Changing a Community Takes Two Generations

It's possible to complete change a community of people in two generations -- for better or worse. But let's not kid ourselves about the level of commitment required. Historic evidence abounds that only the people of God are willing to pour out love and faithful service to a dying community for the length of time needed.

Consider this example of the Irish community turnaround in New York City, as described by Larry Elder:

Consider the mid-1800s, and the plight of New York City's Irish underclass.
According to William J. Stern, writing in The Wall Street Journal, "One hundred
fifty years ago, Manhattan's tens of thousands of Irish seemed mired in poverty
and ignorance, destroying themselves through drink, idleness, violence crime and
illegitimacy. . . . An estimated 50,000 Irish prostitutes worked the city in
1850. . . . Illegitimacy soared, tens of thousands of abandoned Irish kids
roamed the city's streets. Violent Irish gangs fought each other . . . but
primarily they robbed houses and small businesses. More than half the people
arrested in New York in the 1840s and 1850s were Irish. . . .
"
Disgusted by government "charity," Bishop John Joseph Hughes led
movements to form non-government-aided Catholic schools and numerous self-help
programs. He promoted abstinence and the belief that sex outside of marriage was
a sin. His diocese's nuns served as an employment agency for Irish domestics and
encouraged women to run boarding houses. What happened? Within two generations,
"the Irish proportion of arrests for violent crime had dropped to less than 10
percent from 60 percent. Irish children were entering . . . the professions,
politics, show business and commerce. In 1890, some 30 percent of the city's
teachers were Irish women, and the Irish literacy rate exceeded 90 percent."

Hope, Faith, and Love, men.