Homewood tore down their skate park addition yesterday. Yeah, kinda sad. If I had grown up in Homewood I might have even gone there myself. When I saw the article, I thought, "Well, how unfortunate." But after reading this article, I'm angry.
Here is the article:
http://www.al.com/news/birminghamnews/index.ssf?/base/news/1216282514127290.xml&coll=2&thispage=1
My main complaint is that the city of Homewood blames the skaters for the increased crime and debris. The quote, actually:
Mark Midyette, former park board chairman, was not surprised when he heard the news. "The skaters have no one to blame but themselves," he said WednesdayYikes. Its your fault kids! You! Over there! The intelligent law abiding peace loving skater! Its YOUR fault this park is taking away something that creates community and welcomes youth into our neighborhood. (certainly the majority of skaters were not trouble makers. A few bad apples spoiled the whole thing.)
What I hear inside this "We tried and tried, we gave adequate warning, we tried to play nice - they just wouldn't cooperate so we had to tear it down." is the same whiney baby attitude Christians take when we are disappointed that no one shows up for church.
Granted, the work of the Kingdom and a skater park are not necessarily the same thing. I'm not opposed to taking the skater park down, I'm opposed to blaming the kids that it didn't work. In our churches, when things don't work, when we fail at our role as the Body of Christ - who do we blame? Ourselves? Or do we look out across the landscape and find the meanest, stupidist, and easiest target and say, "look! We tried! But obviously you don't love Jesus and I'm not going to throw my pearls to swine! Begone."
I'm not saying we shouldn't tear a few churches down...I'm saying when we do - who will we blame? Ourselves? Or those ungrateful kids?
Will Christ find the millstone around our necks for causing little ones to stumble? Or will the millstone be around the necks of those who did the stumbling?
Isn't it a shame Trinity UMC or Dawson Memorial Baptist Church, both just blocks away from the park, didn't take advantage of having so many young people right there in the neighborhood. Either of these large churches could have provided some supervision, taking advantage of the opportunity to witness and show love.
ReplyDeleteAnother lost opportunity. Oh well...maybe next time.
the picture really makes the point. Find the most non-youth looking folks in the world and show them tearing out something they had never come near before.
ReplyDeleteThey're probably listening to radio head on their ipods.