April 1, 2009. The Florida Times-Union.
First of two editorials looking at faith-based groups getting involved in community issues.
As crime, poverty and injustice continues to beset Jacksonville, some people have been asking: Where is the church?
Had they gone to Bethel Baptist Institutional Church recently, they would have gotten their answer.
It’s still here – and ready to help.
More than 1,000 people packed the pews for the Interfaith Coalition for Action, Reconciliation and Empowerment’s Nehemiah Action Assembly.
ICARE, a 12-year-old coalition of local churches, called on city’s public servants to commit themselves to fixing Jacksonville’s most pressing problems.
ICARE gave them a road map toward those solutions – and made them pledge to stick to it.
One of ICARE’s concerns, for example, is Duval County’s state-leading murder rate. Because drug addiction is behind much of the crime, ICARE asked the City Council members who were there to pledge to support Sheriff John Rutherford’s request to expand Matrix House, a substance abuse treatment program, from 135 to 300 beds.
And because offenders often can’t find work, ICARE asked those City Council members to pledge to support a proposed ordinance that would encourage businesses who receive at least $200,000 in city contracts to make a good faith effort to hire ex-offenders, and that those efforts be reviewed.
Council members Warren Jones, Kevin Hyde and Don Redman attended – and agreed to support ICARE’s concerns. Some of the ones who didn’t attend also sent messages pledging their support, as well.
Over the years, ICARE’s approach toward tackling community problems – which usually begins with pastors and lay leaders from its member churches conducting face-to-face visits and surveys of anywhere from 1,500 to 2,300 people – has yielded some victories.
Among other things, it pushed for and won a $1.2 million increase in Community Development Block Grant allocations for affordable housing, and has worked with the Jacksonville Transportation Authority to add bus lines to connect people to jobs.
But the key to more wins is for people of faith to continue to work together.
So that when people ask where is the church, ICARE can turn the question around and say it’s still here – and working to reassure everyone that faith powered by legions of concerned people can indeed move mountains.
One can quibble with some of the suggestions from ICARE, but not with this commitment.
