PROFILE May 30, 1988 Issue

"Our Father" heals gang animosity

Paul Douglas White with contributions from Felix Mendoza, Lucilo Chavez, Wally Powvall

Youth gang wars tend to make headlines. But gangs and the hostility that usually accompany them start small, out of the limelight—with individuals and in individual thought.

Paul Douglas White is a Christian Scientist whose job as a public-school administrator in southern California has necessitated his dealing with student gangs. The special story he shared in the Profile that follows shows that gangs of kids don't have to spell trouble—to each other or to a school system. It also reminds us of how effective humble, unadorned prayer is.

The atmosphere in my school office that afternoon was angry, tense, potentially violent, and I felt at a loss as to what to do. Before me sat four young men, representing the leadership of the two gangs on our campus who had had repeated flare-ups with each other since the school year had begun.

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