Serge Le Clerc – churches have to be part of the solution

But he puts even more responsibility on churches. “Go find a Christian church that will be Christian,” he said. He talked about a community that had asked him to speak. LeClerc “We, our generation, give our kids and grandkids more than we ever had. They don’t pay rent. They don’t buy their stuff. They have the highest disposable income of any group. And they have become a target market for advertisers, starting at 11. We don’t do anything about it. We raise our kids and our grandkids on TV. Kids have televisions and computers in their rooms. We took our kids’ minds and gave them away. Something is wrong when we let technology abscond with the the role of parents. Take a stand. Do something,” Serge LeClerc, MLA, author, motivational speaker and former drug lord told Foam Lake’s adults following a potluck supper on January 8.

The end result, LeClerc said, is that our kids are making some seriously wrong, life-threatening choices.

He has no time for the solutions that parents are currently using. “You watch them get puke-faced drunk, under age. You say it’s better that they do it in front of you rather than without you. Why don’t you offer them an alternative activity? Why don’t you take a stand? Do something. Give them something that they can do without becoming puke-faced drunk.”

He calls on schools and on churches to be part of the solution.

Kids want a safe place where they can have fun, he said. If you don’t want them in the gravel pits or at bush parties, then offer them an alternative location. Schools, he said, should be open seven nights a week, year around, and if the school board can’t afford it, the community should.

I agreed, on the grounds that the community could find churches that would sponsor teen dances where the kids could dance to their own choice of music. The community approached him again, three months later. He asked about the dances. They had, of course, not happened.

By contrast, he said, Welland, Ontario, tried the idea. Three churches took up the challenge, Friday night dances for junior high, Saturday night for senior high. The kids could dance any way that they wanted, to their own music. There would be no drugs and no alcohol. Anyone caught would be banned for three months. What was the result? Drug use went down and drunk driving went down.

There are many things you can do, said LeClerc. You can’t be silent. In our silence we say nothing. They think they are alone.

Post by:Joan Eyolfson Cadham