Tag: charleston shooting

In the wake of the shooting at Emanuel, congregations in the AME and other black churches have ratcheted up security — installing cameras and, in some cases, posting armed ushers. Officers sometimes sit in on Bible study, and law enforcement ran a background check on Campbell Chapel’s unfamiliar visitor.

“Should we allow guns in our Church building?” That was on of the questions that was posed at our last Church Management Board Meeting.

Three days after Dylann Roof allegedly gunned down Sharonda Coleman-Singleton at Charleston’s Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church, her son forgave him: “We already forgive him for what he’s done, and there’s nothing but love from our side of the family,” said Chris Singleton.

Driving through streets named after Confederate generals, a failed man, a boy really, comes to Emmanuel, which as Christians know means God with us. Invited into the circle to pray for the sins of the world and his own sin, the boy instead pulls out his metal lust for violence and desecrates the space with innocent blood.

Jesus, a carpenter, was in a boat full of fishers who, one would think, would be experts at navigating the choppy and stormy sea. But they called on him for help. In the same way, people of faith are often in the same “boat” in life.

A few days ago Jon Stewart, the host of “The Daily Show” on Comedy Central, apologized for being unable to write jokes in the wake of the Charleston shootings. His statement was moving because it reflected truth in a way I've rarely heard. It forced me to once again think about myself.

What happens between the time when we hold our boys tenderly in our arms, and the time they choose to take up arms for a hateful cause?