Introduction
The Distinguished Gentlemen’s and Lady Pearls Social Club of Memphis, a non-profit organization, aims to alleviate the issue of youth incarceration in Shelby County. In particular, we strive to spiritually empower our youth and teenagers, helping them avoid the harsh U.S. juvenile justice system. Our mission stands at the intersection of Christian principles and ideas of social justice.
In this integration paper, I restate the theological foundations of our project and supplement them with a biblical example of social justice, as found in the teachings of Prophet Amos. Additionally, I provide examples of social justice themes and movements that align with our project. Ultimately, the Distinguished Gentlemen’s and Lady Pearls Social Club of Memphis will stand for these ideas and attempt to establish partnerships with like-minded organizations to help the youth of Memphis and Shelby County find the right way in life before the system devours them.
Theology Description
Empowering Youth in Resisting Criminal Influences
Initially, I believe it is necessary to restate the theological foundations of our restorative justice project. Firstly, the Empowerment and Social Justice Summer Camp project is directly linked to important principles of Christian theology. The project will help youth to channel their inner strength and deny the temptations of crime. As Isaiah 40:29-31 says:
He gives strength to the weary
and increases the power of the weak.
Even youths grow tired and weary,
and young men stumble and fall;
but those who hope in the Lord
will renew their strength.
They will soar on wings like eagles;
They will run and not grow weary,
they will walk and not be faint. (Holy Bible, 2011)
Life in at-risk conditions deprives youth of hope and mental resilience, opening them to the ruinous influence of the environment. The summer camp will help at-risk youth find lost optimism and a reliable foothold in life. Additionally, our project will serve as a much-needed positive influence, providing the necessary spiritual and mental support.
As a result, young people who might have slipped into crime or already committed offenses in the past will regain their strength. Consequently, the youth of Shelby County will leave the treacherous path on which they may stumble and eventually fall. The trajectories of their lives will thus be corrected — these young people will escape the dangers of crime, incarceration, and recidivism.
Possibility of Redemption
Secondly, the project supports the Christian postulate that no one is inherently evil and that everyone can find redemption. As said in Jeremiah 29:11, God wants human beings to prosper and succeed:
“For I know my plans for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future. (Holy Bible, 2011)
In this regard, the idea of the empowerment and social justice camp aligns with the Lord’s ultimate wish for the prosperity and safety of humanity. Our efforts will assist the at-risk youth of Shelby County to find a secure place in life. It is evident from the Holy Bible that the Lord does not want pain and suffering for these children and teenagers.
Instead, the Lord strives to give them hope and a future, and our mission lies in fulfilling the Lord’s intent. Therefore, the project can be considered a testament to our loyalty to the Lord. Our organization will carry out God’s will by saving pre-teens and teenagers from the life of crime and the harsh hand of the juvenile justice system.
Learning from Mistakes
Lastly, Psalm 37:24 summarizes the theological foundation of the project in two short yet meaningful lines:
Though he may stumble, he will not fall,
for the Lord upholds him with his hand. (Holy Bible, 2011)
As one can see, no one is safe from mistakes and wrong life choices. The at-risk youth are especially vulnerable since the harsh environment of poor parenting, social injustice, negative peer pressure, and poverty makes it easier for young people to stumble. However, those who stumble may not necessarily fall, as the Lord’s help channeled through various means may uphold them.
Spiritual Support
Our project will serve as a humble instrument of the Lord’s divine intervention and support. The empowerment and social justice camp will empower spiritually and mentally, provide exciting activities, and offer the necessary social support. Our project will serve as a part of the Lord’s upholding hand, similar to other distinguished and laudable initiatives that help at-risk youth.
Social Justice
Secondly, our project aligns with a seemingly secular concept of social justice. I use the word “seemingly” since the idea of social justice can be found in the teachings of the Jewish Prophet Amos, who lived in the Kingdom of Israel almost eight centuries before the birth of Jesus Christ.
In particular, Prophet Amos was not afraid to take a stand against the powerful Israelite cult and blamed it for the only and worst sin — selfishness and greed. The Prophet heavily criticized the assemblies and festivities of the ruling elites and religious authorities (Akintola 406). For him, religion was incomplete without the social justice component. The lack of social justice turned Judaism into a cog in an oppressive mechanism that served only the rich and powerful.
Likewise, the Distinguished Gentlemen’s and Lady Pearls Social Club of Memphis seeks to combine Christianity and social justice in a spiritual empowerment and restorative justice project for the youth. Therefore, our mission stands at the intersection of biblical and social justice. We put Christian principles in the foundation, but also seek justice for the youth whose future is in danger due to multiple disparities in the juvenile justice system.
Intersection of Biblical and Social Justice
Insights on Youth Incarceration
The youth incarceration issue attracted my attention due to its linkages with other social justice issues, such as systemic racial disparity and the profound and negative impact on youth development. I have developed a firm conviction that incarceration does not serve the goals of youth rehabilitation and public safety improvement. Moreover, juvenile incarceration has the opposite effect, traumatizing young people and decreasing safety in the long run. According to Terry and Abrams, incarcerated youth have higher rates of unemployment, homelessness, and recidivism; 75% to 90% of confined youth were later arrested as adults (qtd. in Desai 2).
Third, I understood that youth incarceration serves as a means of disparity promotion within the criminal justice system. Racial disparities tend to accumulate as youth proceed through the system. Whereas disparity does not automatically imply racial discrimination, it creates a dangerous, vicious circle for non-white youth in marginalized communities.
Given these findings, I concluded that the potential solution should be aimed at achieving three primary goals. From the public safety and rehabilitation perspectives, the project should empower and educate at-risk youth to deter criminal behavior without the harsh methods of the juvenile justice system. The empowerment aspect is vital since youth from marginalized communities usually lack spiritual support and guidance, which are necessary for withstanding negative environmental pressure.
In addition, the project should act pre-emptively to support the well-being of young people and increase public safety. Since incarceration has a mentally and socially traumatizing impact on youth, it is necessary to prevent their potential involvement in criminal activity through education and spiritual guidance. In the cases of young people who have already been incarcerated, the project should strive to restore their confidence and mental resilience to break the vicious cycle of recidivism. Finally, the project should aim to decrease the racial and ethnic disparity at the local level of criminal justice. As such, the project would be mindful of young people’s racial and ethnic identity since disparities accumulate as youth proceed through the system.
Justification from a Social Justice Perspective
I have already explained my motivation as a Christian; however, I believe it is also necessary to provide a breakdown of social-justice-related themes and knowledge that Memphis and Shelby County youth should know. Furthermore, the Distinguished Gentlemen’s and Lady Pearls Social Club of Memphis will not be fighting for social justice alone. Our organization hopes to create alliances and partnerships with like-minded groups and movements that strive to improve people’s lives through spiritual support, education, and community welfare initiatives. In the following subsections, I will provide examples of ideas and directions that will be discussed with the youth. I will also describe an organization we believe to be a solid ally for the social justice promotion cause in Memphis and Shelby County.
Operation Taking Back 901
Operation Taking Back 901 is a wide-profile grassroots non-profit organization that focuses on economic and educational programs for the local youth. The primary motivation of the organization is tackling poverty, a social issue that is more severe in the city of Memphis and Shelby County compared to other parts of Tennessee. In particular, Operation Taking Back 901 provides access to housing, food, counseling, medical care, and employment for those who do not have it (Operation Taking Back 901). The motto “making Memphis better one person at a time” indicates that Operation Taking Back 901 believes in a cumulative effect of small-scale good deeds that result in significant improvements if the community is engaged in a mutual effort.
I believe Operation Taking Back 901 will make a perfect partner for the Distinguished Gentlemen’s and Lady Pearls Social Club of Memphis. Our organization focuses on helping youth suffering from social and economic disparities. While Operation Taking Back 901 is mainly oriented toward providing welfare aid, we could organically supplement it by educating and spiritually empowering the youth of Memphis and Shelby County. This alliance will represent a union between justice’s biblical and social dimensions. Since our goals are aligned, a partnership will strengthen both organizations, allowing us to expand the reach of our activity, attain more resources, and help more people in our community.
Preserving History: Slave Haven Underground Railroad Museum
From the social justice perspective, youth need to know the history of the fight for freedom and civil rights. This knowledge is particularly empowering for modern-day Black youth who can find strength in realizing how hard their ancestors pursued freedom and what hardships they endured to achieve it. In that regard, I believe such Memphis landmarks as the Slave Haven Underground Railroad Museum must be preserved and advertised among the local Black youth and teenagers.
The old Jacob Burkle estate, specifically designed as a haven, a passage to the railroad of freedom for enslaved African Americans, represents the struggles of Black people (Max Newfield). However, the Museum also demonstrates what the courage of a single man who is not afraid to stand against injustice can achieve. Therefore, I believe a trip to Slave Haven would be an inspiring experience for those struggling.
Making the Black youth familiar with live history is highly important due to the power of the visual medium. One can read books or listen to history lessons, but seeing pieces of history with one’s own eyes is undoubtedly more powerful. By showing the youth how Memphis played a significant role in fighting against such a cruel institution as slavery, we hope to ignite the fire of self-esteem in them. Youth should understand that if brutal slavery of the Antebellum South could not break the human spirit, modern-day injustices and toxic environments of disparity and crime can be beaten as well.
Preserving History: Chucalissa Museum
As was established earlier, the flaws of the juvenile justice system do not affect the Black youth of Memphis and Shelby County exclusively. The youth of Native American origin also suffer from disparities in the system. Therefore, the Native American youth of Memphis and Shelby County also need empowering experiences that would make them proud and strong again.
In that regard, Memphis can offer a historical landmark directly connected to the cultural heritage of Native Americans — the Chucalissa Museum. This Native American settlement came into prominence over 1,200 years ago. Chucalissa was a part of a large province with a political center in the modern-day Chickasaw Heritage Park (uofmemphisvideos). As such, Native American youth can take inspiration from the legacy of their ancestors, who had an independent, rich culture.
Spiraling down the path of crime frequently happens when young people do not have a source of positive identity. Consequently, some of them search for respect in a life of crime. Youth try to earn a challenging and intimidating reputation in the eyes of their peers and community, disregarding the danger of losing their lives to the unforgiving justice system. I believe that history education can help to replace a harmful identity based on crime with positive sources of pride and self-respect. Constructing a positive identity on real history is a valid approach to helping the Native and Black youth.
Nature Against Empire: Christian Advocacy for Climate Change Awareness
Raising youth awareness of climate change is another social justice dimension our organization intends to cover within its educational programs. One may claim that climate change is not related to biblical or social justice since it belongs to the fields of economics and environmental stewardship. However, I argue that awareness of climate change and human activities contributing to increased carbon emissions and environmental pollution is closely tied to Christian values.
In particular, understanding climate change encourages sustainable development and moderate consumption of goods. This feature of the climate change agenda is similar to the Christian virtue of temperance. Additionally, teaching temperance to the youth may offset excessive ambition, selfishness, and greed — the personality traits that can tempt one into starting a life of crime.
Certain Christian preachers hold more radical views on the climate change agenda and insist that America must take action to tackle global warming before the situation gets out of control. For example, Ched Myers parallels the current U.S. government and the ancient Kingdom of Egypt (13). The Egyptian Pharaoh sanctioned the oppression of the Jews, thus angering God, who ravaged Egypt with deadly plagues.
Likewise, natural disasters pay America a heavy toll for its hubris and injustice (Myers 14). Myers’ analogy between the Old Testament events and the modern-day United States is overly radical. However, I reckon that Shelby County youth would benefit from learning temperance in the context of sustainability and global climate change.
True Face of the System: Murder of Tyre Nichols by Memphis Police Officers
In the last subsection, I want to underscore the importance of restorative justice as a Christian and socially acceptable alternative to dealings with traditional government-operated institutions, such as police and courts—the restorative perspective of justice views “crime” as a problem rather than an offense. Where the traditional system strives to punish, restorative justice attempts to “make things right” by leading the offender to acceptance of responsibility, repentance, and rehabilitation (Taylor 93). By taking this approach, restorative justice attempts to break the vicious circle, especially if the offense is not dangerous to society. Restorative justice creates a safe and respectful environment for all parties (Marshall 104). This concept aligns with the Christian idea of forgiveness and embraces the principle of fairness and equality from the social justice field.
In contrast, traditional institutions once again demonstrated their inherent violence and harshness. Tyre Nichols, a 29-year-old man beaten to death by five Memphis police officers, was not given a chance to present his case. As Antonio Romanucci, Tyre Nichols’ family lawyer, stated, the officers turned Tyre into a “human piñata” (Rojas et al.). Moreover, all perpetrators were Black, which indicates an even deeper problem than expected systemic racism.
The murder of Tyre Nichols demonstrated to us that Memphis police officers dare to play God, to inflict pain, suffering, and death on those whom they have sworn to protect. Therefore, the biblical and social justice principles require us to help youth avoid incarceration and help them escape the clutches of the brutal system.
Conclusion
In summary, the recent events made me even more determined to pursue the goal of fighting the youth incarceration issue in Memphis and Shelby County. Once again, the system proved itself unreliable, dangerous, and brutal. The Distinguished Gentlemen’s and Lady Pearls Social Club of Memphis intends to create partnerships and alliances with other non-profit organizations in our community to help our youth.
Black and Native American young people, the most vulnerable group of Memphis youth, would benefit from getting familiar with historical examples of their ancestors’ courageous and proud heritage. Temperance and positive social identification should help the youth resist temptations and false promises of crime. Ultimately, our approach is based on biblical principles and modern ideas of social justice. I hope this positive influence will protect youth from taking a path down the slippery slope and facing the judicial system in its current violent and unfair shape.
Works Cited
Akintola, Godwin Olutayo. “Amos’ Call for Social Justice in Amos 5: 21-24: A Model for Prophets in The Apostolic Church LAWNA, Nigeria.” Old Testament Essays, vol. 34, no. 2, 2021, pp. 404-427.
Desai, Shiv R. “Hurt People, Hurt People”: The Trauma of Juvenile Incarceration.” The Urban Review, vol. 51, no. 4, 2019, pp. 638-658.
Holy Bible. The New International Version. Zondervan, 2011.
Marshall, Cristopher D., “Restorative Justice.” ReligionMatters: The Contemporary Relevance of Religion, edited by Paul Babie and Rick Sarre, Springer Nature, 2020, pp. 101–119.
Myers, C. “Nature Against Empire: Exodus Plagues, Climate Crisis, and Heart-Hardness.” Direction, vol. 49, no. 1, 2020, pp. 5-17.
Rojas, Rick, et al. “What We Know About Tyre Nichols’s Lethal Encounter With Memphis Police.” The New York Times, 2023.
“Slave Haven Underground Railroad Museum.” YouTube, uploaded by Max Newfield, 2019.
Taylor, Michael H., “Restorative Justice and Social Justice.” Forgiveness and Restorative Justice: Perspectives fromChristian Theology, edited by Myra H. Blyth, Matthew J. Mills, and Michael H. Taylor, Palgrave Macmillan, 2021, pp. 91–109.
“The University of Memphis Chucalissa Museum and Archaeological Site.” YouTube, uploaded by uofmemphisvideos, 2019.
Why We Do It. Operation Taking Back 901, 2016.