College students address violence in school, society
5/27/1998 News media contact: Linda Green · (615) 742-5470 · Nashville, Tenn NOTE: A photograph is available with this story.
WASHINGTON (UMNS)-Imagine a middle school where students pull the fire alarm to draw other youths outside to fight.
Imagine a middle school where 800 of the 1,200 students enrolled have been suspended throughout the academic year for misbehaving and violent acts.
Imagine a school where students witness stabbings.
Imagine a school where students survive through gang affiliation and cliques, and students have divided themselves into racial groups for safety.
Adhan Perez does not have to imagine these scenarios. As a teacher in a middle school in Atlantic City, N.J., he sees them daily.
He is not alone. In the past six months, violence in schools nationwide has left citizens wondering how to address the problem in their own communities.
Perez was among 350 people attending the United Methodist Student Forum at the National 4-H Center in Washington, May 22-25. The participants, primarily college and university students, spent three and a half days in the nation's capital discussing violence and its pervasiveness in their lives.
"Violence is a daily occurrence in my school," said Perez , who became involved in the Student Forum as a student at Rowan University in Atlantic City and is involved in an inner-city youth program. "Violence is tearing us apart. . . .The violence at my school and in places across the country makes you think about how hard a climb it is to get up from where we've sunk."
The Student Forum was established in 1989 for United Methodist college and university students. The forum, held each May, is the leadership development and student conference of the United Methodist Student Movement. At the forum, students involved in United Methodist-related campus ministries learn leadership skills, attend workshops and express their concerns and hopes for the church.
The United Methodist Student Movement was created in 1996 as a national network of college and university students extending across ethnic and cultural boundaries. It consists of students who are active in United Methodist-related campus ministries and in local churches' college student ministries who are seeking a strong role in United Methodist Church.
Both the forum and movement are under the auspices of the campus ministry section of the United Methodist Board of Higher Education and Ministry.
Throughout the forum, participants were presented with facts and firsthand accounts from students about violence. They also heard from two speakers who addressed the problem.
The Rev. Bobby McClain, professor of worship and homiletics at Wesley Theological Seminary in Washington, spoke of receiving a hate-filled, racist letter in which his life was threatened. Scripture was quoted throughout the letter, McClain said, but he reminded the students that "the Bible tells us that devil also quotes Scripture."
He told the students that they as Christian disciples must show and tell people such as the letter writer that Jesus' method, message and way were love.
"I hope you as the United Methodist Student Movement would change our society, our church and our community so that we can know acts of compassion and begin to know acts of justice."
To illustrate acts of compassion, love, justice, commitment and covenant relationships, McClain dissected the passages of John 21, in which Jesus encourages feeding and tending his lambs and sheep.
"Acts of compassion and mercy are rehearsal for eternity," McClain said. Jesus' question of "Do you love me" was a call for a commitment.
"Jesus was asking for a response," McClain said. "When the call comes, you have to do something."
He challenged the students to not just pass resolutions but to go out and become disciples of Jesus and witnesses of what God is doing in the world. By their actions, McClain said, people will know they are Christian.
Today, people must take more initiative and be creative in addressing issues of violence, said the Rev. Jim Wallis, co-founder of Sojourners Community in inner-city Washington and editor-in-chief of Sojourners magazine.
"We have got to fundamentally reframe the issue of violence and what nonviolence means,"
he said. What the world cares about and is asking for on the violence issue is "what are we going to do," he said.
"When young people are going after each other with guns and knives, we do not have a youth crisis in America," he said. "We have a societal crisis where young people are bearing the brunt of our contradictions."
The poorest have the least to protect them, Wallis said. "It is not that the kids in the hood haven't gotten our values, it is that they have gotten our values and that is the problem," he said.
It doesn't take rocket science to figure out how to overcome youth violence, he said. "It takes time, presence, energy and love."
Wallis offered the students 12 ways to change their communities and work toward curbing violence. He urged them to:
· get out of the house and cross boundaries and comfort zones;
· begin to do something;
· figure out what their best contribution can be and offer it;
· trust those closest to the problem;
· realize that they can't do it alone;
· throw away old labels, realizing it's the values that count;
· find new allies and search for common ground;
· get to the heart of the problem;
· change the culture and not just the government;
· keep it human;
· prepare themselves;
· know they can make a difference too.
He told the students that the test is not whether their post-school years will be spent volunteering and doing projects but whether the time spent will change the direction of their lives.
In an effort to address violence and other concerns, the students adopted the "covenant discipleship" model for group discussions. The sessions centered on justice, mercy, worship and devotion to empower students to move toward a deeper relationship with Christ and the world.
The intent of the covenant discipleship groups was to enable students to form communities of accountable Christian discipleship, "harkening back to the 'Holy Club' of John and Charles Wesley on the campus of Oxford, and helping to shape emerging leaders in the church grounded in the disciplines of devotion, compassion, worship and justice," said the Rev. Hal Hartley, director of student ministries in the campus ministry section of the United Methodist Board of Higher Education and Ministry.
As a first step in addressing violence, forum participants approved a resolution mandating that the United Methodist Student Movement encourage students, congregations and the universal church to be "proactive" in preventing and eliminating all types of violence through mailings to campus ministries, which will allow for the study of the causes of violence and methods of prevention.
In other action, participants had consensus discussions to discern where God is leading them on specific issues, including homosexuality and whether the United Methodist Student Movement should become a place where all sit at the table regardless of sexual orientation.
After their discussions, the students:
· rejected a resolution calling for the Student Forum of the United Methodist Student Movement to declare itself a "Reconciling Movement" by affirming the full participation of lesbian, gay, bisexual and "transgendered" people in the life of the organization;
· rejected a resolution urging the 2000 General Conference to remove from the denomination's governing Book of Discipline all language that excludes gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgendered people from leadership and ministry in the United Methodist Church;
· rejected a resolution condemning economic sanctions against Iraq;
· adopted a resolution requesting the movement's leaders be considerate of structural and attitudinal barriers so that students with disabilities can participate in meetings;
· welcomed 13 international students studying in the United States and two students from the Russian Student Forum;
· visited six community outreach sites in Washington to learn about the church in mission, in addition to the United Methodist Board of Church and Society;
· elected Ben Heavner, a student at the University of Puget Sound, Tacoma, Wash., as the new chairman of the Steering Committee of the United Methodist Student Movement; and
· elected 15 people to form a new steering committee.
After the Student Forum, discussions on violence continued in an issues forum held through the churchwide Shared Mission Focus on Young People initiative. The four-year initiative, mandated by the 1996 General Conference, is the church's effort to make young people a priority, enhance denominational resources for them and celebrate their achievements around the world.
The May 25-26 issues forum was the first of three planned for this year to listen, discern and identify ministries with young people that have life-changing results.
The forum on violence provided an opportunity to hear young adults discuss their experiences and how violence has affected their lives, according to Linda Bales, executive director of the mission initiative. Throughout the forum, the 30 participants identified ways the church can respond better to young people and the violence in society.
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