Barking to the Choir

Friar Gregory Boyle’s lifelong commitment as a Jesuit and the founder of Homeboy Industries forms the basis of this text. The Jesuit tradition of social justice is realized through Boyle’s life’s work with Homeboy Industries. It is therefore fitting that all of Boyle’s religious insights are gleaned from either his work, or more saliently, the lives and humanity of his homies. Not at all invested in religious esoterics positing God as an entity that can only be approached through specialized knowledge or institutionally-sanctified “holy” individuals, Boyle poses the everyday occurrences and everyday people as the access points to holiness and Christian virtue. His brand of Christianity may be considered irreverent, and is very focused and invested in both material and social reality.