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" I don't save people. God saves people. I can point them in the right direction. I can say, 'There's that door. I think if you walked through it, you'd be happier than you are.' "
Greg Boyle
Think
God
People
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" I work with gang members, and I feel a kind of affinity and gift, even. But who would've thunk it, you know? I mean, I didn't anticipate it. "
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" So complex are all the ingredients that cause gang membership that it seems virtually impossible to isolate one solution that can address them all and thereby manufacture a hope for the future upon which these kids can rely. "
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" You are so much more than the worst thing you've ever done. "
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" I would hope that government officials have a healthy respect for the complexity of the gang problem. They should never lose sight of the fact that there are human beings involved. There is no single solution. "
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" You prevent kids from joining gangs by offering after-school programs, sports, mentoring, and positive engagement with adults. You intervene with gang members by offering alternatives and employment to help redirect their lives. You deal with areas of high gang crime activity with real community policing. We know what works. "
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" Our best selves tell us that 'there but for the grace of God... ' and that, in the end, there is no distance, really, between us and them. It is just us. Our best and noble hope is to imitate the God we believe in. The God who has abundant room in God's grief and heart for us all. "
Greg Boyle
Hope
Heart
Grief
" Don't forget, you are the hero of your own story. "
Greg Boyle
Forget
Your
You
" No kid is seeking anything when he joins a gang; he's always fleeing something. He's not being pulled; he's being pushed by the circumstances in which he finds himself. "
Greg Boyle
Always
He
Kid
" We don't need a specialized gang unit. We need patrol officers who specialize in knowing their community. "
Greg Boyle
Need
Who
Knowing
" I have a lot of people in my life, and I think there's something key: the thing that leads to intimacy and relationship and connection is tenderness. "
Greg Boyle
Relationship
People
Key
" Relapse happens, especially when you're dealing with folks who are frankly the least likely to succeed based on their own pasts and difficulties. We can work with the most likely to succeed. I'm not interested in that. "
Greg Boyle
Own
You
Succeed
" It has become an accepted tenet that kids will rarely listen to their parents but seldom fail to imitate them. Communicating the message has never been a good substitute for 'showing up' and embodying the message. "
Greg Boyle
Never
Parents
Showing Up
" The wrong idea has taken root in the world. And the idea is this: there just might be lives out there that matter less than other lives. "
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World
Wrong
Out
" The poor evangelize you about what's important and what is the Gospel, and that that's where the joy is. "
Greg Boyle
You
Important
Where
" You are exactly what God had in mind when he made you. "
Greg Boyle
God
Exactly
Made
" The mark of our society as civilized will come when we embrace confidence in the power of redemption. "
Greg Boyle
Society
Power
Confidence
" The power of community policing is in the relationship. This can happen only if an officer sticks around for a while. "
Greg Boyle
Community
Happen
Power
" What is ultimately compelling for our children in helping them conjure images of a future for themselves is our willingness to walk with them as they do it. "
Greg Boyle
Future
Children
Our
" I didn't take my vows to the LAPD. "
Greg Boyle
Vows
Take
" As a society, we come up lacking in many of the marks of compassion and wisdom by which we measure ourselves as civilized. "
Greg Boyle
Measure
Wisdom
Society
" At its best, an injunction creates a kind of vigilant heat that moves kids toward the light. "
Greg Boyle
Vigilant
Light
Best
" There is no such thing as a bad cop, only disturbing and dominant cop thinking that will invariably lead to excessive force and tragic outcomes. "
Greg Boyle
Bad
Only
Thinking
" The desire of God's heart is immeasurably larger than our imaginations can conjure. "
Greg Boyle
Larger
Than
Desire
" You can't reason with gang violence: you can't talk to it, sit it at the table, and negotiate with it. "
Greg Boyle
Gang
Table
Reason
" We are among the handful of countries that has difficulty distinguishing juveniles from adults where crime is concerned. We are convinced that if a child commits an adult crime, that kid is magically transformed into an adult. Consequently, we try juveniles as adults. "
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Kid
Child
Difficulty
" I spent the summers of 1984 and 1985 as an associate pastor at Dolores Mission Church, the poorest parish in the Los Angeles archdiocese. In 1986, I became pastor of the church. "
Greg Boyle
Mission
Los Angeles
Church
" Jesus did not only serve the needs of the people, but truly hoped that the people and Jesus would be one. "
Greg Boyle
Needs
Did
Serve
" The powers, conditions, and desires that propel Mexicans and Central Americans into this country are so fundamental, so vast, that no action, legislative or other-wise, can discourage this flight. "
Greg Boyle
Action
Flight
Vast
" I'm the priest who has been mistaken for an ATM machine. "
Greg Boyle
Mistaken
Priest
Been
" I wouldn't trade my life for anybody's. "
Greg Boyle
Trade
Life
Anybody