October 20, 2003

In death, he troubled the conscience of a city. In life, Paul Childs was surrounded by the business of conscience - nearly a dozen churches are within walking distance of his home - but he seems to have passed like a ghost in their midst.

Should the churches have known about Childs? Last week, the district attorney's office said it would not prosecute the police officer who killed the mentally challenged 15-year-old who had been menacing him with a knife.

Way back in March, Autherine Burleson did know about Paul Childs - and was already doing something to help him.

Burleson had started a monthly soup kitchen for the disadvantaged at Loving Saints Christian Fellowship, a neat storefront church at a Holly Street shopping center where her husband, Kraig, is pastor.

One of the first regulars to show up was Childs.

On Sunday, as 60 worshippers crooned gospel hymns, Burleson stepped outside to recall the eager boy, clearly challenged mentally, who clamored to know when he could come to Sunday school.

"He had such a sweet spirit," she says. He was fidgety, too - jumping up from his seat to wander the aisles. Burleson, a radiant 44- year-old, showed a visitor how she would tenderly direct him back to his seat. Childs was so gentle that the mother of three had no problem letting him play with her 3-year-old son, Josiah.

He seemed to be under the protection of neighbors and police, too, so the shooting was doubly disturbing, "because police officers are up and down this strip. The police look out for us. I've seen Paul talking to officers."

Then Burleson hesitated.

"I'm just being honest - we could have done more for that child with more parental permission."

But no adult ever came to church with Paul: "For too many people," she says, "church is their baby sitter."

Graham Memorial Church of God in Christ was the fixture at the end of the block from the Childs house. Senior pastor Patrick Demmer, a former president of the Denver Ministerial Alliance, knew Childs as part of a blur of bike- riding neighbor kids who'd sometimes shout out, "Hey preacher!" as they sped by.

Since Childs' death, Demmer's church has revived a door-to-door campaign to invite people to the church. It's based on an old concept that has held Graham Memorial together for generations - family and neighborhoods.

The Demmers hail from a line of preachers going back to "Daddy Rick," who in 1833, while a slave in Louisiana, started a secret church in a backwoods bayou.

When Denver's Graham Memorial was founded in Globeville in 1949, "It was the church and family that set the standard in the neighborhood," says the Rev. Jerry Demmer, who co-pastors with his brother. "Not just your parents took accountability for you. Everybody on the block - the Streety family, the Mitchell family, the Carey family, the Torres family - everybody had permission from your parents to discipline you."

Church member Traci Rabb-Maxie is beginning where she can. She's making sure another neighbor - like Childs, a young man with special needs - feels cared for.

And, she adds: "I've been out in the community, walking around, meeting people, connecting. We don't do that anymore. At one time, people went out and met their neighbors. I miss that feeling, the waving to neighbors across the street."

torkelsonj@RockyMountainNews.com or 303-892-5055

MORE TORKELSON COLUMNS »

Copyright 2003, Rocky Mountain News. All Rights Reserved.