Living in fear in the inner city…

so my beautiful wife Valerie moved to kensington in philadelphia, americaland just over 8 months ago and quickly got the vibe of what this place is about… within two months of being here, the newspapers posted an article with the top ten drug corners in Philly and all ten were within 5 miles of where we live… when we are in the city and people ask us where we live and we answer, “Kensington!” people always give us the “no, really” look and give some kind of “what good ever came out of Kensington?” follow-up… and many people ask, “aren’t you scared to live there?”

and after 8 months of living in this place, if i have to answer that question honestly, then i will have to give an emphatic “Yes!” A very large percentage of the time I am really scared living in this house in Kensington. and i am talking ‘freaked out of my bean’ scared.

but not for the reasons you may expect. it is not the drug dealers that scare me or the occasional violence that spills on to our streets or the police sirens we hear almost daily or anything like that.

it is the light switches. and you might think i am being funny but i am not. every one in ten times that i reach out to switch a light on or off in the house we live in, about ten mazillion volts go through my body and it freaks the bean out of me. i think the combination of some kind of static build up from the carpets and possibly some dubious wiring, but it really has caused me intense and real fear. half the time i reach for a light switch i wrap my hand in my shirt or go for a quick-as-lightning-reflex flip-the-switch and it usually works… in fact it works for a while and then lulls me into a false sense of security until i lose the fear and start turning lights on and off normally again and then suddenly KAZAAM! man, i have become so nervous when needing to work the light switch – the one time i literally saw a huge burst of sparks.

and so this largely appears to be a nonsensical blog and to some extents it is… but the deeper story is a profoundly exciting one… because i live in kensington, philadelphia, an area that many people and municipalities and governments have given up on, an area rife with drug use and violence and killings, and the thing that scares me is light switches. and really the only thing that scares me. there have definitely been moments when things have happened and i haven’t known what to do or others when i am really close to a violent situation and know the potential for things to go horribly wrong, but i just have not had fear here. and i think it has a lot to do with being in the place where you know God has called you to be. and tbV and i know that without a doubt. right now, this is where we are meant to be. the closest thing to a fear apart from electrocution-by-lightswitch is that of the potential of missed opportunities or not having a significant effect on people or the community.

we will continue to wrestle with those questions and with how to live well here, and how to be significant both in how we serve and how we allow ourselves to be served and taught and informed and challenged… and until something bigger comes along to fear, i will just keep as much distance as possible from those light switches…

the simple way: a glance back

this is a newsletter sent out by shane claiborne in the fall of 2009 just to give you a glimpse of some of the exciting stories that are associated with this place we are privileged to live in and this family we are a new part of…

Family, Friends, & Partners

Let me start with the bad news . . . A few days ago, another young man was shot and killed on our block, on the corner of H and Westmoreland. He was in his twenties, walking home around midnight. It was the 248th homicide this year in Philadelphia, nearly one kid killing another kid per day.

Now for some good news. This year something extraordinary happened here in the City of Love. The faith community came together in an unprecedented way – the historic black church alongside the Mennonites, Quakers along with Catholics, mainliners, and evangelicals… the Church came together to call for an end to the violence on our streets. It started with the realization that we have over 900 gun shops in Philadelphia. Over 900! (There just aren’t that many deer in Philly.)

Out of the 900+ gun shops, there were a few that stood out as particularly notorious for selling guns which were later used in violent crimes, shops like Colosimo’s Gun Store in downtown Philly. After much prayer and preparation, a delegation of religious leaders approached the gun shop owner, Mr. Colosimo, with a request for him to sign a 10-point code of ethics, a covenant to sell guns in a way that would decrease violence (that even Wal-Mart has signed). Before long, it became clear that Mr. Colosimo would not sign the covenant, and a few things happened. Weekly prayer vigils began outside of his store, which culminated in a Good Friday service. Outside the gun shop, we remembered the suffering of our Lover Jesus, and recalled the stages of his execution. We listened to the Gospels speak of the women at the cross as they wept over Jesus’ bloody corpse. Then we heard stories of mothers who had lost their kids to gun violence, like one mom who told about how her Harvard-bound boy was shot down outside a movie theater in a random act of violence. And finally, we were reminded by some good Gospel preachers … that it was Friday… but Sunday is coming. The Great Story ends with resurrection and an empty tomb.

Another thing happened at Colosimo’s gun shop. As Mr. Colosimo refused to sign the covenant, a group of clergy and religious leaders who remained inside his gun shop in prayerful vigil were soon arrested, charged with such things as defiant trespassing and conspiracy. This is where it gets good. They went on trial and it was everything you would hope for in a trial. Hundreds of folks packed out the courtroom. Some teachers even brought their kids on a field trip so they could see justice at work. And they did. The defendants had a female African-American judge who allowed them to present an argument of justification… that they were justified in breaking a law in order to prevent greater harm. What happened was phenomenal. The judge found all the defendants not guilty on every charge; and basically, what happened was the gun shop was put on trial. In the ensuing months charges were brought against Colosimo, who pled guilty and his gun shop was closed down.

In the end we are people who believe, not in punitive justice, but in restorative justice. We don’t want Mr. Colosimo to waste away in a prison cell, but we would like to make sure he doesn’t sell any more guns… and we would love to see his heart stirred and transformed by God, as he could become a major player for good, like ole Saul of Tarsus… or any of us for that matter. The story is not over. That was just one gun shop. There are still over 900 left.

What we learned through it all is the power of the Church working with the Spirit of God. We are reminded that we can do more together than we can do on our own – it is the story of communities and movements. This is the same work you have been supporting here at The Simple Way, some of you for over a decade now. We are not just closing down gun shops, we are launching new projects of hope.

After all, for too long we Christians have been known more for what we hate than for what we love, for what we are against than what we are for. So we will keep rolling with the gun shop stuff, but we will also continue building alternatives to the things wrong in our world.

This year you have helped birth all sorts of goodness. 2009 marks the birth of Conspire Magazine, which is creating all sorts of holy mischief. This year, we worked with Eastern University to create our first scholarships for kids here in Kensington. We had neighborhood field trips to the zoo, the beach, and Taco Bell. This year we saw over 400 kids get school supplies in the best Labor Day block party we’ve ever had (we had a bubble machine, a magician, about 20 drummers and African dancers, all sorts of festivities… and not a single fight). Hundreds of folks have gotten food and clothing this year in Kensington thanks to your support. We were able to purchase the heroine house on our block along with 2 other houses that belonged to an absentee landlord (which are now being restored!). A few weeks ago we broke ground on the neighborhood green space, which will have a playground for the kiddos and an area for families to hang out – all on the land where the fire burnt everything down 2 years ago. Thanks to your support we get to bear witness to the power of resurrection – a God who is restoring broken hearts, broken neighborhoods, and a broken world.

It doesn’t stop. TSW is helping create a prayer book this year that will weave together songs, prayers and liturgy to help the Church and our communities pray together. We have a new director of all things local, Coz Crosscombe, who is an incredible gift, and we just moved in half a dozen new young folks to join the fun here on the block. In the works is a partnership with Timeteo (http://timoteofootball.com/home.aspx), the flag football league and mentoring outreach, one of the most redemptive things going on here in Philly for young men, to create new futures and possibilities. Over the next few months we hope to launch our plans for an Apprenticeship House that will start next fall. In a few weeks we will share toys with hundreds of families here; but more than presents, we want to give presence, a steadfast love for neighbors and God here in one of the abandoned corners of the empire. Pray for us as we continue to build our little village… and know that you are loved and appreciated. As you send us gifts and checks, we don’t mail you prayer cloths and anointing oils… but we do think of you often with big smiles and prayers of gratitude. You are loved.