Education and the City

One of the most broken things about our city is the public education system. It has one of the lowest test scores in the country and varying reports have over fifty percent of those who enter into the system dropping out. The problem is compounded by the budget crisis. This coming year we’ll have less teachers, larger class sizes and no summer school for students below High School. It’s no wonder that many parents are opting to either 1) move to the suburbs where the public school system fares much better or 2) go to an expensive private school.

But as Christians we’re called into the city. What does this mean in the realm of education? I see three possibilities here:

1) Help reform the system

This would mean placing your children into the education system and working for change. But one of the problems I see with this is that the LAUSD is simply too massive to seemingly tackle. We’re dealing with a powerful board, unions and tenured teachers. If this were to happen it could only happen on a really massive scale of concerned parents bringing change from the grass-roots. I’m also not sure how many parents would be willing to place their children in a system when change dangles on a string.

2) Begin a Private Christian School

This would seem like a good alternative. There are enough excellent Christian teachers in Los Angeles to bring together a really excellent teaching staff. What greater testimony would there be when one of the highest performing schools in the country is in the middle of the city, diverse and Christian. It would have great Christian values, high academic standards and really engage the city. But the big problem with this is capital. Where would the capital to start the school come from? Land is massively expensive in the city. If you wanted diversity, you would also need to offer a lot of scholerships for underserved people in the city. The only way I see this happening is a massive financial push from churches in the city, parents and donors. This could take a while.

3) Begin a Secular Charter School

The third alternative would be to begin a charter school in downtown. A charter school would take public money which would eliminate the capital problem. On the downside, it would have to be completly secular in order to take public funds. But there still can be a lot of translatable values in education, ethics and love for the city. It would also appeal to a broader demographic of people and be theoretically open for every child in the city. This to me seems like the most practical choice right now.

What are your thoughts on this issue? What people do you know that can begin the push to make this a reality?

Filed under: Education

Los Angeles: the Racially Divided City

When you think about Los Angeles it’s astoundingly divided among racial lines. The city can almost be defined along racial boundaries. There is South Los Angeles which is historically black. There is East Los Angeles which is primarily hispanic. There is West Los Angeles which is largely white and Jewish. Within miles the city has a multitude of ethnic enclaves as Koreatown, Little Armenia, Little Tokyo, and Filipinotown. But beyond the diversity lies a history of racial tension and division.

One of the great wake-up calls for racial tension was the race riots in 1992 after the acquittal of the police officers responsible for the assault on Rodney King. Estimates of damages range from 800 million to a billion dollars. Many of the Korean American stores were targeted during the riots. The riots brought national attention to the tangled racial tensions in Los Angeles.

But 17 years later not a lot of dialogue and reconcilliation has happened. There continues to be tension amongst Hispanics and African Americans in the growing turf wars in what was once predominately black areas. Korean-American have largely left South Los Angeles but continue to hire many Hispanic workers for their businesses. Meanwhile people in the upper-middle class have fled to the suburbs which although is in some sense ethnically diverse, are often economically homogenous.

One of the questions that I continually ask myself is, “What is the churches role in bringing racial reconciliation?” When you think about the four main ethnicities that are entangled: (African American, Hispanic, Korean-American and White) they are all parts of communities that are heavily faith-based. Shouldn’t the church model racial reconcilliation both within the church and between churches? What would that look like? What community projects could be done between churches seeking to bring needed peace?

Wouldn’t it be an epic testimony for the church, the Bride of Christ, to show an unbelieving world the peace that faith can bring?

Blessed are the peacemakers for they shall be called sons of God. Matthew 5:9

Filed under: Uncategorized

Confessions of a Laker-Hater

I must admit that I’m a Laker-hater. My Lakers hate was cultivated in the fertile soil of Northern California. I grew up chanting, “Beat LA!”

My Laker-hate is particularly painful because I live right across the street from the Staples Center – ground-Zero for Lakers hysteria. All last night I hear cars honking, police sirens and random screams of glee. Those sounds of glee later gave way to a bit of violence around downtown. Luckily our building was surrounded by the SWAT team.

You might say it’s a contradiction to not like the Lakers since I love Los Angeles. But by that argument shouldn’t we all be Clippers fans? So here are a few reasons why I hate the Lakers:

1) They’re no fun to watch. The triangle offense is great in theory but not a whole lot of fun to watch.

2) Ain’t no joy on this team. No real smiles, no real sense in which the players are pulling for each other.

3) Kobe Bryant. The man got game but where is the charisma, joy and approachability?

Even though I’m forever a Golden State Warriors Fan, as a now Angeleno I will commit to rooting for the Lakers once the above three are fixed. But in the meantime my compromise is to support the Clippers. Hey they play in the same stadium across the street from me. And they also have the #1 pick this year. But even the greatest optimist isn’t really feeling the Clippers these days.

God told me to love my enemies but He also told me to love the truth. So I guess this one ends in a tie.

Filed under: Sports

Bitter-sweet

My favorite poet of all time is George Herbert. He’s moved me and encouraged me time and again. One of my favorite poems is entitled, “Bitter-sweet.” It exemplifies his ability to seek to capture the range of human experiences and emotions as someone seeks to encounter the living God.

Ah, my dear angry Lord,
Since thou dost love, yet strike;
Cast down, yet help afford;
Sure I will do the like.

I will complain, yet praise;
I will bewail, approve;
And all my sour-sweet days
I will lament and love.

Filed under: Poetry

Passion and Purity

I’m working on a semon this week about sexual purity. It seems like there is no more relevant message today than Jesus’ call to purity. I think it’s such an important issue because lust threatens to keep us from truly seeing and experiencing the wonder of the gospel. Blessed are the pure in heart for they shall see God (Matthew 5:8).

John Piper, Future Grace
We must fight fire with fire. The fire of lusts’ pleasure must be fought with the fire of God’s pleasures. If we try to fight the fire of lust with prohibitions and threats alone – even the terrible warnings of Jesus –we will fail. We must fight it with the massive promise of superior happiness. We must swallow up the little flicker of lust’s pleasure in the conflagration of holy satisfaction.

Dr. Al Mohler
Men are tempted to give themselves to pornography – women are tempted to commit pornography. If a couple is driving down the street and they both see a seductive advertisement, they can both be tempted to lust but in different ways. The man might be tempted toward sexual pleasure with the woman in the ad. But women want to look like the woman in the ad because we know men want that.

Filed under: Sermon

60 Days Before God’s Face

At our church we’re going to be reading through the New Testament in 60 Days. So many people base their Christian walk on:

- Their feelings

- Christian books

- Advice of other Christians

But often we negelect the very words of God Himself. So for sixty days we’re going to seek to saturate ourselves in God’s word and prayer. We’re going to be doing in not as individuals but as a community. We hope to enhance this experience by sharing our thoughts, prayers and experiences on the City Light Church Facebook page. I’ll also be twittering at twitter.com/denniskang along the way. If you want to follow us log onto our website at citylightchurch.org or Facebook page.

Filed under: Bible

Consumption: New, Better and Faster

Here’s a quote from Victor LeBeau, a retail anaylst following the economic boom after WWII:

“Our enormously productive economy… demands that we make consumption our way of life, that we convert the buying and use of goods into rituals, that we seek our spiritual satisfaction, our ego satisfaction, in consumption… We need things consumed, burned up, replaced and discarded at an ever-accelerating rate”.

Filed under: Technology