Dan Roth - Pastor of Disaster

Praying this morning, my heart was suddenly weighed down by the memories of those children who have been killed in our neighborhood.

Anybody who knows me, or who knows our church, knows the high value I place on youth and children. I do so because Jesus did the same thing. I also do it because they keep me young at heart, and makes life a lot more fun.

Yet today it wasn't those kids in our afterschool programs, nor the kids in our youth group, nor the kids in confirmation class, nor the kids in Sunday morning worship and Team Time which fell into my heart. It's those teens who have been murdered who weigh so heavily on me.

Not so long after I came here, I participated in the funeral mass for Jason Sweeney. The brutality of his death hit this nieghborhood and this city right in the face. The murder and its trial brought nationwide headlines. And my heart broke even more to know that he, and some of those who murdered him, had been involved in Siloam's ministries as younger children.

Not too much longer after that, I was asked to bring a message and a prayer at a candlelight vigil for Nicole Reilly. Killed by strangulation under unkown circumstances, her body was found in an empty lot across from a brewery. Whoever killed her still runs free, and I suppose her death is considered a cold case by now. Her funeral was an overflow of family, friends, schoolmates, and neighbors in the now too-familiar "In Memory Of" t-shirts.

And recently we were all shocked by the killing of Ashley Burg. For the last few years she lived during the week with family in New Jersey, but she was still a Fishtown girl who lived here on weekends and during school holidays. The death itself didn't occur in Fishtown, but who can help but be overwhelmed by the allegations of a 17-year-old manipulated into prostitution, overdosed by her very first 'customer'? Perhaps this won't actually be ruled a murder, but it is a killing nonetheless.

We live in a neighborhood where the biggest annual event is named after a teen who was killed in a street fight. There are still flyers all over looking for information on the murder of an older teen killed while walking home late night. Youth and young adults regularly die of drug overdoses, often from drugs given or sold to them by their own friend, family member, or neighbor.

How long, oh Lord, how long?