Church outreach programs targeting Hispanic gangs, says speaker

Published: 2005-12-20

WASHINGTON (CNS) -- Catholic and evangelical outreach programs to Hispanic youths are increasingly focusing on gang members, and their efforts involve forming an alternative subculture that can attract teenagers, said Gaston Espinosa, an expert in Hispanic population trends. This includes sponsoring pop music with an anti-gang, Christian message and social programs that try to wean youths from gang activity, said Espinosa, assistant religious studies professor at Claremont McKenna College in Claremont, Calif. Church people "are creating an alternative pop subculture that (gang members) can convert to and stay clean," he said at a Dec. 12 seminar for journalists on Hispanic trends. Although there is overlap, evangelical groups are strong on developing pop music and Catholics are strong on social outreach, he said. Espinosa is the research director for the Hispanic Churches and American Public Life Project, an ecumenically sponsored three-year survey of almost 3,000 Hispanics nationwide to determine the influence of religion on their personal and public lives.

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