The faith community needs to be part of Anchorage’s crime solution.

The faith community needs to be part of Anchorage’s crime solution.

Note: The post was written and submitted to ADN.com as an opinion piece, but was not picked up so it is running here as submitted.

"What the hell is going on here?,” was the opening line of the editorial, “We need a better solution for crime in Anchorage,” which ran December 10 in the Anchorage Daily News. Yes, a better solution to Anchorage’s crime must be found. Yet that solution must involve—at least in part—people more accustomed to talking about heaven than hell: the faith community.

Anchorage has broken its record for total number of murders two years in a row. As those numbers have risen, daily news stories greet the city’s inhabitants with more bad news of all kinds of crime also on the rise. In response, there have been repeated calls for more police officers and stronger policing as well as cries to repeal SB-91. Sadly, I fear most common the reaction, though, has simply been bemoaning the decay of our city to friends. While giving voice to the condition of the city has its place, action is what causes change. And though politicians, police, and citizens have raised their voices to address—or at least comment on—this crime, one group has been strangely silent: the faith community.

I was taught by my alma mater the Latin motto, “ora et labora,” which means pray and work, which is the key to the response needed from the faith community. While I am sure that individual people of faith, congregations, and other small groups have prayed over Anchorage’s condition these past few years, there has been no discernable group effort to address the violence and crime we are experiencing. In a city filled with Christian churches—all of whom are, presumably, following the “Prince of Peace”—there has been no comment, movement, or large scale call to prayer.

In the Old Testament’s Book of Jonah, Jonah was asked to be concerned about the city of Nineveh, something he had refused to do at every turn in the story. At the end of the book, Jonah—God’s prophet—is found sitting outside the city waiting for God to destroy it. God asks Jonah an interesting question, “Should I not have concern for the great city?” Are the people of faith in Anchorage like Jonah in our silence? I believe that God has great concern for our city and that he would ask us the same question.

In the mid-nineteen nineties (in the years following the previous record high for murders in 1995) during a similar time of struggle in the city, Mayor Mystrom called on the churches to respond to the problem of chronic homelessness and helpless women in the city. The Church of Anchorage responded, prayed, and became involved in serving the city. In our current situation, this example from our recent past provides a template for what could happen, but this time around there has been no call, no prayer, no movement.

The solution to Anchorage’s crime will require engagement from citizens of all kinds and from all city sectors, but the faith community can no longer remain silent. It is time for people of faith to come together to, as the prophet Jerimiah said, “Seek the peace and prosperity of the city… Pray to the Lord for it, because if it prospers, you too will prosper.”

As the new year dawns, there is hope. On January 12, 2018, a dozen churches are gathering to pray for the city and begin discussing how the church might seek Anchorage’s peace. The event—ACTIVATE—will happen at 7 pm at the Wendy Williamson Auditorium. ACTIVATE is not an organization or a commitment. It is a relational opportunity for faith leaders and their congregations to partner toward bringing organized and peaceful solutions to recent violence and injustice in Anchorage. This will be done by praying, talking, developing a plan, and acting.

Another group—The Anchorage Urban Training Collaborative—is launching The Anchorage Peacemaking Fellowship in 2018. The fellowship will gather 10-12 people from around the city to answering the question: "How should the people of faith in Anchorage respond to the violence in our city?"

Imagine if we prayed together at each location of violent crime in the city, remembering victims and reclaiming that space for peace? What if every house of prayer set aside two minutes weekly to ask God to bring our city peace? What if churches came together in their neighborhoods to provide support for those affected by crime? What if people of faith began to dream about how we could come together to bless our community, strengthen families, and create an environment where people would be less likely to turn to crime?

People of faith must be involved in seeking a solution to crime in Anchorage. While there are no simple solutions, doing nothing is not an option. We must commit ourselves to pray and work on behalf of our city.


Joel Kiekintveld
Joel Kiekintveld is the Teaching Pastor at Crosspoint Community Church and the Director of the Anchorage Urban Training Collaborative, which is launching the Anchorage Peacemaking Fellowship in January to answer the question, “How should the people of faith in Anchorage respond to the violence in our city?” More information at www.facebook.com/AnchorageUrbanTrainingCollaborative or joel@crosspointcommunity.com.

I'd like to hear the bells on Christmas day... but instead I got a sign...and a call to action

I'd like to hear the bells on Christmas day...

but instead I got a sign...

and a call to action...

I listen to a fair amount of Christmas music. Most of what spends time playing on my devices and on my turntable is non-traditional Christmas music from the likes of Over the Rhine, The Killers, or Bill Mallonee. However, I do like a traditional song now and then as well. One such song I enjoy every year is, "I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day."

As the city of Anchorage moves through Advent, the Christmas greetings are competing with newspaper headlines like "2 people are dead after 3 weekend shootings in Anchorage." So, in this Advent season, I offer these thoughts on "I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day" as my prayer for Anchorage and as a call to action.

"I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day" opens with these three verses:

1. I heard the bells on Christmas day
Their old familiar carols play,
And wild and sweet the words repeat
Of peace on earth, good will to men.

2. I thought how, as the day had come,
The belfries of all Christendom
Had rolled along th’unbroken song
Of peace on earth, good will to men.

3. And in despair I bowed my head:
“There is no peace on earth,” I said,
“For hate is strong and mocks the song
Of peace on earth, good will to men.”

There is a sign in front of the Lake Otis Postal Mall down the street from where I work. It is one of those moveable letter signs that enable the owner to change the message. For the past number of months, this sign has read "Peace For Real."

Those plastic letters rest in their slots, day after day, bearing witness to the violence of a city that will surely break its record for number of murders two years in a row.

But more than that, the sign is a cry. Those three words cry out to all who pass by (going northbound)—to the citizens of our city—to pay attention to what is going on. They urge us to consider what it would take to see peace in Anchorage.

Yet, that trio of words is even more than a witness and a cry; it is a prayer. Silently and stalwartly, those twelve letters echo psalms of disorientation in the Old Testament where God's people voiced what was wrong with the world and asked for God to intervene.

The sign down the street distills the lyrics of "I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day" when Longfellow writes, “There is no peace on earth... For hate is strong and mocks the song of peace on earth, good will to men.”

The song continues:

4. Then pealed the bells more loud and deep:
“God is not dead, nor doth he sleep;
The wrong shall fail, the right prevail,
With peace on earth, good will to men.”

While I agree that God is not dead or sleeping—and that in the end God will prevail—the reaction I have witnessed to the violence in my city has not been marked by the people of God calling out to God in any large or united way. More often than not, the reaction I have witnessed has been a call for more police, stricter law enforcement, and tougher sentences for criminals. I have yet to see the church in mass do what the sign down the street is doing... bearing witness, crying out, and praying.

What if we were to see and witness the violence as God's people?What if we were to pray, and pray again, and pray one more time?What if we were to cry out till there was action?

In his re-worked version of "I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day," David Bazan sings this new verse:

Then pealed the bells more loud and deep
We’re only what we sow and reap
If we are ever to get along
Then we ourselves must right the wrongs
For peace on earth, good will to men (2)

I think Bazan is on to something that Longfellow may have missed. We have some responsibility here—right now—to do something. I also know that it is often hard to know just what to do. Maybe you have an idea. If so, share it. Here are two ideas I know about:

First, the Anchorage Peacemaking Fellowship (UPF) is seeking people from around the city to spend 2018 answering the question: "How should the people of faith in Anchorage respond to the violence in our city?" You can find out more about the UPF and how to apply here.

Second, on Friday, January 12, 2018, a group of a dozen churches is gathering to pray for the city and begin the process of discussing how the church might seek the peace of the city. The event, ACTIVATE, will happen at 7pm at the Wendy Williamson Auditorium. Details will be posted on this blog soon.

I believe that if the people of Anchorage—in particular those who follow Jesus—would bear witness, cry out, pray, and act, we would see the world revolve from night to day. We could see Peace for Real.

The conclusion of the song goes like this:


5. Till, ringing, singing, on its way,
The world revolved from night to day,
A voice, a chime, a chant sublime,
Of peace on earth, good will to men! (1)

Wouldn't it be wonderful if, at this time next year, we could sing Longfellow's words in a city that has seen a reduction in violence - in a city where the murder rate has gone down?

What if we could stand together as the people of God in Anchorage and sing that song knowing that we had born witness to the violence, cried out to God, prayed, and seen God work, because we were willing to get to work?

Grace and Peace to you and to all in our city this Christmas.

Joel Kiekintveld

(1)
"I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day"
Text: Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, 1807–1882
Music: John Baptiste Calkin, 1827–1905

(2)"I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day"
Additional Lyrics by David Bazan
released on the record Dark Sacred Night

Responding to violence with Sermon on the Mount Weapons.

"Resist evil by using the weapons provided by the Sermon on the Mount."

Yesterday, as I stood observing the intense energy of a room full of teens blowing off steam from school, it was hard to not draw the contrast to the empty room of five weeks ago. On that Thursday I had biked to work at Parachutes Teen Club and Resource Center (a drop-in Center for teens 13-18 years old). As I turned off the Campbell Creek bike trail and headed south on Lake Otis Parkway I was stopped by an Anchorage Police Department officer. The patrolman informed me that I didn't want to go that way because someone was shooting in the area. I quickly circumvented the danger zone to get to Parachutes (1), made a few phone calls, posted on Facebook and cancelled drop-in for the day so our youth would not be drawn into a dangerous situation.

That standoff, on August 10, closed a major street in Anchorage, brought a neighborhood to a crawl, and was the first of four times APD used the SWAT team in the week that followed. In the following weeks the newspaper reported on stabbings, violence at the cities homeless shelter and soup kitchen, and a man that was caged and tortured. A week later, the paper carried a story of a drive-by shooting - "Man injured in East Anchorage drive-by shooting" (2) - and another headline that declares, "With full leadership team in place, APD pledges focus on violence and drug crimes." (3) This is all happening with the backdrop of the record setting year of 2016 were 34 homicides occurred.

This week a headline of the newspaper read: "3 men killed in shooting at business as Anchorage homicides continue at record pace." (4) Reading further in the article one learns that the city has had 28 homicides so far in 2017 which puts the city above the pace from last year by three.

Many in the city have sought to lay the blame at the feet of gangs. For example, one ministry leader who stated in a meeting I attended last year that the entire increase in violence was gang related. Others have sought to define the violence as the sole possession of certain part(s) of town. A quick perusal of the facts (5) will clearly show that Anchorage is loaded with violence and that it can not be simply linked to one cause or area of town. Others have called for an increase in policing (full disclosure my wife works for APD). However, the blaming (or even scapegoating) and calls for increased policing are not the responses I have been thinking about lately.

The hand wringing, blaming, and calls for increased policing are the responses of many in the city - including the mayor it seems. (6) However, those responses are simple (even easy) reactions that fail to take any personal responsibility for our city or action to stem the tide of violence. Those words and attitudes are designed to remove ones self from the violence and lay it at the feet of others. In contrast to those responses, haven't seen the church community together (with a few small noted exceptions) to respond to the violence in the city. I have been wondering, How can I begin to address the violence in my city? How can the Church?

Some who read this will see no need for their own personal response to the violence because it does not directly effect them. But for me the violence in the city is personal. Not just because the murders in the city have effected those I know, but also because I believe the city is a mirror. Ron Ruthruff, in his book "Closer to the Edge: Walking with Jesus for the World's Sake" (2015) highlights John Rennie Short’s statement:

"They (cities) are a mirror of our societies, a part of our economy, an element of our environments. But above all else they are a measure of our ability to live with each other. When we examine our cities, we examine ourselves."

Ruthruff explains that the mirror the city provides gives us a reflected vision of the best and worst of ourselves and, in turn, the best and worst of our city and the world. So if my city is experiencing increased violence it is showing me something about myself and my role in the city - even if it is something I don't want to see.

Others, I am well aware, will immediately react that this is not a matter for the church to get involved in. The impulse to separate church and state runs deep in our culture. Added to that is a historical divide between those the see the role of the church on social issues as either something to be embraced fully or avoided completely. However, one only need to look at the activism by Christians on both sides of the LGBTQ rights issue in Anchorage to see that clearly the church can, and does on select matters, become involved in public issues. It seems to me that the issue of violence would be an issue that the followers of the Prince of Peace would be quick to stand against.

As I have thought about this issue and how I, and my community - the Christian community - has, or has not, responded a quote from Stanley Hauerwas keeps coming to mind. Writing about the Sermon on the Mount, and how it was viewed by Dietrich Bonhoeffer and John Howard Yoder, Hauerwas writes,

Bonhoeffer and Yoder were pacifists, but…this description is inadequate. ‘Pacifism’ suggests a position that can be abstracted from what it means to be a disciple of Jesus. Bonhoeffer and Yoder understand nonresistance to be the refusal to respond to evil in kind, but to resist evil by using the weapons provided by the Sermon on the Mount."
(Stanley Hauerwas - Sermon on the Mount through the Centuries, p. 221).

While some will be hung up on the terms ‘pacifism’ or "nonresistance" (while worthy to explore, those discussions can happen some other time) I wonder what it would look like for me, and the Christian community in Anchorage, to respond to the violence in our city "using the weapons provided by the Sermon on the Mount." I am chiefly interested in what it would look like for the church to begin responding by praying.

What if every Christian prayed daily for the peace of our city?

What if each of the many churches in the city committed to pay every week in there service for the peace of the city?

What if people and churches began to gather to prayer together?

What if as each of us drove, or walked, or biked by the places we know violence has occurred that we prayed for the victims and the perpetrators?

Could we use this tool from the the Sermon on the Mount to resist the evil in our city?

Joel K


(1) For more info. on Parachutes go to: www.parachutesalaska.com.


(2) https://www.adn.com/alaska-news/crime-courts/2017/08/23/police-investigating-shooting-in-east-anchorage/

(3) https://www.adn.com/alaska-news/anchorage/2017/08/23/apd-fills-out-leadership-team-amid-salary-boosts-pledges-focus-on-violence-and-drug-crimes/


(4) https://www.adn.com/alaska-news/crime-courts/2017/09/12/three-men-dead-in-anchorage-shooting-police-say/

(5) https://www.adn.com/alaska-news/anchorage/2016/12/31/anchorages-deadly-year-with-34-homicide-victims-violence-hits-home/


(6) https://www.adn.com/alaska-news/anchorage/2017/09/13/anchorage-mayor-apologizes-for-remark-about-citys-safety-after-shooting/

ENCORE BLOG: My Good Friday Ritual

ENCORE:  This Blog original was posted for Good Friday 2015

For years I have had a Good Friday ritual.  Each year, in addition to curating a Good Friday experience at Parachutes (www.ParachutesAlaska.com) or attending a worship service, I always watch “Until the End of the World” by U2 on the Elevation 2001 – Live From Boston DVD.  I watch that performance for two reasons: the songs lyrics about grace extended even to Judas with the backdrop of the last supper and for the portrayal of good verses evil acted out on the stage at the end of the song.  It reminds me of the grace and salvation offered at the cross as well as God overcoming  the devil and his works on Good Friday.  

I also watch Jesus Was and Only Child on the VH-1 Storytellers episode with Bruce Springsteen.  That DVD is part of my observance each year because of Springsteen’s explanation of the song drawing the listener to Jesus’ relationship with his mother, Jesus’ humanity, and our own humanity.  A wonderful song written about Good Friday.

Today I added a new piece to my list of Good Friday touchstones.  I burned a podcast to CD and plan to listen to it each Good Friday.  Burned onto that disc is an interview with author Tony Jones on the Homebrewed Christianity podcast ( http://homebrewedchristianity.com/2015/03/30/did-god-kill-jesus-w-tony-jones ).  Jones discusses his book “Did God Kill Jesus?”  It is a good discussion of one of my favorite topics – atonement theories.  However, it is not the atonement theory discussion that caused this to be added to my observance, but rather Jones’ explanation of Rene Girard’s understanding of the atonement and the cross.  Jones renames Girard’s view as The Mirror model of atonement and explains that what God is doing on the cross is showing humanity its violence and displaying that violence will never work and has never worked.  Humanity is forced to look at the fact that we are so violently destructive that we even killed Jesus.

Joel K