. . Teens and Gangs – What the church says.
. . The Church’s position of crime – like theft, gangs, rape, murder, perjury, etc. – has been addressed firstly in the ten commandments, particularly numbers four, five, six, seven, eight, nine and ten.
These commandments deal with human relationships and how we are to love our neighbor. The Church’s stance on these topics of crime are that they are sinful and selfish, and they do not foster a love for our neighbor and help those who are weak or in need. The forth commandment is, you shall remember the Sabbath and keep it Holy. This commandment teaches us that we should take time out to praise God , but if your in a gang you are constantly being involved in non-Catholic situations that draw gang members further from the Lord. If they understood what God has done for them they wouldnt be disrespecting Him.
The fifth commandment is Honor your Father and Mother. Gang members think that being in a gang is like being in a family. So, without any parental guidance there is no room for honor for anyone. They think that being in a gang is a family, but they have no idea what real family is and they deny that they ever had a chance to be in a real family. The sixth commandment is Thou shall not kill. Everyday we read or hear in the news about someone being killed because of gang violence.
This commandment is the most important and the most serious. Killing someone just because they arent like you is wrong. Sometimes gangs misjudge who they kill. It might be you walking down the street wearing the wrong color shirt and you wind up getting shot.
This is just another example of how violent gangs are and teens who enter this world of violence never amount to anything. The seventh commandment is Thou shall not commit adultery. Sometimes well read in the paper about a rape or something of that nature and it sometimes turns out it was people in a gang that end up doing these kind of acts. This commandment should to respect everyone, but then again gang members play by their own rules and they dont pay attention to what people say. The eighth commandment is thou shall not steal.
If you dont think that gangs steal your in for a surprise. It doesnt matter if its just a couple of bucks or a brand new car, gangs will steal anything. Think about it, have you ever seen a gang member working? I havent. How else are they going to get money.
The answer to that is stealing. This commandment should teach them to respect everyones belongings. The ninth commandment is Thou shall not bear false witness. Some teen gang members wind up in court or in jail. Most of them are there because of gang violence that they got caught for, there may be other gang members that didnt get caught. But, the person that did get caught wont rat out his fellow gang members because they dont think its right and that is lying about what really happened.
If that gang member might have given the names of the other members than he or she might have gotten off scot free but some serve life sentences in jail for not ratting them out.It doesnt matter how you look at things the church and the bible know that teen gang violence is wrong and needs to be stopped.Words/ Pages : 581 / 24
