Churches Formulate Rebuilding Strategy : Recovery: World council wants ‘Domestic Marshall Plan’ implemented for Los Angeles.

Standing in front of a burned-out mini-mall in South Los Angeles, world church leaders from Europe, South Africa, South Korea and the United States announced an “ecumenical urban strategy” for Los Angeles, which they hope will serve as a model for healing racial conflict throughout the world.

The program, which includes a “Domestic Marshall Plan,” was presented Tuesday after the Geneva-based World Council of Churches held two days of public hearings in Southern California.

They talked with gang members, Korean shopkeepers and other community members. They pointed to racism and economic and social inequality as the primary causes of the April riots.

Church leaders, including the Rev. Emilio Castro, general secretary of the World Council of Churches, and the Rev. Syngman Rhee, president of the National Council of Churches, also led processions and services throughout the city.

“We were shocked and saddened at the events,” said the Rev. Hee Sup Choi, moderator of Korea’s National Council of Churches in Seoul.

“We have visited different places here and have learned the depth of pain of the history,” said Choi, who spoke through an interpreter. “(The rioting) was not an accident, but part of the historical process. We will join with other black friends, brothers and sisters in the black community in the United States, and we are confident we can work together.”

The hearings by the World Council are the first to be held in the United States. Similar hearings have been held in South Africa and South Korea in response to civil unrest and political repression.

“We want to come up with a strategy that will deal with urban communities around the world,” said the Rev. Charles Adams, president of the Progressive National Baptist Church.

The strategy, developed by the U.S.-based National Council, includes a “national and international dialogue between ethnic communities,” the development of a “Domestic Marshall Plan” and lobbying Congress to spend more money on inner cities and on rebuilding Los Angeles.

The Marshall Plan was a post-World War II program of U.S. economic and technical aid to European countries. In their modern version, church officials plan to work with members of Congress to develop jobs, training programs, low-cost housing and improved access to health care and education for inner-city residents.

“We want to change legislative priorities,” said Adams, chairman of the Urban Strategy Task Force. “The $1.3 billion Congress allotted to the inner cities is ridiculous and laughable. We will apply political pressure, knock on the doors of Congress and agitate, agitate, agitate until budget priorities have changed.

Church officials met with representatives of the Rebuild L.A. campaign, headed by Peter V. Ueberroth, as well as members of the Los Angeles City Council, to discuss encouraging inter-ethnic dialogue between communities and churches.

They encouraged Ueberroth and the City Council to listen to the gang members, and said they might ask a gang leader to join their urban strategy committee. “We are committed to staying in touch with those young people, and we made a promise to help them speak their own word,” said the Rev. Joan Campbell, general secretary of the National Council.

“The gang members are in earnest and they feel the community is not rewarding them for their truce. And they feel discouraged because people don’t believe them,” added Campbell, who said about 20 gang members were among the several hundred Southern Californians who participated in the church leaders’ three days of activities.

The National Council represents 32 Protestant and Orthodox denominations in the United States, which include Korean-American, African-American and Latino congregations. It is through its multiethnic membership that church leaders say they hope to begin a “safe” place for communication.

Church leaders said they also want to continue the “listening posts” begun during their visit. Response from the community was overwhelming, they said, with many African-American, Korean-American, Latino and Anglo neighbors using the forums to speak to one another for the first time.

Members of the committee expect the Roman Catholic Church, which is not a member of the National Council of Churches, along with Jewish leaders, to join their effort, Campbell said.

“Our task is to see that what happened in Los Angeles does not reoccur, and that it will not reoccur because we have removed the causes of its occurrence,” Adams said. “But if we do not confront those causes, it will happen again and the fire next time will be worse than the fire this time.”