The Crusade of an Anguished Father : Gangs: A local businessman immerses himself in his religion after the drive-by shooting death of his son.

Three days after his 16-year-old son was killed in a February gang shooting, Blinky Rodriguez found himself driving through Pacoima. Police suspected a rival gang member from this turf had pulled the trigger. Rodriguez said he was drawn to these streets.

“These kids are falling out every day. My son is lying in a grave. Ten days ago, another kid went down,” Rodriguez said recently. “Who will stand in these perilous times?”

Rodriguez--a former professional kick boxer who now runs a Van Nuys gym--has not returned to work since the funeral. Instead, he walks East Valley streets and preaches the Gospel to any young man or woman who will listen.

This crusade is the work of an anguished father, a church-going man who immersed himself in his religion after the death of his son, Sonny, who was a gang member. The change in Rodriguez has been startling and swift. Before, the 36-year-old man fancied himself an entrepreneur, wearing expensive suits as he circulated through the world of boxing and promoting. Once an unfailing optimist, he now sees a darker side to life.

Rodriguez has support in his new quest. His Sepulveda church prides itself on converting drug addicts and gang members. He has enlisted other men in the congregation.

“We are an army of God,” Rodriguez said. “I’ve got guys who were shot at and stabbed, were in the penitentiary and were resurrected. We are willing to risk our lives, to be on the street and talk to kids.

“Some of these guys have more tattoos than the kids. So the kids listen.”

Last week, Rodriguez held a meeting that was attended by police and local businessmen. The purpose of the gathering was to solicit money and support. Rodriguez’s “army” needs a van to take youths on outings such as a play in Palmdale they want to attend this weekend. Rodriguez and his cohorts have already arranged for a central California farm that will host young men and women for six weeks during the summer, giving them a break from the streets. An airplane mechanic has volunteered to teach his trade to street kids.

Before the meeting, Rodriguez said he wanted to avoid speaking in the boldly religious terms he now uses frequently. “In this day and age, if you talk about God, people look at you like you have three heads. You have to be careful what you say.” But less than 10 minutes into his speech, he was quoting Scripture. His voice became loud, angry. He referred, as he often does, to Ephesians.

Put on the whole armor of God, that ye may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil.

“People might look at me as a radical or a fanatic,” he told the room, “but this world is radical and fanatical.”

William (Blinky) Rodriguez was raised in San Fernando. He got married at 14 to 21-year-old Lilly Urquidez, a Pacoima woman whose brother Benny was soon to become one of the best-known kick boxers in the history of the sport. Rodriguez and his wife took up kick boxing, too, and became champions, traveling the world with Benny.

In 1982, the clan returned home to open the Jet Center gym. Rodriguez trained with martial arts film star Chuck Norris. He began negotiating television contracts for kick-boxing tournaments. He took in a young boxer named Alex Garcia--a San Fernando native who served five years in prison for stabbing a rival gang member--and led him to the national amateur super-heavyweight title and a silver medal at the 1986 World Amateur Boxing Championships.

But Rodriguez could not steer his own children from the violence and trouble he had avoided so deftly in his youth. The eldest of the Rodriguezes’ five children, David, is serving time in a state penitentiary for armed robbery and attempted murder. And now Sonny, who police suspect was in a gang, is dead.

“You wouldn’t believe the spiritual awakening,” Rodriguez said, referring to the change he went through after his son’s death.

Stand therefore, having your loins girt about with truth, and having on the breastplate of righteousness.

In addition to his recent street preaching, Rodriguez tries to coax youths to Thursday night meetings at his house in Sylmar. As many as 75 youths, recruited by Rodriguez and his army, have shown up in an evening. So far, the youths don’t say much. They listen to Rodriguez as he tells them to stay away from the street crowd, the drugs and the violence. Rodriguez reads some Scripture, but mostly it’s a counseling session.

“I don’t know if people outside can understand . . . to come from where we come from, drugs and partying, that’s all we know,” said Richard Sarabia, 19, who said he is a member of a San Fernando gang and has been attending meetings. “I ask myself, ‘Why am I even going?’ I could be partying.

“Blinky’s for real. His son got shot. We always think that all our friends are dying and who’s next?” Sarabia said. “Blinky’s trying to get us to do good things. He has his own wife and kids, he has everything. But he doesn’t even go to work anymore. He goes to the park where we hang out. He’s telling us things, doing something for us, all this time and effort and love for us and what the hell did we ever do for him?

“I don’t know anybody who cares about us and doesn’t want anything in return.”

Pastor David Martinez of Victory Outreach Church, where Rodriguez attends, also speaks to the youths.

“For 10 years I roamed the streets of San Fernando. I ended up as a drug addict,” Martinez said. “I know that people in the street can change.”

Rodriguez is taking his act to the schools, as well. He will stage a kick-boxing exhibition May 4 at Sepulveda Junior High.

“We felt it would be good for the kids,” said Dan Hensley, a physical education teacher at Sepulveda Junior High. “It sounds like Blinky and his wife use the martial arts as a hook to get the kids’ attention and then give them the message about staying away from drugs.”

It’s too soon to tell if Rodriguez’s crusade will win any victories. His approach might seem simplistic in an era when police and government profess few answers to gang violence.

Rodriguez says only that he must react to Sonny’s death, and this is his natural reaction.

“These kids in the street are smoking whack and listening to the rappers. They’re all putting up a facade. They don’t want to look weak,” he said. “But you have to remember that they’re just kids. They have so many fears and insecurities.

“What good do programs and agencies do for these kids? They respond to love.”

Wherefore take unto you the whole armor of God, that ye may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand.

“Who will stand in these perilous times?” Rodriguez asked. “I’m going to stand.”