By Jerald and Sandra Tanner

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On April 23, 1971, the Salt Lake Tribune printed this statement: “Utah is ranked among the five states in the country with the worst drug abuse problems on a per capita basis, a national authority on drug abuse and treatment said there Thursday.”

[Bold in quotations is added for emphasis and does not appear in originals.]

The drug situation in Utah as well as in other parts of the country certainly points to the fact that there is a spiritual problem in America today. We feel, however, that the Lord is able to deal with this problem. In an earlier issue of the Messenger we discussed the conversion of Tom Skinner. The reader may remember that Tom Skinner grew up in Harlem and became the leader of “the Harlem Lords” — a gang of over 100 men. He had “led the fellows in more than fifteen large scale gang fights.” In his book Black and Free he states that he “had twenty-two notches on the handle of my knife which meant that my blade had gone into twenty-two fellows.” One night Skinner was “preparing strategy for a gang fight.” This was to be “the largest gang rumble ever to take place in the city of New York.” Five gangs “were going to unite together to fight a coalition of gangs from the other side of the city.” Over “3,000 fellows” were to be involved in this fight. While planning this gang war, Tom Skinner was listening to a rock and roll program on the radio. At nine o’clock that night an “unscheduled gospel program came on.” That night Tom Skinner decided to leave the gang and become a Christian. He states:

For the first time in my life I took a good look at Tom Skinner. Not so much what Tom Skinner had done—the money I’d stolen, the fact that there were fellows who were going to bear permanent bodily injury for the rest of their lives because of me and the gang fights I’d led. But I began to think of what I had become, arrogant, proud, bigoted, hateful. I was as bigoted as any white racist. (Black and Free, page 57)

. . . that particular night I came to Jesus Christ. Because God can’t lie, Jesus Christ actually took up residence in my life and began to live in me, and He’s been living there ever since.

It’s been the most thrilling, the most adventurous life I believe a person could ever live. I’ve had the privilege of actually having the God of heaven and earth live inside me. . . .

I turned the radio off and began to think about the wonder of this new life—and was confronted with a reminder of the old Tom Skinner.

There in front of me were the plans for the rumble. Here was a dilemma! (Ibid., page 64)

You don’t just walk up to a gang of fellows that you’ve been leading around for two years in rioting, looting, fighting and law-breaking and say, “Well, guys, it’s been nice knowing you. So long.”

No one quits a gang. In fact, just two weeks before I had personally broken the arms and legs of two fellows who told me they were going to quit. And these fellows got off easy. . . .

The preacher signed off the air that night by saying that the promise of God to any person who receives Christ is that He will never leave you nor forsake you. He quoted a passage from the Bible that went like this: “Jesus says, Lo I am with you always, even unto the end of the world.”

That’s all I had to protect myself as I walked to the meeting place of the Harlem Lords—just a promise of God.

I moved into the smoky room and walked to the front. There were 129 fellows in that room. Every one of them carried a knife. Some had guns—and none of them had any reservations about using their weapons. . . .

I motioned for silence and began to speak. I told of the broadcast—how the speaker had given me insight to truth I’d never heard before. I told them that I was convinced Jesus Christ had died for all the sins I’d ever committed, and had given me ever-lasting life.

“Last night, I asked Him to come inside me and live in me. And He answered me,” I said.

All the time I was talking, I could see the number two man in the gang. His nickname was “The Mop.” We call him “The Mop” because whenever there was a gang fight, this fellow wasn’t happy unless he drew blood from someone and wiped his foot in it. I knew “The Mop” wanted to be number one man. He would term my telling them that I had committed my life to Jesus Christ as a sign of weakness. And he would relish the opportunity to put his knife between my ribs or across my throat.

I forced myself to finish without weakening. . . .

You could have heard a pin drop. No one spoke. No one even moved. I walked down the aisle and out into the night air, half expecting a knife to come tearing into my back or a bullet to dig into my flesh. But nothing! I walked out without one person raising a hand against me.

I nearly shouted my thankfulness to God.

Two nights later I saw “The Mop” on the street. He motioned to me and said, “Tom, I wanna talk to you.”

We stopped and he grinned. “You know,” he said, “the other night when you got up and walked out of that meeting I was gonna really cut you up. I was all set to put my knife right in your back.”

“And why didn’t you?”

“I couldn’t move,” he said, his eyes growing wider. “It was like somebody was holding me back—like I was glued to my seat!”

He licked his lips and continued. “And I talked to some of the other guys, too. I wasn’t the only one. They said the same thing—that something, or somebody, actually held them back in their seats.”

Now my eyes widened and I felt the hair on the back of my neck rise.

“What d’ya make of it Tom?” he asked.

“I know that the Christ I’ve committed myself to isn’t just some fictitious character who lived two thousand years ago . . . some nebulous spirit floating around in the air somewhere. I know now that Jesus Christ is alive! He’s real! . . .”

The toughness was gone from my former associate in crime. I turned to “The Mop” and asked, “Would you like to know who that ‘Somebody’ was who kept you glued to your seat!”

He nodded.

Standing on 153rd Street and McCombs Place—two blocks from the Polo Grounds—an ex-gang leader, a Christian less than 48 hours, led another gang member to Christ. Apart from the thrill of my own commitment to Christ, I can’t think of any other experience as thrilling as introducing “The Mop” to Jesus Christ.

“The Mop” has since graduated from law school and has entered one of the largest law firms in the city of New York, proof that Jesus Christ transforms the whole individual. (Ibid., pages 65-67)

Many people believe that Christianity has failed, J. B. Phillips, however made this observation:

How many people, what proportion of people, do you suppose have ever tried to take the teaching of Jesus Christ seriously in any century? Your guess is as good as mine; but I should seriously doubt it’s ever been much more than a very small percentage. Most people, even if you can get them to take the trouble to learn what Jesus Christ really said, did and taught, don’t do anything about it. So how can you be surprised that the result seems so poor? I don’t believe that Christianity, the real thing, has ever failed, but I am certain that it hasn’t been given a fair chance to work, by most people. It’s so much easier to go your own sweet way and say that Christianity is a beautiful ideal since a great many people take the line of least resistance, that’s just what’s happened. The results are written all over the world. But don’t blame Christianity, blame people—you might even blame yourself. (Plain Christianity, page 66)

We thoroughly agree with J. B. Phillips. The gospel of Christ worked for us. It changed our lives, and we believe that it will do the same for anyone who will try it. It does not matter what we have done in the past; God stands ready to forgive us.

Come now, and let us reason together, saith the Lord: though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool.
(Isaiah 1:18)

As we indicated in our last Messenger, we are working on a full size book on Christianity and hope to have it published in the near future.

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