Faith Without Works Mayor Catherine Pugh offers prayers but not much else at December vigil By Lisa Snowden-McCray
lmccray@baltimorebeat.com
Mayor Catherine Pugh SCREENCAP; COURTESYCHARMTV
Right before the end of the year, Mayor Catherine Pugh pulled together an Interfaith Candle Light Vigil to “honor the families impacted by violence in Baltimore City in 2017,” according to an online announcement of the event. Initially planned to take place outside City Hall, the Dec. 28 event was moved indoors to the War Memorial due to frigid temperatures (this may explain the lack of candles at the “candlelight vigil,” as it was promoted). A metal detector stood at the door, with security checking purses, coats, and bags as attendees filed through. There is a kind of comfort in ritual, one that is echoed in many religions. You could feel it that night at the vigil—in the call and response between religious leaders and people in the audience, and in the lyrical pacing of the prayers. “We gather this night with hearts full of hope as we pray for our beloved city of Baltimore,” intoned Archbishop William Lori of the Archdiocese of Baltimore. “Hear the prayers that well up from the depth of our hearts. Prayers for justice, prayers for love, prayers for peace.” If you are someone who prays, what you pray for says a lot about you—whether you come to your chosen higher power on your knees or on your face, bargaining
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or begging, whether you are active or passive in your quest for change. As the Bible says, “Faith without works is dead.” No victims’ names were read at the vigil, and you wouldn’t learn of any of the stories of the dead unless you looked out at some of the handmade signs and other memorabilia in the crowd, most visibly, those in the hands of protesters who lined the back of the building with signs that read #Justice4Jim. They were there to honor Jim Forrester, who was killed Dec. 18 outside of the Baltimore Tattoo Museum, where he worked. There were no details—only prayers, platitudes, and some music. “I want to remind us that as we continue to work together collaboratively, that we will change the future of Baltimore,” Pugh told the crowd at the beginning of the event. “That this will become the safest city in America.” “If you could see what I see right here,” she continued, drawing attention to the signs that her own staffers had handed out (white, rectangular placards with words printed on them in bold black lettering). She read them: “optimism, prosperity, faith, decisiveness, courageous, laughter, thriving, colorful,
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confident.” Other signs, which felt particularly tactless, read “groovy” and “success.” Later, The Baltimore Brew would report that some protesters were not allowed to bring their own handmade signs in. Pugh acknowledged the leaders on the stage with her, some of the most powerful people in the city: Police Commissioner Kevin Davis, City Council President Bernard “Jack” Young, Comptroller Joan Pratt, and various councilmembers. They didn’t speak, but also held signs (Young’s sign: “purposeful.” Davis’: “empower.”) “They gave us signs, then they took them back,” Minister Carlos Muhammad of the Nation of Islam said with a laugh. “But the sign that I was given had ‘visionary’ on it. And we know from the scriptures—the scriptures teaches us that where there is no vision, the people perish.” “We standing here at the mic would rather be less on words and more on prayer,” the mayor said, before introducing Bishop Angel L. Núñez of Baltimore’s Bilingual Christian Church. “We . . . come to repent tonight,” Núñez said, praying in both English and Spanish. “As citizens of the city, we repent for being silent. We repent for not getting involved. We repent for not doing nothing.
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