Former gang member delivers message at local church

Members of several local churches gathered at Ninth Baptist Church Monday night to hear how former convict Arthur “Silky Slim” Reed turned his life around.
Reed said, “From what I see here, there is still hope. We have to turn away from our wicked ways and seek His faith so that He may heal the land.
“We are looking at a generation of individuals that need guidance, and if we don’t provide them with the guidance that they need, then we will see them destroyed.”
Reed, “The Ghetto Messiah,” grew up in Baton Rouge, and by the age of 14, he was serving time at the former Louisiana Training Institute for Boys for two counts of attempted second degree murder. For the next 22 years of his life, Reed was in and out of prison.
Following a traffic accident in which he was the only survivor of the vehicle he was in, Reed took his second chance to turn his life around, and since 1996, he has spread the word of how he changed his path in the world.
Reed co-founded Stop The Killing, Inc., a Baton Rouge based, nonprofit organization established to end violence and killings in the state. He is a youth counselor, and he works with the youth court system to help troubled teens and youth offenders. He is the publisher of STOPTHEKILLING newsletter and co-author of “STOP THE KILLING: Effective Communication Techniques To Avoid Violence and Senseless Killing.” Reed also hosts anti-violence programs in public schools.
Reed was introduced by Ville Platte Mayor Jennifer Vidrine, who met Reed last year.
Vidrine said, “Who would think that he would be here at a time like this? A former classmate of mine brought him to me and said, ‘You’ve got to meet this man.’ I asked what was so special about him. She said he used to be a gangster, a drug dealer. He used to be one of the biggest gangsters in that state of Louisiana. But God changed his life. He gave his life to God.
“He started telling me his story, and I’m not going to tell you because I’m going to let him do it.”
Vidrine said Reed had been shot 12 times, and three of the bullets are still lodged in him. Vidrine said she was shocked to find out Reed’s illegal activities were going on just a stone’s throw from LSU in the late 1970s, when she was a student at the school.
“He went on to tell me how God has used him, how he should have died a long time ago. God used him to be where he is now, telling me his story. He told me he quit school when he was 14. I asked him why. He told me he was in jail. I said, ‘Well that’s a good reason not to be in school.’
“We are so lucky to have him with us.”
She continued, “I am asking you to listen with your hearts and with your ears and see what God can do if He wants to change your life.”
Vidrine welcomed Reed to the pulpit in front of the packed church.
“I am a man of God,” Reed said. “I am even a messenger of God to some of the ministers because I have such a profound word from God.”
Reed continued, “Everything starts at home.”
Reed spoke about how television and music have an impact on generations of people.
“You don’t hear Jesus on the radio,” he said. “The music is sexually oriented. The music ain’t got nothing to do with Jesus Christ. It’s filled with filth and garbage.”
He continued, “Singers want to thank Jesus Christ when they win awards. Jesus says ‘Don’t thank me. Thank the devil that gave you the ideas.’”
Reed said today’s world is a world of anything goes.
“God is allowing these things to happen because God sees so many things He is not pleased with,” he said.
“It is the devil inside of us that we must control before we even worry about what Satan is doing.”
Reed continued, “So much is going on today that we don’t like to address things today. I will address it because God’s got me on a mission.”
Reed told the crowd about how he fell into a life of crime and drugs.
“I want to be real with you,” Reed said. “I grew up in the church. I played the drums. I went from playing the drums to playing in the street, and I went from playing on the streets to playing in the penitentiary.
“One thing I can say is thank God for allowing me to go the penitentiary. He had a plan to work the daylights out of me. And I found myself working in that field like a slave, I said “Never again.”
Reed said he will never forget the first time he read the Book of Job in the Bible.
“The book of Job is not a long book,” he said. “I read it so fast, I went back and read it again. Job, he went through some stuff. That’s what we are going through right now, we are going through some stuff. The difference between us and Job is that when times are hard, we don’t lean on God.”
Reed implored with the crowd to speak the truth.
“I would really feel bad, if I go and get in my car tonight and no one in here is mad at me because that means that I did not do my job,” he said. “See, we all have a job to do.”
Reed continued, “This world of Satan has us so blind. Until we, as a unit, get back to God, we will continue to see the hell that we are in.”
Officers from several local departments also attended the event, and Reed commended them for doing their jobs.
“You are here to protect us,” he said. “Something that a couple of officers did does not make the whole department bad.”
“I tell people in our time, you are either with the police or you’re not. I’m not anti-police. I’m anti-violence. I was a violent individual until God whipped the daylights out of me.”