Patrick Oetting, a graduate of Bethel College from Fort Wayne, works with the PovertyCure Initiative of the Acton Institute. His group’s mission is “to ground our common battle against global poverty in a proper understanding of the human person and society, and to encourage solutions that foster opportunity and unleash the entrepreneurial spirit.” This is adapted from the cover article of the current issue of The Indiana Policy Review.

“Your Life Matters,” organized to help young Black men in Indianapolis, will be concluding its 18-month plan of action coincidental to the November 2016 elections. Since the project is likely to become part of the political discussion, it is important to look beyond the good intentions to the details, beginning with the group’s report to Mayor Greg Ballard.

An opening line raises expectations. It provides a clear and unarguable statement of what happens in a young man’s life in the absence of strong mentors: “The consistent, enduring presence of a caring adult in a young persons life can be the difference between staying in school or dropping out, making healthy decisions or engaging in risky behaviors, and realizing one’s potential or failing to achieve one’s dreams.”

The report, though, does not go on to explain the fundamental reasons why this is important. More troubling, it does not recognize the potential of the religious community in Indianapolis. For policies ostensibly constructed to help young men that have their focus outside that community will miss their mark. 

A former mayor of Indianapolis had something to say about that: “Only hardened skeptics have trouble accepting that widespread belief in a Supreme Being improves the strength and health of our communities,” Steve Goldsmith told the Indiana Policy Review during his tenure.

Ditto for Robert Putnam, who makes the point in his best-selling non-fiction work, Bowling Alone: The Collapse and Revival of American Community:  "Religious worshipers and people who say religion is important to them are much more likely than other persons to visit friends, to entertain at home, to attend club meetings, and to belong to sports groups; professional and academic societies; school service groups; youth groups; service clubs . . ."

More recently, the spring issue of the American Journal of Epidemiology reports that researchers at the London School of Economics found that joining a religious group could do more for someone’s “sustained happiness” than other forms of social participation.

If, as both research and common sense tell us, religion can play a role in community development and involvement, why does the report treat it so lightly? And specifically, why is there little room for established Indianapolis churches in a plan to help young Black men there? 

This spring, the Indianapolis Star, which signed on early as a contributor to the project, published the editorial, "Helping Indy's Young Black Males Requires Citywide Effort." It was meant to inspire more readers to become mentors and attract more funding to support the mentoring programs recommended by the report.

It missed the point. Indianapolis doesn’t need to raise money to encourage mentorship; the mentors already exist. A quick Internet search finds 515 Christian churches in the Indianapolis area. Add non-Christian or Jewish places of worship and the number could be closer to 600. 

What does Indianapolis need? For starters, it needs increased involvement by Black male youth in the existing religious community. It is a difficult objective, to be sure, but the churches are where the mentors are, many of them expert at guiding young men out of the urban malaise. 

The sociologist and former Peace Corps volunteer Charles Murray joins the others in arguing for more church involvement in poverty programs, not another mayoral task force. He cites research that 49 percent of Caucasian families, rich or poor, who attend worship services say they are happy. That compares with only 23 percent who never attended worship services. 

Why would that be any different for Black families?

The historical intractability of the problem, the shallowness of the plan, the front-end promotion and the suspicious timing all give pause. Whether it was the result of careless analysis or animus, the omission of a faith-based strategy hobbles the YLM plan of action and poorly serves its more than 130 supporting organizations. 

Let’s hope for the sake of the Black youth of Indianapolis that after these 18 months this does not turn out to have been just another political pose