Barking to the Choir

Boyle opens by stating “God is a nudge” (13). By this, he means God calls people to give up on their misconceptions of him—misconceptions lead them to believe “God yearns to blame and punish us, ask us to measure up or express disappointment and disapproval at every turn” (13). He quotes the Persian poet Hafez, who wrote God’s never-ending refrain to human beings is “Come dance with me” (14). Boyle believes humans diminish God’s true identity and call to humanity by remaking him in their own image. He hopes to interrupt this process. 

Boyle discusses the gang members with whom he works every day; he calls them “homies.” He intimates that his homies are “forever contorting the English language in what [he] calls ‘homie-propisms’” (14). These are idiosyncratic, innocent mistakes made with the English language sometimes bear more insight than the true expressions—such as when a homie said “The Lord...is EXHAUSTED” while reading a liturgy at church, instead of the printed scripture which actually read “The Lord is exalted” (15). Boyle prefers the mistake, as he “would rather hope for a humble God who gets exhausted in delighting over and loving us” (15). 

Boyle states most of the homies at Homeboy Industries have a background of trauma and as a result, form unstable attachments to both caretakers and therapists.