocative quotes. Here are a few


“[According to a profile in Christianity Today entitled] The Positive Prophet, ... I have three things I'd like to say today. First, while you were sleeping last night, 30,000 kids died of starvation or diseases related to malnutrition. Second, most of you don't give a shit. What's worse is that you're more upset with the fact that I said shit than the fact that 30,000 kids died last night.”

"When you were born, you cried and everybody else was happy. The only question that matters is this - when you die, will YOU be happy when everybody else is crying?"