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我曾經從毒販、黑社會成員和妓女身上學到一些人生最重要的體驗;我曾經獲得一些最深刻的神學討論,並非在神學院的神聖殿堂,而是在星期五淩晨一點的街角。這有點不尋常,因為我是曾在神學院受訓的浸信會牧師,曾在一間教會佈道二十多年,但這是事實。這源於我參與一個降低犯罪率的公共安全計畫,使主要城市的暴力犯罪在八年間減少79%。但我並非一開始就自願參與這個降低犯罪率的計畫,我當時25歲,成立人生中第一間教會。如果你詢問我有什麼雄心壯志,我會告訴你我想成為一間大型教會的牧師,我想擁有15000至20000名信眾,我想擁有自己的電視傳道節目,我想擁有自己的服裝品牌(笑聲),我想成為你的長途電話營運商。你知道,無所不包。(笑聲)
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I've learned some of my most important life lessons from drug dealers and gang members and prostitutes, and I've had some of my most profound theological conversations not in the hallowed halls of a seminary but on a street corner on a Friday night, at 1 a.m. That's a little unusual, since I am a Baptist minister, seminary-trained, and pastored a church for over 20 years, but it's true. It came as a part of my participation in a public safety crime reduction strategy that saw a 79 percent reduction in violent crime over an eight-year period in a major city. But I didn't start out wanting to be a part of somebody's crime reduction strategy. I was 25, had my first church. If you would have asked me what my ambition was, I would have told you I wanted to be a megachurch pastor. I wanted a 15-, 20,000-member church. I wanted my own television ministry. I wanted my own clothing line. (Laughter) I wanted to be your long distance carrier. You know, the whole nine yards.(Laughter)
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成為牧師約一年後,我的信眾累積到約20個,因此距大型教會的目標還有很長的路程。但老實說,如果你問我:「你的夢想是什麼?」我會說成為一個好牧師,能伴隨人們度過人生每個階段,傳播使人們每天都過得有意義的訊息,遵循非裔美國人的傳統,成為所服務之群體的代表。但有些事正發生;在我的城市中、在整個都會區中、在美國大部份的都會區中,那就是凶殺案發生率急劇攀升。年輕人為了我認為微不足道的小事互相殘殺,例如在高中走廊撞到某人,放學後就槍殺了他。或某人穿了顏色不對的衣服,在錯誤的時間、錯誤的地點出現。我們必須針對這一點做點什麼,這些問題已開始改變城市的氛圍。你可以前往任何住宅計畫區,例如我教會那條街上的住宅計畫區,當你走進那裡,感覺就像一座鬼鎮,因為家長不允許孩子出來玩,即使在暑假,因為暴力事件頻傳。任何一個夜晚,以外行人的聽力來說,你會在附近聽見類似放煙火的聲音,但那是槍聲。你幾乎每晚都會聽見;在你煮晚餐時、說床邊故事給孩子聽時或看電視時。你也可以前往任何醫院的急診室,你會看見躺在輪床上中彈垂死的年輕黑人和拉丁美洲人。
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After about a year of pastoring, my membership went up about 20 members. So megachurchdom was way down the road. But seriously, if you'd have said, "What is your ambition?" I would have said just to be a good pastor, to be able to be with people through all the passages of life, to preach messages that would have an everyday meaning for folks, and in the African-American tradition, to be able to represent the community that I serve. But there was something else that was happening in my city and in the entire metro area, and in most metro areas in the United States, and that was the homicide rate started to rise precipitously. And there were young people who were killing each other for reasons that I thought were very trivial, like bumping into someone in a high school hallway, and then after school, shooting the person. Someone with the wrong color shirt on, on the wrong street corner at the wrong time. And something needed to be done about that. It got to the point where it started to change the character of the city. You could go to any housing project, for example, like the one that was down the street from my church,and you would walk in, and it would be like a ghost town, because the parents wouldn't allow their kids to come out and play, even in the summertime, because of the violence. You would listen in the neighborhoods on any given night, and to the untrained ear, it sounded like fireworks, but it was gunfire. You'd hear it almost every night, when you were cooking dinner, telling your child a bedtime story, or just watching TV. And you can go to any emergency room at any hospital, and you would see lying on gurneys young black and Latino men shot and dying.
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當我主持喪禮時,對象並非已活了很久、受人尊敬的長者,有很多生平事蹟可以訴說;我主持喪禮的對象是18、17、16歲的年輕人。我站在教會或殯儀館裡,試著說些能產生有意義之影響的話,因此當我的同事興建宏偉高大的教堂、購買城市外的產業讓他們的信眾遷出,以創造或再造他們的上帝之城時,城內的社會結構正承受暴力事件的重擔。因此我選擇留下,因為必須有人做點什麼,我得看看有什麼可以做的事。我開始譴責社區內的暴力事件;我開始檢視教會的活動計劃;我開始建立拯救邊緣青少年的計劃,那些即將陷入暴力漩渦的青少年;我甚至嘗試以創新方式傳道。你們都聽過饒舌音樂,對嗎?饒舌音樂?某次我甚至嘗試以饒舌方式傳道,效果不佳,但至少我嘗試過。我永遠忘不了那個在佈道後走向我的年輕人,他等所有人離開後跟我說:「牧師,饒舌佈道嗎?」我說:「是啊,你覺得如何?」他說:「別再幹這種事了,牧師。」(笑聲)
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And I was doing funerals, but not of the venerated matriarchs and patriarchs who'd lived a long life and there's a lot to say. I was doing funerals of 18-year-olds, 17-year-olds, and 16-year-olds, and I was standing in a church or at a funeral home struggling to say something that would make some meaningful impact. And so while my colleagues were building these cathedrals great and tall and buying property outside of the city and moving their congregations out so that they could create or recreate their cities of God, the social structures in the inner cities were sagging under the weight of all of this violence. And so I stayed, because somebody needed to do something, and so I had looked at what I had and moved on that. I started to preach decrying the violence in the community. And I started to look at the programming in my church, and I started to build programs that would catch the at-risk youth, those who were on the fence to the violence. I even tried to be innovative in my preaching. You all have heard of rap music, right? Rap music? I even tried to rap sermon one time. It didn't work, but at least I tried it. I'll never forget the young person who came to me after that sermon. He waited until everybody was gone, and he said, "Rev, rap sermon, huh?" And I was like, "Yeah, what do you think?" And he said, "Don't do that again, Rev." (Laughter)
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但我繼續傳道和建立這些計劃,我想如果我的同事都做同樣的事,也許就能帶來改變。但暴力事件依然無法掌控,與暴力事件無關的人被槍殺,到便利商店買香菸的人、或在公車站等公車的人、或在公園玩耍的孩童,他們不曾察覺公園另一頭的暴力事件,暴力事件卻發生在他們身上。情況失去控制,我不知道該怎麼辦,然後發生一件使我徹底改變的事。有個叫Jesse McKie的孩子和朋友Rigoberto Carrion一起回家,返回我教會那條街上的住宅計畫區。他們遇上一群來自Dorchester幫派的年輕人,兩人都被殺害。當Jesse負著致命傷逃離現場時,他逃向我教會所在的方向,他在離教會100或150碼處死亡。即使他抵達教會也沒有差別,因為燈已熄滅,沒有人在教會裡。我把這件事視為一個徵兆,當他們抓到一些做了這件惡行的年輕人時,令我驚訝的是他們的年齡與我相近,但我們之間的差異相當大,彷彿我們生活在完全不同的世界。因此當我思考這一切、審視發生了什麼事時,我突然察覺心中升起一股矛盾感,這股矛盾感是:在我譴責暴力的佈道中,我同時談到建立社群,但我突然意識到有一個族群不包括在我所定義的社群中,因此這個矛盾在於:如果我真的想幫助我所傳道的社群,我必須展開雙手接納這個被我排除在定義之外的族群。這意味著並非只是建立計畫拯救那些瀕臨暴力邊緣的年輕人,也必須伸出雙手接納那些已犯下暴力罪行的人,例如黑社會成員和毒販。
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But I preached and I built these programs, and I thought maybe if my colleagues did the same that it would make a difference. But the violence just careened out of control, and people who were not involved in the violence were getting shot and killed: somebody going to buy a pack of cigarettes at a convenience store, or someone who was sitting at a bus stop just waiting for a bus, or kids who were playing in the park, oblivious to the violence on the other side of the park, but it coming and visiting them. Things were out of control, and I didn't know what to do, and then something happened that changed everything for me. It was a kid by the name of Jesse McKie, walking home with his friend Rigoberto Carrion to the housing project down the street from my church. They met up with a group of youth who were from a gang in Dorchester, and they were killed. But as Jesse was running from the scene mortally wounded, he was running in the direction of my church,and he died some 100, 150 yards away. If he would have gotten to the church, it wouldn't have made a difference, because the lights were out; nobody was home. And I took that as a sign. When they caught some of the youth that had done this deed, to my surprise, they were around my age, but the gulf that was between us was vast. It was like we were in two completely different worlds. And so as I contemplated all of this and looked at what was happening, I suddenly realized that there was a paradox that was emerging inside of me, and the paradox was this: in all of those sermons that I preached decrying the violence, I was also talking about building community, but I suddenly realized that there was a certain segment of the population that I was not including in my definition of community.And so the paradox was this: If I really wanted the community that I was preaching for, I needed to reach out and embrace this group that I had cut out of my definition. Which meant not about building programs to catch those who were on the fences of violence, but to reach out and to embrace those who were committing the acts of violence, the gang bangers, the drug dealers.
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當我意識到這一點,腦海中瞬間浮現一個問題:為何是我?我是指,這不是執法機關的問題嗎?這就是警察存在的原因,不是嗎?當「為何是我?」這個問題出現時,答案亦呼之欲出。為何是我?因為我是為了這個問題夜不成眠的人;因為我是審視這個問題、認為必須有人做點事的人。我開始意識到做這件事的人就是我。我是指,這不就是社會運動的起源嗎?它並非始於擁有共同理念者齊聚一堂的大型集會,而是始於少數人、甚至一個人。這件事始於我的領悟,因此我決定瞭解這些賦予年輕人存在感的暴力文化,我開始在高中擔任義工。經過兩星期的高中義工生涯後,我發現我試圖接觸的年輕人不曾到校,我開始走入社區。不需擁有頂尖科學家的智慧,也知道他們不會在白天出現。因此我開始在深夜走上街頭,前往他們所在的公園,建立必需的關係。
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As soon as I came to that realization, a quick question came to my mind. Why me? I mean, isn't this a law enforcement issue? This is why we have the police, right? As soon as the question, "Why me?" came, the answer came just as quickly: Why me? Because I'm the one who can't sleep at night thinking about it. Because I'm the one looking around saying somebody needs to do something about this, and I'm starting to realize that that someone is me. I mean, isn't that how movements start anyway? They don't start with a grand convention and people coming together and then walking in lockstep with a statement. But it starts with just a few, or maybe just one. It started with me that way, and so I decided to figure out the culture of violence in which these young people who were committing them existed, and I started to volunteer at the high school. After about two weeks of volunteering at the high school, I realized that the youth that I was trying to reach, they weren't going to high school. I started to walk in the community, and it didn't take a rocket scientist to realize that they weren't out during the day. So I started to walk the streets at night, late at night, going into the parks where they were, building the relationship that was necessary.
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一件發生在波士頓的悲劇使一些教士聚集起來,其中有一小群人意識到我們必須走出教會的狹隘範圍,前往年輕人活動的場所,而非試著找出讓他們加入教會的方法。因此我們決定一起走上街頭,前往城市最危險的地區,在星期五和星期六晚上,從晚上10點走到清晨2、3點。剛開始夜巡時,我想我們看起來就像異類。我是指,我們不是毒販、我們不是買毒品的人、我們不是警察,有些人還戴著羅馬領。這或許是相當奇怪的景象,但不久後他們開始跟我們說話。我們發現當我們夜巡時,他們觀察我們,他們想確認幾件事:一、我們是否會持續夜巡行動。二、他們想確認我們來這裡並非為了利用他們獲取利益,因為經常有人說:「我們打算收回我們的街道。」但他們似乎總是拿著電視台的攝影機或帶著記者,為了提高自己的聲望使這些街頭年輕人受到威脅。因此當他們發現我們不是這類人時,他們決定跟我們說話,然後我們做了一件對傳道者來說令人驚訝的事:我們決定聆聽而不傳教。來吧,給我一點掌聲。(笑聲)(掌聲)好,夠了,你們佔用了我的時間。(笑聲)但感覺相當棒。
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A tragedy happened in Boston that brought a number of clergy together, and there was a small cadre of us who came to the realization that we had to come out of the four walls of our sanctuary and meet the youth where they were, and not try to figure out how to bring them in.And so we decided to walk together, and we would get together in one of the most dangerous neighborhoods in the city on a Friday night and on a Saturday night at 10 p.m., and we would walk until 2 or 3 in the morning. I imagine we were quite the anomaly when we first started walking. I mean, we weren't drug dealers. We weren't drug customers. We weren't the police. Some of us would have collars on. It was probably a really odd thing. But they started speaking to us after a while, and what we found out is that while we were walking, they were watching us, and they wanted to make sure of a couple of things: that number one, we were going to be consistent in our behavior, that we would keep coming out there; and then secondly, they had wanted to make sure that we weren't out there to exploit them. Because there was always somebody who would say, "We're going to take back the streets," but they would always seem to have a television camera with them, or a reporter, and they would enhance their own reputation to the detriment of those on the streets. So when they saw that we had none of that, they decided to talk to us. And then we did an amazing thing for preachers. We decided to listen and not preach. Come on, give it up for me. (Laughter) (Applause) All right, come on, you're cutting into my time now, okay? (Laughter) But it was amazing.
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我們跟他們說:「我們不知道這個社區晚上九點以後的情況,晚上九點至淩晨五點的情況,但你們知道,你們是那個時段的專家,所以告訴我們、教導我們、幫助我們觀察我們忽略的事,幫助我們瞭解我們不明白的事。」他們十分樂意這麼做,我們開始瞭解街頭生活。跟你在11點新聞中所見的大不相同,跟大眾媒體或社群網路描述的大不相同。當我們跟他們交談時,打破了一些我們對他們的迷思,其中最大的迷思是:這些孩子都是冷酷無情的,而且不尋常地暴戾。我們發現事實正好相反,大部份在街頭遊蕩的年輕人只是試著在街頭生存,我們也發現一些我們見過最聰明、最有創意、最傑出、最睿智的人在街頭為生活打拼。我知道有人稱之為「求生」,但我稱之為「超越」,因為當你在他們所處的環境時,能活一天就是完成一次自我超越。因此我們跟他們說:「你認為教會或這個機構能如何改善這種情況?」我們藉由與這些年輕人的談話制定了一項計劃,我們不再視他們為需要解決的問題,我們開始視他們為夥伴、資產以及減少社區暴力的同志。
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We said to them, "We don't know our own communities after 9 p.m. at night, between 9 p.m. and 5 a.m., but you do. You are the subject matter experts, if you will, of that period of time. So talk to us. Teach us. Help us to see what we're not seeing. Help us to understand what we're not understanding." And they were all too happy to do that, and we got an idea of what life on the streets was all about, very different than what you see on the 11 o'clock news, very different than what is portrayed in popular media and even social media. And as we were talking with them, a number of myths were dispelled about them with us. And one of the biggest myths was that these kids were cold and heartless and uncharacteristically bold in their violence. What we found out was the exact opposite. Most of the young people who were out there on the streets are just trying to make it on the streets. And we also found out that some of the most intelligent and creative and magnificent and wise people that we've ever met were on the street, engaged in a struggle. And I know some of them call it survival, but I call them overcomers, because when you're in the conditions that they're in, to be able to live every day is an accomplishment of overcoming. And as a result of that, we said to them, "How do you see this church, how do you see this institution helping this situation?"And we developed a plan in conversation with these youths. We stopped looking at them as the problem to be solved, and we started looking at them as partners, as assets, as co-laborers in the struggle to reduce violence in the community.
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想像一下,制定計劃時,一邊是牧師、一邊是海洛英販賣者,一起思考使教會能幫助整個社區的方法。「波士頓奇蹟」就是使人們團結起來,我們也擁有其他夥伴,我們擁有執法機關的夥伴、我們擁有警察夥伴。並非所有警察,因為仍然有人認為得逮捕他們。但還有另一種警察,他們以協助社區事務為榮,他們認為有責任與社區領袖及信仰領袖合作,以達成減少社區暴力的目標。有同樣想法的人包括保釋官、法官、執法機關高層人士,因為他們跟我們一樣意識到,我們無法藉由逮捕改變現狀,無論起訴多少人或使多少人入獄都無法減輕這個問題。二十年前我協助成立一個以信仰為基礎的機構處理這個問題,我於四年前離開那個機構,開始在美國不同城市工作,總共十九個城市。我發現這些城市中總有一些社區領袖鞠躬盡瘁、埋頭苦幹、秉持客觀態度,認為群體的力量勝於個人,共同尋找與街頭年輕人合作的方法。解決之道並非更多的警察,而是發掘社區中潛在的資產。我們需要社群積極的參與,為減少暴力而合作。現在美國有個由這些令我驕傲的年輕人發起的運動,處理必須改變的社會結構問題,使社會變得更好。
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Imagine developing a plan, you have one minister at one table and a heroin dealer at the other table, coming up with a way in which the church can help the entire community. The Boston Miracle was about bringing people together. We had other partners. We had law enforcement partners. We had police officers. It wasn't the entire force, because there were still some who still had that lock-'em-up mentality, but there were other cops who saw the honor in partnering with the community, who saw the responsibility from themselves to be able to work as partners with community leaders and faith leaders in order to reduce violence in the community. Same with probation officers, same with judges, same with folks who were up that law enforcement chain, because they realized, like we did, that we'll never arrest ourselves out of this situation, that there will not be enough prosecutions made, and you cannot fill these jails up enough in order to alleviate the problem. I helped to start an organization 20 years ago, a faith-based organization, to deal with this issue. I left it about four years ago and started working in cities across the United States, 19 in total, and what I found out was that in those cities, there was always this component of community leaders who put their heads down and their nose to the grindstone, who checked their egos at the door and saw the whole as greater than the sum of its parts, and came together and found ways to work with youth out on the streets, that the solution is not more cops, but the solution is mining the assets that are there in the community, to have a strong community component in the collaboration around violence reduction. Now, there is a movement in the United States of young people who I am very proud of who are dealing with the structural issues that need to change if we're going to be a better society.
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但一些政治手段試圖將警察暴力及執法不當與黑人之間的暴力做出區別,但這並非事實,兩者息息相關。當你想到數十年來失敗的住宅政策以及不完善的教育制度;當你想到社區中長期存在的失業及未充分就業問題;當你想到千瘡百孔的健保制度,自然就會沉溺於各類毒品中,用槍支填滿你的背包。你將會看見暴力文化自然而然地出現,國家應對的方法就是增加警力、加強對高犯罪率地區的鎮壓。一切都息息相關,我們能做的一件好事就是展現團結合作的可貴。社群、執法機構、私人機構與城市一起打擊暴力。你必須重視社群的參與,我相信我們可以終結我們城市的暴力時代。我相信這是可能的,有些人已著手行動,但我需要你們的幫助,僅靠社區中部分熱心人士的付出無法實現這個目標。他們需要支援,他們需要幫助。回到你們的城市找出這些人:「你需要幫助嗎?我會協助你。」找出這些人,他們就在你的城市裡。使這些人、執法機構、私人機構和城市團結,一起以減少暴力為目標,但確保社群的積極參與,因為有句蒲隆地的古老格言說得十分正確:「你為我做的事,如果我不知情,就是跟我作對。」上帝保佑你們,謝謝。(掌聲)
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But there is this political ploy to try to pit police brutality and police misconduct against black-on-black violence. But it's a fiction. It's all connected. When you think about decades of failed housing policies and poor educational structures, when you think about persistent unemployment and underemployment in a community, when you think about poor healthcare,and then you throw drugs into the mix and duffel bags full of guns, little wonder that you would see this culture of violence emerge. And then the response that comes from the state is more cops and more suppression of hot spots. It's all connected, and one of the wonderful things that we've been able to do is to be able to show the value of partnering together -- community, law enforcement, private sector, the city -- in order to reduce violence. You have to value that community component. I believe that we can end the era of violence in our cities. I believe that it is possible and that people are doing it even now. But I need your help. It can't just come from folks who are burning themselves out in the community. They need support. They need help. Go back to your city. Find those people. "You need some help? I'll help you out." Find those people. They're there. Bring them together with law enforcement, the private sector, and the city, with the one aim of reducing violence, but make sure that that community component is strong. Because the old adage that comes from Burundi is right: that you do for me, without me, you do to me. God bless you. Thank you.