Invasion of Faith: Faith vs. Violence, A Chicago Story
By John w. Fountain and Samantha Latson
By John w. Fountain and Samantha Latson
A CARAVAN OF humanity. A people of faith. It idles on 78th Place near Racine Avenue in the warm evening sun one late-summer Friday in June.
Music blares from a shiny green SUV outfitted with loud speakers that will lead their sojourn on the South Side of Chicago from the doorsteps of the Faith Community of St. Sabina.
It is perhaps a formidable showdown against the forces of darkness. A bout for the soul of the city, the bold makings of a revolution that would not be televised.
In this corner stands Faith. In the other: Violence.
But one question glares, like the crack of gunfire on a silent city night: Can Faith win?
A palpable excitement runs thick like hot molasses, the hearts and minds of the faithful on one accord. They have assembled here to declare war, an invasion. Good versus Evil. They call it: Summer Invasion.
Their mission: To invoke faith and hope against the minions of hate and murder that gnaw at what remains of one city’s psyche and soul.
This army of one church. One faith. One Lord. One baptism. One mission. All on one accord.
They appear at first glance, not necessarily a daunting opponent. They stand as a mixed mostly Black congregation, led by a white Catholic activist priest. They are a cadre of graying but feisty church mothers, even babies in strollers, of strong men in T-shirts. Some of their soldiers advance on crutches or in wheelchairs.
They are the infirmed. The wounded. Mothers and fathers of murdered sons and daughters, pressing through their pain with a purpose.
Against the odds, they have assembled. Bucking the trend of murder and gunfire, and weekend body counts that might label this an exercise in futility, they have come.
Armed with the audacity of hope, with a belief in the intangible and in the power of the invisible to bring change to the here and now and the future.
But one question glares, like the crack of gunfire on a silent city night: Can Faith win?
Two reporters set out to chronicle their journey, covering every single march over 12 hot summer weeks in Chicago, through the heat, elements and rain. Through the hope and through the pain that would take this caravan of faith to corners, where just hours earlier bullets reigned, where the wounded shed tears in the midst of their pain, and where, before summer’s end they would come face to face with the Death Angel that came to claim by murder’s deadly aim even one of their own.
But in the end, might an Invasion of Faith still proclaim victory over violence?
Find out by reading the forthcoming story presented in a multimedia experience that will allow you to walk faithful step by step in their shoes.
Invasion of Faith: Faith vs. Violence, A Chicago Story — COMING SOON
By reporters John W. Fountain and Samantha Latson
Email: author@johnwfountain.com or samanthalatson22@gmail.com
