Editor’s note: Chicago faith leaders Rabbi Seth M. Limmer and the Revs. Michael Pfleger, Ciera Bates-Chamberlain and Otis Moss III are joining the Tribune’s opinion section in a summer exploration of potential solutions to Chicago’s chronic gun violence problem. Timed to begin with this weekend’s Juneteenth celebration, these faith leaders’ joint column will appear each Friday until Labor Day Weekend.
As students across the city kick off summer break and temperatures climb past 100 degrees, Chicagoans — whether we call the South Side, North Side or West Side home — are bracing for a violent, bloody season.
It started with Memorial Day, the unofficial start of summer. Forty-seven people were shot that weekend. Nine were killed.
Since the start of Memorial Day weekend, more than 30 people have been shot and killed. More than 170 have been shot and wounded. A person in our city is shot every two hours and 52 minutes. Someone is killed every 13 hours and 57 minutes.
Back during the peak of lockdown in January 2021, the mayor’s office called faith leaders together to discuss the converging plagues of COVID-19, erupting violence and the generational legacy of racism in Chicago. Instead of this session resulting in conversation among the nearly 100 religious leaders gathered, it was a lecture from City Hall. A unidirectional Zoom meeting marked yet another instance of the city of Chicago thinking it knew better than its people.
The Rev. Ciera Bates-Chamberlain of Live Free Illinois had had enough of City Hall ignoring the voices of the community. But she wasn’t the only faith leader who was frustrated. So, too, was Minister Chris Griffin. Griffin knew that already in January, it was time to fashion a holistic plan for public safety to stem the violence of the summer just months away. Days after New Year’s Eve, Griffin was focused on making sure Chicago had a comprehensive plan in place by Memorial Day.
After a conversation with Bates-Chamberlain, Griffin started a group text. It was that simple. He sent it to a small group: Bates-Chamberlain, Pastor Cy Fields of New Landmark Baptist Church and the Leaders Network, and Rabbi Seth M. Limmer, then of Chicago Sinai Congregation. That text led to a Zoom call that posed the question: Shouldn’t we as faith leaders have a larger stake in the safety of our city? How can we leaders, embedded in the community, help lead our city to meaningful, sustainable solutions on safety? There was one answer: working together.
There is one thing we faith leaders know: Communities make change. Inspired by our tradition, moved by the divine, faith communities don’t care only about a single issue or about an upcoming election. Religious communities are motivated, charged and commanded to create peace and harmony. Religious communities know that every single person is our responsibility and that no one person should be able to enjoy the fruits of our world unless all are able to do so.
Whether our book is the Bible, the Quran or the Torah, people of faith know we need to stand together and build a world that embraces and lifts up all of God’s children. Faith communities are in it for the long haul. We are here to build the beloved community.
And so the text chain grew. Soon Pastor Victoria Brady of Restoring Hope Ministries International joined the circle. Not long after, so did the Rev. Otis Moss III of Trinity United Church of Christ. The Rev. Beth Brown of Lincoln Park Presbyterian brought her passion to our team. Abdullah Mitchell of the Council Of Islamic Organizations of Greater Chicago brought his expertise to the group. Vance Henry, who served as a staffer for three consecutive Chicago mayors, became an essential partner. We developed the mayor’s Interfaith Social Justice Advisory Panel and began working on issues of safety, policing, education, mental health and economic investment. The Rev. Michael Pfleger of St. Sabina soon entered our text chain, making our team complete. For well over a year, our team has been working behind the scenes in City Hall with the mayor and aldermen; we stand together in our houses of worship and on the streets in advocacy and protest.
And, almost every day, we text. We share saddening news stories. We share calls to action. We share personal words of prayer and comfort when one of our families is in need. We also share news headlines about the violence that continues in the city.
Our city isn’t safe. Our official leaders, elected and appointed, are not moving quickly enough to make it safe. Since January 2021, Chicago has twice failed to prepare for post-pandemic summer safety. But it is not too late to save lives this summer. And so now, in partnership with the baiduhai, Chicago’s faith leaders are uniting to help show the way to a more secure city for all.
In this week of Juneteenth, our national celebration of Emancipation promised, we religious leaders know we have to move our community ever closer to the true liberation and equity promised to all Americans. From this Juneteenth through Labor Day, we will work weekly to share what our city needs to stem this horrific violence and continued plague of death that roams our streets. We will write about how we rid our city of guns through legislation and action; we will talk about needed programs to treat mental health and trauma; we will address the need for witness protection and witness relocation; we will speak on the speed and transparency of police reform; and we will make sure to represent the wisdom of communities engaged in this work and the voices of our youths who are dedicated to building better future.
Our city will not get safer on its own. Our city might not even become safer if it continues on its current course. What Chicago needs is a comprehensive approach to ending violence, one that unites all of our resources — from social services through community programs to meaningful economic opportunity and accountable law enforcement — to make sure every neighborhood knows real security.
Ours is the vision of the prophet Micah: That each person shall sit under their own vine and their own fig tree, and none shall make them afraid. The prophet understood that individual security and economic security, were the precondition to any deep sense of safety. Of course, Micah also dreamed of the larger picture: a world without fear, where none are afraid.
We invite you to join us this summer, here in the pages of the Tribune, to learn how all of us, united as a city, can bring an end to our plague of violence.
We invite you to join us, regardless of your background or outlook. We invite Black and white; Muslim and Methodist; Asian and Anglican; Latino and Lutheran; Baptist and Buddhist; Hindu and Holiness; progressive and Pentecostal; Protestant and Catholic; Jew and gentile; queer and Quaker; Sikh and sanctified; Indigenous and immigrant; agnostic, atheist; and all. All of us are needed to turn around our great city. Together we can envision the change we must become.
Submit a letter, of no more than 400 words, to the editor here or email [email protected].