YOUNGSTOWN Crime expert: Use the Bible

Reformed criminals can serve as community examples, the speaker said.
By D.A. WILKINSON
VINDICATOR RELIGION EDITOR
YOUNGSTOWN -- An expert cited biblical figures as models for ending violence and poverty in the inner city.
And that model is much different from the many programs that have failed to end inner-city problems, said Robert L. Woodson Sr.
He's the founder and president of the National Center for Neighborhood Enterprise in Washington, D.C. Woodson spoke Monday evening at the Mayor's Task Force on Crime and Violence Prevention dinner at The Youngstown Club.
"We can't be caught up in the past. We have to understand no dream comes true until you wake up and go to work and make it happen," Woodson said.
The principles that have guided communities should be retained, but the strategies, some of which were made in the 1960s, must change, he said. Failure to realize that times have changed have helped to create the current problems, he said.
"We have spent about $7 trillion on programs that aid the poor, but 80 percent of that money goes not to the poor but those who serve poor folks," Woodson said.
What doesn't work
And the notion that having blacks in position of authority would solve problems proved false, he said.
In Washington, Woodson said, blacks hold many high positions, but "a child born in Washington today has a lower life expectancy than a child born anywhere in the Western Hemisphere, second only to Haiti. We have the highest black median income and the highest mortality rate because of violence."
But the pastor suggested a new model be based on Joseph, who showed his integrity and vision after being betrayed by his brothers, and Jesus, who urged people to change.
"God can only use you when you are broken," said Woodson.
"God never used big shots."
Woodson said he had gone into his community and found addicts and robbers who had turned their lives around because of Christian faith and were effective witnesses in the way they led their lives.
Woodson said that people are "tired of hearing a sermon. They want to see a sermon."
To prevent retaliation after a boy was killed in a part of Washington that had seen more than 50 murders, Woodson said he and others called a meeting between the leaders of two gangs and their members.
The gang members were fed, he said, because gang members don't fight during a meal, and told to pray. He said that a member said later that they had never been asked to be peaceful.
Those efforts ultimately resulted in an end to the killings, and the gang members were then given paid jobs removing graffiti, he said.
Woodson told the crowd, "Go out as Jesus and Joseph, empower them, and help them."
wilkinson@vindy.com