Maybe you didn't
see it in flesh and blood, unless you were in Charleston, S.C., but
we saw the photos and videos. We couldn't miss Dylann Roof's mop
haircut and glazed eyes in the daily papers and in the national news.
We should have been
heartbroken. Nine people went to their church for Bible study and
never came home. Their ages ranged from 26 to 87.
We saw again that
evil has no boundaries. A young man with life ahead of him and an
elderly grandmother who had lived her life trying to do good are
gone. So are seven other good people, vibrant lives snuffed out
because of the color of their skin.
If we can't be
heartbroken by that, we have no heart.
We can be
heartbroken for Roof's family, who, according to news reports, called
police when they saw the photos from a church security camera. A
sister postponed her wedding. And for years to come, the family name
will be tarnished.
Different
circumstances but still heartbreaking.
Almost immediately
after evil reared its ugly head, the answers started coming in: Ban
the guns. Take down the Confederate flag. Beef up the security. Arm
the churches.
They're
well-meaning, all of them.
But they all fall
short of meaningful change at the heart of the matter.
While making it
difficult for lethal weapons to wind up on the hands of the
emotionally-disturbed is a noble goal, we have seen time and again
that if someone wants to do harm, that person will find a way, making
the call for fewer weapons naïve indeed.
It's just as sad to
tell those who attend worship services they should be armed in what
should be a sanctuary of peace. Do we really want to say, “Pack
your Sword of the Spirit and a Glock 27?”
Such thought runs
counter to the message of Jesus Christ, who preached loving the
unlovable.
The call for taking
down the Confederate battle flag from a government grounds is
certainly understandable and is long past due, given how honoring a
cause that included holding Black people as slaves is so offensive to
so many.
But while that
would be a visible sign, it's still trying to heal an open, festering
wound with a Band-Aid.
The problem is much
deeper than a battle flag. It's a problem that can't be solved with
an absence of guns, nor can it be solved with an abundance of
firepower.
Real healing has to
come from the heart and until we understand that basic fact, the
racial problems that still divide us 150 years after the Confederacy
was defeated will live on. Hatred lives on, regardless of laws meant
to insure that men who are created equal are treated equally. We
might nobly try, but in the end, we can't fully legislate decency and
goodness in people.
That brings us to
one of the most haunting stories to come out of Charleston. According
to multiple sources, Roof told investigators he almost backed out of
his planned massacre because the people at Emanuel AME Church were
“so nice to him.”
The personification
of evil had come face to face with real Christianity.
At Roof's bond
hearing, relatives of the victims said things like, “You hurt a lot
of people, but God forgives you, and I forgive you.”
“May the Lord
have mercy on your soul.”
“We would like
you to take this opportunity to repent. Repent. Confess. Give your
life to the one who matters the most, Christ, so he can change your
ways no matter what happens to you and you'll be OK. Do that and
you'll be better off than you are right now."
In a world where
baiters of all races fan the flames of hatred, we also saw people
loving one who had taken loved ones away. We saw people loving the
unloveable.
We saw people
offering real healing instead of a Band-Aid.
It is a living,
walking Christianity that can truly change the world.
Comment at
www.theandersonnews.com.
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