Two who were in gangs bring a biblical message

By Kristin E. Holmes

Inquirer Staff Writer

Marlin Henderson and Lawrence Stone wore rival gang colors on the streets of Tacoma, Wash. Henderson was a Crip; Stone was a Blood.

They represented two violent street families, coalitions that they say gave disciples a feeling of power and the ego gratification that went with it.

"I had a built-in group of people who supported my concepts and ideas," Stone said. "I was never wrong."

Back then, Stone says, no minister could preach him out of a gang, even though Stone and his partner Henderson now use words in much the same way.

Together they are Psalms 7, a Holy Hip-Hop group named for the biblical book of songs and chants, along with the number that symbolizes completeness. Henderson, known as "Scripture," and Stone, called "L.A.," brought their ministry to the area last week as part of a convention held at the Historical Macedonia African Methodist Episcopal Church in Camden.

The weekend Church School Convention for youth was hosted by 24 congregations in the Camden-Trenton district of the A.M.E. Church. Psalms 7 was the headliner at an outdoor concert in Macedonia's parking lot, one in a series of activities responding to increased gang activity in the area, said the Rev. Mark K. Tyler, the church's pastor.

"It's about prevention for young people who are on the right track and feeling the pressure to join a gang and correction for young people who have gotten on the wrong track. This is an opportunity to hear a positive message," Tyler said.

The three-day conference also included visit by Psalms 7 to the Camden County Jail and a special Father's Day program at the Historical Macedonia Church.

The event was held at a time when gang activity is making news and prompting increased concern in the community.

"The clergy have got to be the moral voice in all of this," said the Rev. J. Stanley Justice, pastor of Mount Zion A.M.E. Church in Trenton.

Trenton gang violence had earlier spilled over into Bucks County, making headlines when Truman High School senior class president Tyrone Lewis was forced to deliver his graduation-day speech via video. Lewis was barred from attending his graduation because of death threats against him by gang members angry over the involvement of Lewis' sister in a gang-related shooting. In April, Tyrone Lewis' classmate was shot and paralyzed while in a car with Lewis. Last week, violence and death threats in Trenton led to a peace demonstration in the city.

"If a brother of mine would have been in that situation, he would have walked across that stage," Stone said of Lewis.

Years ago, Stone and Henderson experienced firsthand the gang violence that experts say is on the upswing in cities and suburbs. As the two men grew up, there were economic challenges, issues of substance abuse and spousal abuse at home, but religion was by no means absent.

Both men grew up in households where faith played a major role, but it eventually repelled one man, and spawned resentment in the other.

Henderson was raised by staunchly religious grandparents who made him go to church. He rebelled - and left it. Stone's mother became a devout Jehovah's Witness, but Stone called that an out.

"I felt like it took her away from the family," Stone said. "When she was beaten by some of her boyfriends, she had an escape, but we didn't."

Eventually, both men chose to join a gang. Stone was on his way to major in education at college when he discovered that he could make thousands by selling crack cocaine. Henderson had family members who were Crips and a sister who dated them.

"Growing up in L.A. in the '80s, gangs were just a normal thing," Henderson said. "I lived in a Crip neighborhood. They were just people in the neighborhood."

When his family moved to Washington state, a cousin who was a Crip soon followed, and Henderson became a gang member in earnest.

"It gave me an identity, and an outlet for my anger," Henderson said.

Both men were involved in gang violence including robberies and shootings. They served time in prison. All the while, both say they believed in God.

"I believed, but I didn't believe we were placed here for a purpose," Henderson said. "God is God, but gang-banging is a way of life. Right and wrong were relative."

"I believed in God," Stone said, "but never knew about the power of spiritual gifts," which he characterized as "some of the instincts" that helped save his life repeatedly.

The turning point for Stone came in prison with the help and mentorship of a Christian inmate who didn't pound him with the Gospel, Stone said, but just "showed love." For Henderson, his transformation began after the stabbing of his younger brother for something that Henderson had done.

"I felt like I was the one who should have been stabbed," Henderson. "He was just trying to live like I was living."

Today, Henderson is a youth minister at St. John Baptist church in Tacoma. Stone is a founder of a youth mentorship outreach called the Big Homie program. The two members of Psalms 7 met five years ago while both worked in youth outreach with the World Vision Christian relief organization. Their new CD is called The Water Walk.

They still see their friends in the gang, hoping to provide what they describe as the kind of nonjudgmental connection that made the difference for Stone in prison.

"There is that mind-set that folk have to come on their own time," said Justice, the Trenton pastor, "but the caveat is that a lot of these kids' lives are being cut short. We can't wait until they come to us. We have to go to them."

http:www.philly.com/mld/inquirer/living/religion/14890570.htm