God With Us: The Charleston Nine

What words have been grafted to soothe a mother’s pain when her black child is murdered. Who created a hug strong enough to convince a young wife that things will one day be normal again after her bandbox, dark-skinned husband has been murdered. Who among us has the heart to face a grade-school age child and tell her that her chocolate covered friend with the kinky pigtails and yellow bows was shot dead because of her complexion. With a commonality that is all to frequent, these tasks have been set at the feet of many, far too many Black Americans. Even before this country was constitutionalized said behavior was the norm.

So why then does the murdering of nine dark souls hurts like a new phenomenon? Could it be that these folk were undeserving? While this reason is absolute, it is still yet faulty. For Stinney nor Earle (or any of the other hundreds of folk lynched in South Carolina) were not deserving, yet their deaths didn’t evoke the putrid discomfort felt on June 17th, 2015. Could it be related to the progress America has made as it pertains to race relations? Yet again, a wonderful assumption but as incomplete as the last lie. For we know South Carolina police murdered 34 Blacks in the five years prior to the Charleston Church Massacre. So, why is this hurt filled with a thick vileness?

I will tell you why. It is a legible, lucid truth that this country thinks highly of itself for its moral compass especially as it concerns Jesus and His business. But, the actions of Dylann Roof risked exposing the charade that is civility in these United States. For it has never been the case that America was civil to Blacks, their problems, or even the taking of their lives. However, in an international theatre that is rich with unanswered questions about Tanisha’s, Yvette’s, Miriam’s—and so many others’ murders, America was forced to be outraged. But this is not new behavior for our schizophrenic country for JFK sat idle while racists fire and police departments beat, sprayed (with fire hoses) and killed Blacks until Bloody Sunday besmeared every black and white floor model TV on the planet, compelling then President Johnson to act which caused some to wonder if his actions were meant to protect White interests or Black lives.

See the Jesus that America sold Blacks allowed for the master/slave relationship. The American Jesus counted the thick chunks of missing flesh from whipped black bodies as tokens that could be turned in at the Pearly Gate for better zip codes in Heaven. The patriotic Jesus reminded Blacks that their lives need not matter in this life for meekness should be glorified. Here lies the problem: their Jesus is a voter-ID-needing, racial-profiling, institutionally-racist Jesus. But, make no mistake Jesus, the Nazarene, and His Father have this uncanny ability to “use what is meant for evil as good to accomplish what is now being done, the saving of many lives.”

Said without the complications of biblical verbiage, I’ll attempt to make it plain. Mother Emanuel, where the Charleston Massacre happened, is the oldest African Methodist Episcopal church in the south. The AME church itself was founded in 1816 by Black men who weren’t allowed to sit, pray and prophesy to White Protestants who shared their Methodist beliefs simply because of their skin tone. So, it’s completely accurate to say that Mother Emanuel is as old as the oldest Black Protestant Denomination in the world. For this reason, we need to know that God orders our steps because this beautiful historical church was founded by Denmark Vesey who was planning the largest revolt of enslaved Africans to take place in late June (I said late June) of 1822 before he was the victim of a secret trial and sentenced to death, unjustly. At the end of all the trials surrounding the Vesey Uprising more than 35 people were hung, and the church was destroyed.

Listen to me: what man thought he had destroyed 200 years ago with racism and hate still stands today. I argue Dylann Roof’s ugly, unclean act of terrorism happened at Mother Emanuel because the flock knows its history and are well aware that Jesus the Nazarene is the grafter of comforting words, strong hugs, and the keeper of lost children.

Let us honor all of the lives lost in Charleston and elsewhere (before and since) by denouncing hate in all fashions especially from those who seek to devise wicked plans. i.e. Donald J Trump and any other who defends his vileness. For we must speak truth about such wretchedness, lest we forget Denmark Vesey, The Charleston Nine, Orlando Forty-nine, and all the other Black and oppressed people murdered at the hands of bigotry.