|
 Gangs are a social problem prevalent in most larger cities and
many towns throughout the nation. Various forms of activities are
used to recruit new gang members. In an account of a personal
journey into the street gang, Dr. Mike Carlie presented five ways a person is sought after to join:
seduction, subterfuge,
obligation, coercion and self-recruitment (from "Into the Abyss: A
Personal Journey into the World of Street Gangs," by Mike Carlie,
Ph.D.).
Gangs will create a myth about how great they are and how great it
is to be a part of the gang. This tends to draw young,
impressionable people into the ranks. The gang will misrepresent
what the gang actually stands for, and the new member does not
discover the real reason until it is too late. The gang will often
do acts of kindnesses to young people in an effort to draw them in
with a feeling of obligation. Physical harm is sometimes perpetrated
upon a person, along with threats to force them to join. Finally,
according to Dr. Carlie, people will decide to join through their
own efforts.
Gangs have been around for as long as people have roamed the earth.
It is little wonder that King Solomon, a Hebrew king, wrote in his
Proverbs to not be enticed by the gang's methods and fall prey to
their lifestyle. Solomon wrote in the first chapter of Proverbs:
My son, if sinners entice thee, consent thou not. If they say, Come
with us, let us lay wait for blood, let us lurk privily for the
innocent without cause: Let us swallow them up alive as the grave;
and whole, as those that go down into the pit: We shall find all
precious substance, we shall fill our houses with spoil: Cast in thy
lot among us; let us all have one purse: My son, walk not thou in
the way with them; refrain thy foot from their path: For their feet
run to evil, and make haste to shed blood.
Surely in vain the net is spread in the sight of any bird. And they
lay wait for their own blood; they lurk privily for their own lives.
So are the ways of every one that is greedy of gain; which takes
away the life of the owners thereof. —
Proverbs 1:10-19 (King James
Version) Remember that Solomon was writing to extol the virtues of
wisdom and
understanding, a moral understanding. Through his writing, he is
contrasting the righteousness of wisdom to the diabolical practices
of gang behavior. He uses the word "sinners" for people who
are
missing that moral mark. Indeed, the implication is that this sinner
(gang member) is one who has not only missed the moral mark, but one
who is in revolt against authority and demands to continue to live
in rebellion against that authority. This sinner is likely a member
of a gang of robbers, thieves and murderers.
Solomon used the word "entice" to mean that this gang member is trying
to have the recruited person engage in the same kind of sin. Up to
that point, the recruit may not have committed the same sin, but with
the help of the gang member, the recruit can fall into the same
lifestyle of sin. The obvious path of action for the person who is
confronted by a gang member who uses enticement methods is simply
not to go with that sinner. Otherwise, the recruit will be asked to
do things as part of an initiation to the gang, like participating
in the knockout game.
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These gang members are entwined together to plot some evil activity
and want the recruit to follow in their footsteps and "lie in wait"
as the evil plan is carried out. The plan looks like a misadventure
of violent bloodshed that will be carried out exactly as the plan
has laid it out. The recruit who follows the gang members through
the enticement will be ensnared in the murderous activity and be as
guilty as the original gang members.
Innocent people are caught up in the sinner's trap as the gang
members lie in wait, secretly remaining hidden until the trap is
sprung; or, in the case of the knockout game, simply innocently walking
by a person on the sidewalk. The innocent person becomes the person
who is caught in that trap and is a harmless person who happens to
be in the wrong place at the wrong time. This activity will ensnare
the recruit of the gang members and lock into place a permanent
position in the gang. Bringing harm to the innocent person through
this act is "without cause" except as it is an act that cements into
place the gang member's recruit and makes it difficult for that
recruit to ever leave the gang in the future.
Verse 15 is the pivotal verse that gives the clear warning
and plea to the would-be follower of the gang's members:
My son, walk not thou in the way with them; refrain thy foot from
their path.
The path that Solomon describes is the path of a lifestyle of
crime, murder, robbery, kidnapping, killing and
destruction of others' lives. Do not even start down that pathway,
because once moving in that direction with the gang members, each
evil deed will solidify the hold the gang will have on the life of
the follower.
In the end, the gang members will simply become blinded by the evil
they inflict upon others. The lifestyle will become so embittered
with evil and heinous acts of harm against others in the community
that they will eventually devour themselves. They will become like
hungry ravens that fail to see the danger of a net or trap, but are
so hungry for the food they fly directly into the trap. The gang
will become so hungry for the evildoing that it becomes ingrained
into the fabric of life, and the company kept, so that they, too, will
dive headlong into the trap of misery and destruction.
Hundreds of years before Jesus came to the earth Solomon, a wise
king of the Hebrew nation, saw the effects of gang members and urged
those who sought wisdom to avoid associating with gang members. In
our modern age, those who are considering joining ranks with the gang
members would be wise to turn their eyes toward Christian living and
avoid stepping on the pathway to gang membership.
[By JIM KILLEBREW]
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