We’ve Got Work to Do!: A Multigenerational, Interfaith Collaboration of Faith and Action

by Therese Miller

“God is trying to show us something, and we’re just not getting it! Something is right here,” Rev. Elisha B. Morris leaned forward and gestured, “right in front of us, and we can’t see it.”

That elusive “something” began to emerge one June day on Diamond Street in North Philadelphia in Fr. Isaac Miller’s small office within the cavernous 1897 Church of the Advocate. Rector at this Episcopalian church, Fr. Miller was hosting a small group to begin shaping the local program and public witness of Heeding God’s Call: a Gathering on Peace.

We were meeting at the Advocate to seek God’s leading and power to confront the deadly violence that threatens so many urban youth. Fr. Miller, veteran of the civil rights movement, searched for words. “I have no idea how the youth in my church cope with this constant threat. I never had to live with that.” Rev. Morris, from Jones Memorial Church of God in Christ, sees the ugly side of life every day as he counsels survivors of gun violence. So, in the midst of that reality, what was that elusive “something” that he glimpsed?

Saturday Gathering Purpose Statement (September 2008)
As people of faith, we embrace Martin Luther King Jr.’s legacy of hope for a beloved community in which we live together in peace and safety. We unite to bring God’s vision of a peaceable kingdom, that we might end the violence killing our families, our friends, and our neighbors. We resist the effects of racism and poverty, against which Martin Luther King struggled, and apathy in the face of an epidemic of violence that took over 400 lives last year in Philadelphia alone. Fear, closed doors, and separation will not end this epidemic. We must come together in a bold movement of faith and action to do something to make a real difference. We act to end the violence, beginning with a focus on ending gun violence in the greater Philadelphia area.

With this statement of purpose, three months later, the Saturday Sessions Task Group came fully into being. After several months of individual conversations and small group meetings, voice messages, emails, and conference calls, we began meeting regularly in the fellowship hall of the Church of the Advocate. An Episcopal church with a long and well-respected history of activism and social action, the Advocate hosted an untold number of meetings and training sessions and welcomed us on many Sundays to worship with them. The vision, passion, and courage of Father Isaac Miller were, and continue to be, the heart and soul of our organizing and planning efforts.

In October, a diverse, animated task group of ten is meeting around a table at the Advocate. A plan is coming together. Local faith communities are organizing programs of prayer, education, and action. A march and rally are in the planning for hundreds of people of faith to take to the streets, declaring and demanding a commitment to end this violence. An idea for meaningful civil disobedience emerges. Suddenly Rev. Morris gets up, walks around, comes back to sit down, beams and says, “This is the ‘something’ that God had for us in June! This is it! I can see it now!” There is a glimmer of hope that—finding ways for Christians and other citizens—increasing hope, energy, and commitment to make a difference and turn the tide of this plague of gun violence.

Midwives of Hope (email October 2, 2008)
We were blessed this evening by the power of the Holy Spirit. I still feel I’m breathing some kind of rarified air, unable to sleep for fear I’ll wake up in the “real” (unreal) world. We were midwives to some kind of new hope tonight. My mind says yes, my heart says yes, my soul says yes! New hope is no small thing. It is the thing. It is what makes all things possible. Our babies, brothers, and sisters are dying and killing. We can stop this, we must stop this, we will stop this. “Hope is a thing with feathers,” Emily Dickinson said. I say it is a thing with arms and legs and sweat and tears. It is us. There is no one but us. Tonight we were given a glimpse, a breath, a scent of the Power that is ours if we choose it. We only have to drop our nets to get out of the boat. There is more that I require of thee.

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We began to focus attention on a gun shop known to be a source of handguns for street corner dealers, and we asked them to adopt a “code of conduct.” Developed by Mayors Against Illegal Guns, and formally titled the Responsible Firearms Retailer Agreement, this ten-point code of conduct has been adopted by Wal-Mart and aims to limit the flow of guns to the illegal market. If the gun shop owner signs the code, we would rally to celebrate; if not, we would rally to pressure him. We hoped to provide a model for direct community action to confront the scourge of illegal handguns.

No other developed country allows individuals the incredible ease of access to the very guns used to commit mayhem that we do. All others require individuals who wish to possess handguns, who are responsible for the vast bulk of gun crime and violence, to demonstrate compelling need. We don’t. No other countries allow civilians to possess semiautomatic assault weapons, guns made to kill as many people as possible as quickly as possible. Only two states in our country have effective bans on assault weapons: New Jersey and California.

Perhaps most telling is that no other developed country is beset with such widespread networks of criminal gun trafficking as ours— networks that move handguns from legal sale at licensed gun stores to illegal sale on the street. The sad but undeniable fact is that illegal handguns reach streets and neighborhoods through the highly developed, illegal trade, gun trafficking. And the linchpin of trafficking is straw buying, whereby traffickers (criminal entrepreneurs who cannot pass federal background checks) hire stand-ins (straw buyers) who can pass background checks and buy handguns in bulk to pass on to traffickers. These are the handguns used to threaten, wound, maim, and kill. It is our country’s weak gun laws that enable and encourage this illegal trade in lethal weapons, a trade that fuels gun crime.

While these, and many other facts, are frightening, they also tell us that it doesn’t have to be this way. We can change it. We must.

There are numerous legal barriers that can be put up to make straw buying more difficult, thereby decreasing the supply and increasing the cost of illegal handguns on the street, and so diminishing gun violence. We’ve seen it work in states such as New Jersey and New York with strong gun laws and relatively low rates of gun injury and death. Legislative advocacy is critical and has continued to make slow but significant gains, but the rate of suffering, trauma, and death continues to rise. Many legal retailers of firearms knowingly and willingly profit from sales of handguns into the illegal market, and hence knowingly and willingly profit from the suffering, trauma, and death caused by illegal guns.

Local citizens can also take up effective non-legislative initiatives to make straw buying and trafficking less likely, more costly, and riskier, thereby discouraging it. The “code of conduct” is an important tool that can be used at a community level—one that we believe can make a significant difference in the short run while the legislative advocacy continues its slow and arduous path. We are engaged in moral advocacy! This is a way for people of faith and conviction to raise awareness of this terrible—barely legal—arms trade that goes on every day in our own communities.

Civil Disobedience Appeal Letter (January 2009)
As planning has moved forward for January 17th, we’ve learned that many approaches are necessary to build a viable campaign to save lives, reduce trauma, and counteract the apathy, fear, and hopelessness caused by this epidemic of gun violence. A number of us feel called to engage in nonviolent civil disobedience in the spirit of the civil rights sit-ins. We are looking for individuals who are interested in contributing to our common cause in this way.

We believe God is calling us to send a dramatic signal on behalf of the young people who suffer most from this epidemic of violence. Many have lost hope in us—lost hope that we have the will or the vision to do something about this. Something that gives them hope. Something that gives voice to their anguish and substance to our claims to care about their futures. God is calling us to something larger than we thought! We are called to speak to, act on behalf of, encourage, and inspire this generation of young people. We are called to show them that we are willing to risk, sacrifice, and struggle for ourselves, for them, and with them. This is where hope begins!

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While the march and rally on Saturday, January 17th, was envisioned as a completely legal event, civil disobedience was planned during the week of the Peace Gathering. The action was in support of the week-long effort by Philadelphia religious leaders to convince the owner of Colosimo’s Gun Center (a leading supplier of guns used in crimes) to adopt the code of conduct to reduce the flow of illegal guns to the street. On Wednesday afternoon, activists from the Heeding God’s Call planning group entered the gun store and again asked the owner to sign the Code of Conduct. When the owner refused to sign, the five refused to leave the premises. Twelve people were arrested by the end of the week.

These committed activists were supported by hundreds of Peace Gathering participants and members of Partner Faith Communities who conducted a public demonstration in front of the gun store every day of the Gathering and donated thousands of dollars to support the legal defense of those arrested. These public demonstrations and personal offerings still continue, and are planned to continue for the foreseeable future.

We believe that these acts of civil disobedience, undertaken by a few, make clear it that citizens do have the power to make a difference, that not all is hopeless, and if we are willing to step out in faith in whatever way each of us is called, peace is possible! It is hopelessness and apathy that are our worst enemies. Whether or not this gun shop chooses to adopt the code of conduct, it does not really matter in the bigger picture. What matters is that hope is revived, action is ignited, a movement is born amongst people of faith to do something that can really make a difference

Hurt People
by Taray Sedell Brown

Hurt people can’t walk around
Without seeing the blood stains
On the ground from when those
Boys rode up and shot Boop
Down. His family all hurt now,
Life for them seems too far
Gone to be found. But these
People are hurt and hurt is
What they do.

Hurt people walk around with
Their head thrown down need
Something to make them feel
Better so a gun is found: Now
Their head is spinning round
Cause the next victim is found.
But you see these people are
Hurt and hurt is what they do.

Hurt people hurt themselves
Cause it’s just that easy to
Get a gun. Little boy roaming the
House and found his father’s
Gun. Thought it was cool till
his finger struck the trigger
and now he lies there dead.
But you see these people are
Hurt and hurt is what they do.
Hurt people use violence to
Try and cover up their hurt
Everyday he beat her and tried
To strip her of her pride until
She felt her only choice was
To get a gun involved. But
These people are hurt and hurt
Is what they do.

Hurt people walk around confused
About what tasks life has for
Them to do, some people get
So much hurt in their path
They don’t know what to do.
Try to make choice after choice
Right and everything’s still not
Right. But these people are hurt
And hurt is what they do.
Hurt people hurt people
Because they get hurt so they
Feel that to make someone
Else hurt will help their hurt
Go away but hurt they stay.
Somebody please make this hurt
Go away cause hurt people
Hurt people.

Fed Up
by Tierra Brown

Lost, confused, angry, and just
Plain on sick and tired of all this
Nonsense I can’t sleep at night
Cause I cant stop picturing how
Much people keep destroying our
Lives. Everytime I turn around
Another life is being took. Why,
Won’t this stop. It has me
Afraid, and in shock to even
Leave my house. Why, why guns,
Why, knives, why loose
Maniacs, why drunken drivers,
Why does it have to happen.
All this drama and
Unreasonable actions
Have my mind spinning,
Stomach tossing, and body
Aching. It’s too much to
Handle, it’s hard to stay
Calm when you know there’s
Someone out there very
Dangerous why, why, why
Is all I keep thinking
I’m just fed up. I can’t
Take it anymore. Somebody
Please put a stop to all
This. It’s destroying me
Deep down inside cause
You never know when or
Who it’s going to happen
To. All I ask is for the
Violence to stop. Put the
Guns down and put all
Your worries away
Cause I’m fed up with this.

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Saturday morning, January 17th, was filled with prayer—Jewish, Quaker, Christian, Muslim; and education—experts, advocates, legislators, law enforcement, teachers, trainers, students; and expression—poets, musicians, dancers, banner makers, letter writers, stories of pain, courage and survival, tears, laughter.

In nine different houses of worship around the cities of Philadelphia and Chester, Pa, 41 Partner Faith Communities came together to offer these programs to their congregations, Peace Gathering participants, and hundreds of others from around the local area. Every one of these programs was a wonderful success, increasing visibility of this issue and Spirit-led action to reduce trauma and suffering in our communities. We are grateful for the hard work, imaginative programming, and generosity of these congregations, meetings, and fellowships.
Among the most striking and memorable parts of these programs were young people’s poems, such as those of Tierra and Sedell Brown (above), that expressed their experience, pain, and anguish in the milieu of violence in which they are growing up. Many programs encouraged participants to write their own poems, surprising many with the depth of their own feeling and creative expression (a few examples below).
 
Untitled
We are
like a shaken jar
As the contents settle
anger and fear fall away
Clarity and peace follow
 ~ Betsy Townsend, Abington Meeting

inside / outside

how to make it match
carry from one to another
a beautiful face
a beautiful place
 ~ Betsy Townsend, Abington Meeting

Untitled
I missed the singing,
I missed the drum kit,
I missed the heartfelt forgiveness,
But I heard the poetry.
The poetry that spoke of hope,
The poetry that spoke of peace,
The poetry that imagined the impossible,
And brought it into being.
~Norman Cotterell, Abington Friends Meeting
Peace Poem
My heart hopes for people to listen to each other
and try to understand one another.
My heart cries out for quiet,
a moment of time wrapped in silence.
My heart dreams of goodness, of truth, of love
for all who share our tiny planet.
My heart cries out from the struggle and
It sees in the world a hope that shrinks away
from the corners of the world.
My heart cries out when the dead are tallied.
My heart hopes for peace in the Gaza Strip.

My heart opens and the armor melts away
when tears for music or laughter
soften me.
My heart listens, but I’m a bit slower in catching on;
eventually I get there and our rhythms connect.
My heart listens to the whisper of God.
My heart listens and wants to respond.
My heart builds on past generations.
My heart builds a chamber, deep and secure
and open to all who seek its safety.
My heart listens to the blessed stillness
and I am renewed.
~ Participants in the HeartSpeak poetry writing workshop at Arch Street Friends Meeting
 
I Beat
I beat the pain
that tried to reign
I beat the shame
that tried to maim
I beat the tears
that would not stop
I beat the rhythm
of the guns that doesn't
want to stop
I beat it with PEACE
and that's what I now reap.
~Cynthia Allen, Noville Memorial Church of God in Christ (mother of a gun violence survivor)

Distance Broken
I am far away.
I can see him, but not hear him.
Do I know him? How can I know him?
I can send something to him…
a stare—a message that does not connect
a harsh word—a message that does not connect
a bullet—a message that does not connect.
I am far away…from him.
I can move.
I can touch him—a message that connects
I can listen to him—a message that connects
I can embrace him.
I have not lost myself.
I have joined him.
I know him…now.
~Phoebe Sheftel, Bryn Mawr Presbyterian Church

Forgiveness
I’m a fool for forgiveness
I say: it’s OK
I know you didn’t mean it
… or even if you did
My heart beats to a forgiving rhythm
I take a deep breath
ready to absorb the outcry and scorn
and beg: forgive
Vengeance smothers vitality
the hurter and the hurt
ache all the more
so forbear
take a breath
breathe in and breathe out the Spirit
Our enemies are hungry
give them something to eat
Our enemies are thirsty
give them something to drink
astound them with the words
I forgive you
In my dreams I see the spiral of violence
unwinding
relaxing
gently undulating
transforming into a peacefully flowing
playfully gurgling
brook
~ Barb Quntilliano, Schuylkill Friends Meeting

In the afternoon, participants from all the morning programs, and many more, met for combined worship at a large church with a closing sermon by Dr. Harding. From there we marched down Broad Street—a main Philadelphia thoroughfare—to the gun shop for public witness against illegal handguns.

The Saturday action, called “We’ve Got Work to Do!” was an opportunity for active public witness for peace, bringing together people of faith from many religions and denominations, national church and local leaders, the predominantly European American “historic peace churches,” and African American faith communities working for peace on the streets.

“It takes a real stirring to get me out in 13-degree weather, but this gathering was not to be missed. Hundreds of us rallied at the gun shop, singing and calling for an end to the bloodshed on Philadelphia’s streets.” ~ Mary Ellen McNish, General Secretary, American Friends Service Committee

    “January 17th was a day that was, in some ways, just a day. The city around us did not stand still. Mr. Colosimo did not sign the code of conduct. But it was a day when hundreds of us prayed together for peace. A day we marched together and temporarily stopped traffic as the cops escorted us. It was a day that concluded a week long peace gathering and simultaneously began an ongoing movement for gun violence prevention, steered by the belief that, as Christians, we can come together and act through God’s love for the good of all.” ~ Rachel Malloy-Good, Frazer Mennonite Church

We have begun what is intended to be a sustained, long-term effort to raise this issue into the consciousness, hearts, hands, and feet of people of faith in the city and in the suburbs of Philadelphia, and eventually across the state of Pennsylvania and the nation. Our vision is nothing less than an appreciable reduction in the number of lives lost to gun violence.
Members of the Partner Faith Community (PFC) congregations have already met again to begin the work of planning the next steps. Several of the PFCs are already making plans for continued collaboration and action. A coordinating committee has been formed to resource and support the work of these ongoing faith community partnerships, and to encourage new faith community partners and partnerships. One faith community (Millville Friends Meeting, PhiYM), has already opened conversation with a gun shop in their local area.

The day after returning home, the three of us from Millville Meeting who attended the Peace Gathering conducted a First Day program. We decided to set up a meeting with a local gun shop owner to solicit his views on the ten-point code, and to get some sense of his ideas on gun violence prevention, since the Saturday events at the Philadelphia gathering were simply a good introduction to a topic that none of us knew a great deal about. The meeting was arranged, and the three of us met with him and three of his friends, all of whom are NRA members and active in a local chapter of the Pennsylvania Gun Owners Association that sponsors a rifle team and other forms of outreach. We spent about two hours together, trading our perspectives on gun violence, its causes and getting to know each other in order to understand one another’s point of view. The NRA representatives explained their reasons for desiring the availability of guns for hobbies, marksmanship, hunting, and self-defense as an important right guaranteed by the Constitution. Although we countered with some opposing observations and some questions, we took the position that we need to learn more about the facts about their views before engaging in extended dialogue and argumentation. They gave us much material to read, and we promised to read it and be back in touch. The gun shop owner looked over the code and raised a few questions, suggesting an initial reluctance to comply—more out of principle than anything. I look forward to our continued contact.
~ Mel Endy, Millville Friends Meeting

We are so pleased and excited to be part of this audacious adventure of hope and action! We are surrounded by despair and violence that seems insurmountable and feels overwhelming—in the world, in this city, in the lives of our children. As people of faith and conscience, we are called to affirm ways in which we and others can act in response to this litany of violence and despair. We are called to do something! We’ve been led by the Holy Spirit to create this network of faith and action to witness and advocate for the very lives of our families and our communities. This is where hope begins!

The battle for justice in the world is not fought where we think it is. The struggle against injustice is not fought on the battlefield of power or truth or even righteousness; in the end, the battle against oppression stands or falls on the battlefield of hope. No one knows this better than the oppressors. They know they never have enough power, lies, or loyalty to withstand the onslaught of even a fraction of the power, truth, and courage that humanity could, at any minute, amass against them. Therefore they rely on—utterly depend on—the inaction of despair.
~ Gary Haugen, 1999

Compiled and written by:
Therese Miller—Gathering Director, Heeding God’s Call (Lewisburg Friends Meeting)

Contributing:
Mimi Copp—Shalom House
Fred Kauffman—West Philadelphia Mennonite Fellowship
Bryan Miller—Bryn Mawr Presbyterian Church
Andy Peifer—West Philadelphia Mennonite Fellowship