Why this book: I’d heard about it from several people, and then my friend Peter Rae strongly recommended it, so I pushed it to the top of my reading list.

Summary in 3 Sentences:  A jesuit priest, Greg Boyle – known as G, or G-dog by the gangbangers – lived in the gangland of East LA, and became a trusted and neutral observer of all the tensions and killings and violence taking place where he lived. He started out as the priest for Dolores Missions  and then went on to found Homeboy Industries to create jobs and a means for gang members to transition into making a living and becoming contributing members of society. This book is his story about his interactions with young, mostly hispanic men, women, teenagers from the world of gang violence in LA and how his unconditional love made a difference – while also it was inadequate to stop the killing of so many of those he was helloing.

My impressions: This is a powerful book by a man with more genuine courage, compassion and love than almost anyone I’ve ever heard or read about.  It is a spiritual book, it is a Christian book, but it doesn’t demand that you be a Christian or even to believe in God to recognize the wonder of love and a spiritual acceptance of people as they are.

It is often a sad book, as Father Greg is routinely called upon to speak at the funerals of young men and women he had worked with, and who were on the cusp of breaking out of the gang life and taking steps to become contributing members of society.   They were killed sometimes by stray bullets, sometimes by being in the wrong place at the wrong time, sometimes targeted by “enemy” gangs.  What in my neighborhood would be a rare and well publicized tragedy was (is?) routine in the world that Father Greg Boyle describes in Tatoos on the Heart.

By the end of the book, as he was telling an uplifting story about a young person who was committed to making sincere effort to break out and become a working adult, my heart would sink.  So often in this book, the end of that promising story was a sudden and untimely death by a bullet. And Father Greg himself broken hearted, would console a grieving mother and friends. And then he would  preside at the young person’s funeral. Sometime several a month.  Fathers were rarely part of the picture, and when so, not as positive role models.

Tattoos on the Heart is full of humor.  Father G tells stories about young men and women who only know the violent gang world of “live and let die” in the ghetto,  and are then exposed to the more orderly and predictable reality that I and most of you live in.   Those who were drawn to G-dog decided they knew that life offered something more than what they had experienced, and that maybe they could get it, but sometimes the transition to “polite society” could be  a bit awkward and funny.   He tells the story of a young man who, trying anew to get his high school degree, excitedly tells G, “On Monday we’re going to digest a frog!” With a  smile, Father G corrects him with  “dissect a frog.”  Response: “Yeah, well, whatever …Monday we’re fuckin’ with a frog.”

Or when he’s in a detention facility, they are reading the Eucharist, reading a letter of Paul to the “Phillipinos” or in  Acts of the Apostles they substitute a word they know – “genitals” for one they don’t – “Gentiles.”  Father G suggests “Go to the Acts of the Apostles, and substitute ‘genitals’ wherever you find ‘Gentiles.’  It livens up the book as never before.”

His chapter entitled “Success” was particularly meaningful to me.  He was constantly seeking donations to help build, sustain and improve Homeboy industries, and he was routinely asked for proof that his effort “worked,” and was told  “we don’t fund efforts, we fund outcomes.” While he recognized that this is the practical, hard-nosed, and clear eyed approach business must often take, he didn’t think it addressed the primary issue.  “If our primary concern is results, we will choose to work only with those who give us good ones” and not spend time with those who may most need help. He said a results-oriented approach would demand that he work primarily with “the well behaved and the most likely to succeed… and sidestep the difficult and belligerent and eventually abandon ‘the slow work of God.’  (p 178-79)

With all the violence and killing in the stories that Father G tells, it is ultimately a very upbeat book. When he believes in these young people, when he shows that he believes in them, by trusting them and giving them a chance,  they begin to believe in themselves.  And though he is often disappointed by those who are not ready to be trusted, or to accept love and trust, he continues to believe in them.   He notes the “the principal suffering of the poor is shame and disgrace.”  His acceptance of  and belief in them begins to break that stranglehold on their character.   He doesn’t judge – and they know he’s there when they’re ready to make a move – and he goes out on a limb to give them a chance, then another chance, and when they fail at that one, if they’re clearly sincere, and sincerely trying, he’ll give them all the chances they need.

Father Greg Boyles book is humbling to me and most of the rest of us.  Where are we making that kind of difference in the lives of people who REALLY need help, assistance, and love?