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Tattoos On The Heart

The document summarizes the book "Tattoos on the Heart" by Gregory Boyle. It discusses how Boyle founded Homeboy Industries to provide jobs and support to former gang members. Boyle believes the solution to crime is kinship and showing unconditional love. He strives to make everyone feel respected and loved through his compassion. The document also explores how Boyle helped one man named Lencho after he was released from prison, providing both employment and emotional support.

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378 views4 pages

Tattoos On The Heart

The document summarizes the book "Tattoos on the Heart" by Gregory Boyle. It discusses how Boyle founded Homeboy Industries to provide jobs and support to former gang members. Boyle believes the solution to crime is kinship and showing unconditional love. He strives to make everyone feel respected and loved through his compassion. The document also explores how Boyle helped one man named Lencho after he was released from prison, providing both employment and emotional support.

Uploaded by

PM Writers
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Tattoos on The Heart by Gregory Boyle: The Parables of Faith

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Tattoos on The Heart by Gregory Boyle: The Parables of Faith

The story of Homeboy Factories and the priest, whose goodness entered a community

infested by gangs, brought about change, respect, and awesome t-shirts. Tattoos on the Heart is a

collection of parables from the preacher, activist, and well-known speaker, Father Gregory

Boyle, about kinship and salvation. Mother Teresa said once that people forget that we belonged

to each other. Boyle implies that kinship, redemption, compassion, and mercy are the reverse of

this phase of forgetting: remembering our shared humanity and our love for each other. Boyle

gave away thousands of his personal cards to members of the gang about to go to court. He still

tells them the same thing, and when they're out, give him a call, and he'll remove their tattoos

and give them a job.


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Tattoos on The Heart by Gregory Boyle: The Parables of Faith

Boyle grew up with plenty of brothers and sisters in a huge home. He and his siblings

would listen to an old toy phonograph that would play a lyrical tune, Long lay the world pining

in sin and error until He appeared and the soul felt its worth. The song is also thought about by

Boyle, and what it means about the importance of kinship. People have to know we belong to

each other. The song implies that before God makes the soul realize its own value, the soul will

live in a state of sin. In other words, one will not be a good person until one understands one's

own worth, an act that is only possible through faith in God, according to Christianity. But the

song also indicates that people ought to treat each other with dignity, too, reminding each other

of their worth and improving their relationship with God.

According to Greg Boyle, the solution to crime is no penalty. Essentially, the answer is

kinship. The single thing that mattered to Jesus was radical kinship. The lesson of this kinship

is that we belong to each other, and we are one. Father Boyle stresses in his books and

speaking, engagements that no one is less than someone else. He peppers his theory with

comedic and emotional anecdotes about former gang members he has experienced with God

through Homeboys. The tales extend the circle, widening the concept of who belongs to the

group so that, eventually, everyone is part of the group, and no one is left outside. Boyle

remembers a teenager named Louie. Louie has just been released from prison, and he's ready

to have his tattoos off. Boyle is the first person he's seen since leaving prison, Louie says.
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Tattoos on The Heart by Gregory Boyle: The Parables of Faith

Boyle smiles and says, 'I feel like I was your second stop, Louie. They collapse with laughter,

and a feeling of kinship emerges between them out of nowhere.

Boyle reunites with a young man named Lencho, who is just left prison. They first met

when Lencho was only fourteen years old. Lencho is now twenty-four and having a hard time

finding a job. Boyle immediately offers Lencho work with Homeboy Industries. But he also

wants to do something much more valuable: to show Lencho that he is respected and loved; in

short, he is not just a social outcast. From Boyle's action in this article, I learned that sure

redemption is an essential aspect of our life. Boyle forgives the man regardless of the sins he

committed and offer him a job.

Interestingly, Boyle finds Homeboy Industries' abstract, emotional side, making Lencho

feel loved more significant than the realistic side, getting him a job. But such a faith is consistent

with Boyle's emphasis on faith and understanding the love of God. He proposes that individuals

should return to Jesus instead. He summarized it as inclusion, non-violence, unconditional

kindness of love, and acceptance of compassion. After leaving jail, I learned from Boyle's

empathy for the boy that we should always try to ease another's pain by showing compassion.

Even if it is difficult for certain people to feel compassion, they have the ability to have this

feeling of compassion. Boyle ends by urging people, as Boyle himself did over the course of his

career, to cultivate and grow their sense of compassion.


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Tattoos on The Heart by Gregory Boyle: The Parables of Faith

Lessons learned from Kinships help me think about taking the right stance on

problems and standing in the right place in my everyday life. For the oppressed, the place to

stand is. You're going to the edges, and you're bracing yourself because you're going to be

accused of wasting your time by people. To make a difference, you should not go to the

margins. Since you want those voices to be heard, you go to the margins more we can become

what God is in the world, the more we can imagine what will happen if we widen the circle.

We would no longer be promoting justice if kinship was our target; we would be celebrating

it. In my everyday life, this act of kindness is essential. It gives me the motive to support each

other, and being mindful of each other's pain helps me continue to help each other.

Works Cited

Boyle, Greg. Tattoos on the Heart: The Power of Boundless Compassion. Simon &

Schuster, 2011.

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