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Youthful Passion One Key to Brighter Future
By Stan Friedman
CHICAGO, IL (October 31, 2005) - John Perkins, who has long been at the fore
of community development and justice issues, says he sees the
possibility of a "creative revolution" because of the passion of young
people.
Perkins recently spoke during a North Park University chapel service.
Afterwards he spoke with Covenant News Service.
"Young people have a better understanding that Christian conversion
includes carrying the responsibility for caring for the poor, the widows
and the orphans," he says. Individuals who are past their twenties are
searching for more than a "focus on self" that he believes they
encounter in many of today's churches. Young people are pushing the
discussion, Perkins notes. "The younger group - they're still looking to
make their way in life - they can be more radical."
Perkins and his family have ministered among the poor for more than 40
years. In 1960, he and his wife, Vera Mae, and their children left a
"successful life" in California and moved to Mendenhall, Mississippi,
where he helped start a day-care center, youth program, church,
cooperative farm, thrift store, housing repair ministry, a health center
and an adult education program. He has developed similar programs,
including Voice of Calvary Ministries in Jackson, Mississippi, and
Harambee Christian Family Center in northwest Pasadena, California.
Despite having dropped out of school in the third grade, Perkins has
received honorary doctorates from several schools, including North Park
University and Wheaton College. He is the author of nine books,
including Let Justice Roll Down and Resurrecting Hope. He
has served on director boards for World Vision, Prison Fellowship, and
the National Association of Evangelicals.
Students have become a new source of inspiration to him, and should be
for others he believes, because the older generation needs their energy.
"When I walk stairs alone, I get tired. But when I walk the stairs with
young people, I get stimulated," he observes.
The young also need the wisdom of those who have gone before them,
Perkins believes. "Wisdom is knowledge that has been used," he says.
"The way we transfer wisdom is incarnational," which requires the
generations to work beside and inspire each other."
Perkins says he is committed to helping the students. "I love old people
- I'm just becoming one," says Perkins, who at age 75 declares, "I've
only got four or five years at the best. I want to keep talking to them,
being a drum major." He hopes that students will take advantage of his
invitation to travel to Jackson and learn from his community's model.
Students should be committed to working through politics to help achieve
their goals, but must be careful not to be co-opted by either political
party, he warns. Perkins argues that neither liberals nor conservatives
have done an adequate job of dealing with issues such as poverty and
race or have even contributed to them.
"The liberals - they have made blacks feel good with welfare," Perkins
says. "They have made us feel good with Section 8 housing. They have
made us feel good about entitlements. The Democrats don't build the
ownership that needs to be built into the system."
On the other hand, he characterizes Republicans as saying, "We'll give
the wealthy white folks the money and they'll invest it and then you all
will get a job." He adds, however, that the scenario doesn't work and
ultimately alienates the poor, keeping them from having a strong voice
in their own futures.
Bridging the gap of racism will require new ideas and leaders from the
younger generation, Perkins believes. "We haven't learned how to create
new leaders - we're still trying to learn how to do it," he says. "The
young people, they're the new wine."
Copyright © 2008 The Evangelical Covenant Church. |
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