Atop the pulpit of The First Baptist Church of Deanwood rang petitions for change and a bevy of #PrayerfulResistance as more than 24 faith-based and community organizations took to the Northeast sanctuary demonstrating the power of prayer – or what event convener the Rev. Dr. O. Jermaine Bego calls “the first form of active resistance.”
“When you think about the life of Harriet Tubman, everything that she did was grounded first in prayer, before she went to serve out her mission, her purpose and to bring freedom to those who are oppressed,” said the CenterPoint Baptist Church senior pastor, “and I believe the same thing is true today.”
Set to the backdrop of a national opioid crisis, anti-immigration efforts, housing discrimination and disparities, and the Aug. 11 federal occupation of D.C., with recent orders to extend through Nov. 30, Sept. 3 proved to be far more than a prayer service.
Entitled “Pray for the District: #PrayerfulResistance,” the demonstration brought prayers from the mouths of local leaders to God’s ears, covering topics from law enforcement and first responders to justice and equity, health and healing, remarks for peace and safety, and more.
Participants included presiding Bishop Joel Peebles Sr., prelate of Global United Fellowship; co-convener, the Rev. Dr. Wanda Thompson of Southeast’s Ambassador Baptist Church; and Congregation Action Network executive director the Rev. Julio Hernandez and Bishop Edwon Brown, among others.
Meanwhile Peace Fellowship Church lead pastor, the Rev. Delonte Gholston, Daniela Bravo of Legal Aid DC and Free DC organizer Samantha Paige Davis delivered marching orders and resources for D.C. statehood, youth intervention, and community mobilization, topped with access to know your rights trainings (stop-and-frisk, immigration, checkpoints), legal aid services, and a joint plan to shape the future of the District.
“We have to pray as though everything depends on God, but we’ve got to work as though everything depends on us,” Peebles explained, crediting the words of Saint Augustine. “At the end of the day, our prayer is critical, and our prayer works, but our work has to work too.”
Much of the work begins with mirroring how to put faith over fear, Bego noted, a task he bestows upon clergy and Christian believers such as himself.
Amid preparations for mobilizations and growing initiatives, Bego reflected on the day’s tribulations as “the times designed to test our souls,” while exuding confidence that the congregation would leave on Wednesday with “answers to our problems.”
Before speaking with The Informer, he echoed a similar notion during a video segment on Fox 5, assuring a broader audience that D.C. residents had a plan for the journey ahead – and faith and community-based leaders are ready for the fight.
“This too shall pass, but we must ignite, we must mobilize, and we must engage our elected officials,” Bego told Fox 5 on Sept. 3. “The saying is ‘all politics are local,’ well, the same is…that all resistance is also local. We must begin to unite … and say, ‘enough is enough.’”
D.C. Faith Leaders: We Cannot Be ‘Complicit in a False Peace‘
According to Free DC, a nonprofit organization fighting for District statehood, rights, and against injustices, the next steps towards liberation in the city can be chopped up to five counteractions that “push back on those who are trying to build a dictatorship.”
At the top of the list is to not obey an advance, or be complicit in the threats and fear tactics designed to force action that actually does not have Washingtonians’ best interests at heart — which many local organizers, including Kristen Bonner of the DC Against Trump Coalition, believe D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser has failed to do.
“[Bowser’s] administration has taken the position that if we collaborate with Trump and do what he wants, that will preserve some local autonomy. But we know that giving into fascism and…a racist agenda will never preserve anything. Trump is going to do what he wants to do,” Bonner told The Informer during the Sept. 6 We Are All DC: A National March, hosted by Free DC and other local organizations.
Bonner also highlighted the efforts of Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson, who has openly condemned recent threats from President Donald Trump to expand federal occupation into the Illinois city.
“That’s what we want Bowser to be like,” said Bonner, who’s also a member of the DC Alliance Against Racist and Political Repression and Freedom Road Socialist Organization. “If she can’t be like that, then she needs to get out.”
Thus, the next step, as touted on the pulpit by Free DC’s Paige Davis, was prioritizing joy, followed by:
- Taking up space
- Practicing solidarity
- And organizing.
“Do so strategically, do so in numbers. Do so in a way that is inclusive of all people,” she told the congregation.
Much like Paige Davis, Gholston encouraged community organization just as much as the importance of uplifting D.C.’s youth.
Citing the Bible’s Jeremiah Chapter 8, Gholston called out the common failure of the church that is often “complicit in a false peace,” with believers simply attending services and offering words of support, as opposed to getting involved beyond their place of worship and reconnecting with those “we’ve lost touch with as a church.”
“We don’t want a peace that says, ‘I sent the National Guard, I sent the [Drug Enforcement Administration], I sent ICE to disappear your neighbors and I gave you peace,’” Gholston reminded. “There is a call for each of us — pick your day.”
As executive director of Peace Walks DC, a group of activists, churches, nonprofits, and survivors of gun violence fighting local gun and state violence, that call comes every Friday at 6:30 p.m., on the corner of 49th and Nannie Helen Burroughs Avenue. At this time, Gholston leads a weekly mission to bring vital resources to youth in the Deanwood neighborhood, including job training and health referrals, school supplies and narcane, and past organizations of a coat ministry.
Further, beyond inviting neighbors to join him on Fridays, and encouraging other congregations to host peace walks within their own jurisdictions, Gholston challenged the more than 24 organizations with a new initiative on the rise, Fund Peace Now, the first major expansion of D.C.-based activist Mary Treadwell and former D.C. Mayor Marion Barry’s vision for the 1967 Youth Pride, Inc.
“If you are a church, house of worship, community organization, business, philanthropic entity, union, if you have an address and you collect revenue in the District of Columbia,” said Gholston, “it is your job to either make a job or give a job to one youth. Fund peace now.”
The community organizer emphasized that, while many people opt to blame youth violence on bad parenting, the reality is rooted in a community lacking resources — whether it’s parents not having the tools and training to navigate parenthood, or young people in need of better financial opportunities.
“If we can get kids in summer youth employment, then we can figure out a way to employ our 8-year-olds to 18-year-olds after school and on Saturdays,” Gholston said, noting the inclusion of workforce development training for the kids. “One org, one child.”
With looming webinars for know your rights training, active mobilizations continuing throughout the city, and partnerships including pro bono efforts to support detained youth and immigrants, Bego and Peebles both agree Wednesday’s day of prayer was just the beginning of a forceful shift in both the church and broader community.
Bego told Fox 5 his hopes to see the Trump and Bowser administrations invite clergy and community-based groups to help “restore the element of trust that has been lost,” while Peebles shared his vision for achieving “global prosperity.”
“We will not be puppets, we will not be distracted by circus antics and we will not bow to fear or manipulation,” Peebles declared from the stage on Sept. 3. “Instead, [we will] rise with holy boldness, uniting across as races, parties, and classes to defend the freedom of God’s people.”