Surrounded by hundreds of protesters at a Daley Plaza “Faith Over Fear” rally, Father Michael Pfleger sent a strong message to President Donald Trump, who has said Chicago is about to find out why he renamed the Department of Defense to the Department of War. Pfleger’ message: “You met your match.”
Bellowing through a bullhorn, Pfleger said Trump continues to govern by “threats and intimidation,” but, Pfleger said, those days are over. “The people of faith who are gathered here and rising up across this country want you to know you have met your match,” he told a cheering crowd on Monday, September 8.
“Your threats to invade Chicago, Illinois and to declare war on the rights and freedoms of citizens by ordering masked men in unmarked cars and kidnapping men, women and children and harassing people in our streets without representation or due process by naming them criminals without evidence or proof,” said Pfleger, will be challenged.
“Well, the real criminal with 34 felonies is sitting behind a golden desk ordering chaos. Mr. Trump, you have met your match,” he told an integrated, cheering crowd.
“We want you to know your insanity and intimidation will not intimidate us or frighten us; rather, it’s stirred up our faith and it’s rallying us together like the valley of dry bones.
“It’s connecting Black and white, brown and yellow, Muslims, Christians and Jews, young and old. We’re coming together as an army of faith, and we will not sit still, and we will not sit down.
“We will rise up, stand up and speak up for the most vulnerable and those at risk,” vowed Pfleger. “Yes, Mr. Trump, you have met your match.”
Using a biblical reference Pfleger warned Trump, “Just as God destroyed the golden calf of our ancestors…he destroyed the golden calf of tyranny and fascism, Mr. Trump, you may control your incompetent cabinet that you appointed.
“You may control the pawns and weak-minded members of Congress and the Senate, and you may even control the spineless Supreme Court Justices, but you do not control the God we serve,” Pfleger said.
Looking across the crowd where protesters chanted, “Faith Over Fear,” and Peace is Unity,” Reverend Ciera Bates-Chamberlain, executive director for Live Life Illinois, said, “We have to walk away from here knowing that we are sisters and brothers in this struggle.
“When they come to attack or terrorize one, they come after all of us,” she said.
“And people that believe in truth and believe in justice and believe in democracy, we’re coming to let him know, not here. You’ve met your match, Trump,” Pfleger said.
“Donald Trump thinks he has a hammer in his hand, and he thinks he can bring that hammer to Chicago, but he is about to find out that Chicago is an anvil,” said Reverend David Black from the Presbyterian Church USA.
The rally was organized by a number of faith groups including the Inner City Muslim Action Network, headed by Dr. Rami Nashashibi. He spoke at the Rainbow PUSH Coalition Saturday, September 6, where he said Trump’s attacks are unifying groups of all faiths.
The faith groups protested Trump’s threats to send in federal troops and his vow to crack down on crime in Chicago. Governor Pritzker, Mayor Johnson, Pfleger, Chamberlain and Nashashibi said Trump, his troops and the ICE agents are not welcome in Chicago.
Over the weekend, Trump ramped up his rhetoric against Chicago further fueling pushback by a multi-faith coalition. As if to taunt Chicagoans, Trump turned to his social media and posted an image of himself wearing a hat and glasses with Chicago as backdrop, labeling the city, “Chipocalypse Now,” perhaps resembling the movie “Apocalypse Now.”
But as if he wanted to extract further anger from Chicagoans, Trump, after renaming the Department of Defense to the Department of War, posted on his social media, “I love the smell of deportations in the morning.”
And with yet another post, he infuriated faith leaders and elected officials when he wrote, “Chicago about to find out why it’s called the Department of WAR,” but after receiving major criticism, he backtracked on that label claiming he didn’t mean it that way.
Trump’s revengeful words became a greater unifying force for religious leaders including Dr. Nashashibi who said, ”We know what it means to turn some of the most violent-ridden blocks into some of the most thriving blocks in the city of Chicago, and it does not mean military troops.”
“We don’t need a national force to tell us how we are going to spread love and peace in our community. That is our job,” said Gregory Abdullah Mitchell, executive director of the Council of Islamic Organizations of Greater Chicago, “and we as people of faith reject the tools of guns and troops to solve problems.”
A judge ruled that the Trump administration broke the law when it engaged in enforcement activity in Washington, D.C.
“The President’s threats are beneath the honor of our nation, but the reality is that he wants to occupy our city and break our Constitution,” wrote Chicago Mayor Johnson on social media, “We must defend our democracy from this authoritarianism by protecting each other and protecting Chicago from Donald Trump.”
But while the Faith Over Fear rally was going on, ICE agents confirmed they arrested four people during their “Midway Blitz” operation, including a street vendor selling flowers. The agents were looking for illegal immigrants in the Southwest Side communities.
“We have confirmed in my ward… detained in my ward… there have been three people. One in 50th and Pulaski; he a was a street vendor selling flowers. The other, a couple of blocks down in Archer, was just standing on the sidewalk. The third one was waiting on the bus on 47th and Archer,” said Alderman Jeylu Gutierrez, who represents the 14th Ward.
“This was never about arresting the worst of the worst. It’s been about terrorizing our community,” she told MSN.