New Project! THE TRANSFORMERS: MOVING BEYOND THE WALLS

ABOUT THE PROJECT: "The Transformers" is a collection of documentary snapshots that examine the work of members of the faith community across the nation. They are believers who are moving beyond the walls of the institutional church with a heart to impact community by prayer, faith and action. Among them is True Vine Ministries in Oakland California, whose pastor, the  Reverend Zachary Carey founded S.A.V.E.--Soldiers Against Violence Everywhere. 

Ranging from mobile soup kitchens to a Washington, D.C.-based ministry that seeks to help young women ensnared by the sex slave trade to other innovative hands-on approaches, they collectively represent a model for how others may put their faith and passion into action. Journalist, Professor and Chicago Sun-Times columnist John W. Fountain chronicles these efforts here and in a forthcoming project titled, "The Transformers."

It Takes A Father

By John W. Fountain

It takes a father. We must reclaim, revive, rebuild, and restore the village: One child, one father, one family at a time. For the village is broken, deeply broken.

Shattered, it lies in ruins—spiritually, morally, socially. Our communities breathe on life support. Children murder children. And a generation sits complicit and largely silent, our heads buried in sinking sand.

We routinely bury our young, slain in an increasingly vicious “village” filled with gunfire that rises as surely as the morning sun and the wail of grieving mothers. A village whose streets flow with too much blood, with too many tears. And yet, not with enough outrage, conviction, resolve.

Not with enough faithful, functioning, full-proof fathers.