The Moment When One Finally Realizes It's Time To Move On

This is an excerpt from John Fountain’s forthcoming book: 

“No Place For Me: Letters to the Church in America"

John Fountain (Back row, third from left) is pictured here with his siblings and cousins and their grandparents, the Reverend George A. and Missionary Florence G. Hagler at their True Vine Church circa 1970s,

By John W. Fountain

It wasn’t that I disagreed with the whole idea of “separation of church and state.” For it is difficult for the “political voice” and the “prophetic voice” to coexist. Indeed I have long believed that speaking truth to power requires a certain distance from the established social and political powers that be. That if a preacher ever climbed into bed with politicians he was well soiled before he climbed out. And that once you had been politically tainted you were likely to develop social laryngitis because more than likely you had been bought with a price.

In my eyes, the affairs of faith--even if sometimes connected to the affairs of “the state”--needed a degree of immunity from political corruption and the trappings of politics: money, power, influence.

The “uncompromising man of God,” that I perceived “Reverend Pastor” to be was what helped draw me temporarily from the waters of religious brokenness to the shores of “Resurrection Church.”

"His words blew me away. It wasn’t his words alone but the sum of my experience with organized institutional Christianity." 

Award-Winning Columnist, Author, Journalist and Professor, Fountain writes weekly for the Chicago Sun-Times. Fountain has been a reporter at some of the nation's top newspapers. Formerly a national correspondent with the New York Times, he has been a staff reporter at the Washington Post and the Chicago Tribune. He is a professor at Roosevelt University and formerly a professor at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

What If The Church Left Its Walls?

By John W. Fountain

What if? What if, instead of going to church this Sunday, the church decided to “be” the church? What if, instead of pouring through the doors of sanctuaries across this city and nation to worship at cathedrals grand and small, congregants collectively flooded the streets of neighborhoods where there is no sanctuary for the poor, the widow and the orphan?

What if, rather than dropping tithes and offerings into the collection plate this Sunday, each family sought instead to find another family less fortunate, perhaps down on their luck, living in a shelter, a car, or out on the street?

Or maybe there is a senior citizen who must choose between buying medication or food. Or someone else for whom a more mobile and less self-serving church might become the vehicle for little miracles. Comfort for a grieving mother. A salve for a sick and dying child.

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"...What if one Sunday we veered from the routine, 

religion and ritual of church? "

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Transformers: Moving Beyond The Church's Walls

Pastor Zachary E. Carey, of True Vine Ministries, leads a march against violence and believes the faith community is critical in the fight to rebuild urban communities and helping to solve the issue of homicide, claiming the lives of mostly young black men.  

By John W. Fountain

OAKLAND, Calif.—At a busy intersection, here in East Oakland, horns blare in the Saturday morning air as a band of faithful soldiers stand and chant.

“Some-bo-dy di--i-ied here,” intones a woman.

“Some-bo-dy di-i-i-ied here,” the group yells back.

Nearby, a mourning mother whose two teenage sons were murdered in separate incidents—less than a month apart—carries poster portraits.

“Honk for Guns Down,” reads a sign. “Honk for Peace,” reads another. In response, motorists sound their horns, smile and wave as they pass.
Among those marching this warm winter’s day are children and also the elderly, black and white, men and women, Baptists and Episcopalians. Some finger the “peace” sign. Others wave colorful placards. Their mission—begun three years ago—remains incomplete.

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"The faith community can win where government policies and even laws fail. 

The church can reach hearts and souls and help transform lives."

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