I was in Charleston, South Carolina on June 25^th and June 26^th during the services for the Christians that were shot and killed on the evening of June 17^th 2015 during their regular Bible Study at Emanuel AME Church. In attendance were President Obama who spoke on Friday, June 26^th 2015 and Rev. Jesse Jackson who arrived the evening of Thursday, June 25^th to a large crowd of Christians present paying their respects to their fallen family members, family members many of us had never met but family they were nevertheless.

Family and effect is what I want to address in this piece in the wake of the mass shooting that took place at Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church in downtown Charleston where nine people were shot and killed, including the senior pastor, state senator Clementa C. Pinckney; also where a tenth person was shot yet survived.

I did not go to Charleston originally because of this event. Our trip was previously planned by my spouse as a birthday trip but in the end it turned out to be much more – it became a moment in history and an opportunity to see what drives Christians.

Our hotel was just a few blocks from the Emanuel Church and it was the first place we headed for upon arrival and check in at the hotel. It took only minutes to walk the few blocks and encounter the street barricaded and filled with police officers and media. Yet, there was also an overwhelming Christian presence, God’s people where there in heavy numbers.

We made our way down to the front of the Church about the time the Rev. Jesse Jackson arrived and as I looked at this now aged gentleman I could not help but recall that as a young man he had stood on the balcony with Dr. Martin Luther King at the moment when Dr. King was shot. Now Rev. Jackson was here in his advanced years to give aid and comfort for yet more men and women of God who had been shot and killed out of anger and hate. My heart went out to Rev. Jesse Jackson as I ponder all he has seen and endured through the years. Both a reverend and an activist, as many of us are.

Spiritual Christian activism on the part of Bible Believing Christians is very important. As our beliefs and our rights to believe as we desire are coming continually under fire we need more Christians who are willing to stand up for and fight for their rights both as Americans and Christians combined. A Christian is not merely an American and an American cannot give up his or her Christian rights and beliefs as our country changes and becomes more and more ungodly. I wonder if we have enough Christian people who are willing to be inconvenienced, let alone killed for their beliefs, like Rev. Jackson and Dr. King.

Which leads me to my next point. What did I see and sense there in Charleston, among those people gathered there? How did the family react? What effect did this shooting have on the Christian family?

Christians are a family and we function like a family when tragedy strikes. Families disagree, they argue, they even fight. They might not talk for months but they are family. They might live in different towns and attend different churches but family is still family. We, the family, can talk about each other all we want. We can argue and perhaps even hurt each other more often than we might like. However, let an outsider come in and hurt the family or a family member and watch how we react. No, no, no – no one messes with the family.

That is exactly what I sensed in Charleston, South Carolina. A place filled with people who had never met, who came from different denominations, of different cultures, different races, different social and economical backgrounds but all part of one whole, one family – one Body, The Body of Christ. There was a comfort and an ease among the people. The family had been attacked and the rest of the family was rallying to give their support through their presence and prayers. Every hotel in the area was booked solid from what our hotel concierge told us.

Banners hung on the neighboring churches with Scriptures on them, one of which had 2 Timothy 1:7 on display.

2 Timothy 1:7 (NKJV)

For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind.

I assure you there was no fear in that crowd. These people were not afraid they were there to show how faithful they were to the family.

There was no disunity found on that street as people from every denominational background, color, culture, economic class, and race stood side by side talking and praying. As I talked with a fellow Christian, an African American Woman, I am Caucasian, we spoke about how this young man had messed with the wrong group, Christians are not easily frightened and when attacked they pull together and offer their support to one another. When Christianity is persecuted it flourishes and grows it does not shirk back or diminish. Courage defines the Christian experience both past and present. We pull together during persecution and find courage and strength through the support and prayers of our brothers and sisters in Christ. As the young woman put it so well, ‘He will not make us afraid.’ No, persecuting Christians does not result in fear; it results in faith and a fierce infusion of courage. That is exactly what I sensed and felt coming from the crowds of Believers in Charleston, South Carolina.

The people of Charleston, South Carolina both Christian and non-Christian handled themselves with such dignity and poise during a difficult and terrible time and under such tragic circumstances. There were no riots or protest there, no uprising of any type. This in my view is a result of both the Christian faith at work and southern manners. Having been raised both in the south and in a Christian home, I know firsthand there are certain expectations regarding how one handles themselves during a crisis. Bravo to Charleston, they honored the south and southern manners superbly!

Effect according to the Merriam-Webster Dictionary is defined as follows:

5: power to bring about a result: INFLUENCE

The effect this young man and his actions had on Christians, Charleston, and the south was to give us an opportunity to display our unity, courage, love, compassion, manners, hospitality, grace, and FAITH. The enemy sought to bring harm but God’s end game was to bring good [Genesis 50:20] and in Charleston on June 25th and June 26^th 2015 He certainly did that. If you want to see a Christian community rise up and become even stronger persecute the people.

Genesis 50:20 (NKJV)

But as for you, you meant evil against me; but God meant it for good, in order to bring it about as it is this day, to save many people alive.

As I prayed on June 25^th at Emanuel AME Church I asked God, why He allowed this to happen. He did not cause it but He most certainly allowed it since our God is sovereign and able to control anything He wishes to control. He did not tell me why He allowed this to happen but He did tell me that He intended to bring something MAJOR out of this incident. That it would have an effect on the Body of Christ like nothing else has in a long time. I continue to pray and seek Him for more information about His Plans for this event as He, and if He sees fit to reveal them to me according to His Will.

Spiritual/Political Disclaimer:

This blog will not be for the faint of heart or the easily offended. It will not be in any way politically correct. It will make every effort to share the truth in love, [Ephesians 4:11-16], to a decaying and dying society and church. I share what I share not to hurt, harm, or offend any person[s] or group; I do it because Christ’s Standard and Truth is not being represented by enough of His Followers and I do it out of love. I love enough to tell His Truth.

Ephesians 4:11-16 NKJV

¹¹And He Himself gave some to be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, and some pastors and teachers, ¹²for the equipping of the saints for the work of ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ, ¹³till we all come to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a perfect man, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ; ¹⁴that we should no longer be children, tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men, in the cunning craftiness of deceitful plotting, ¹⁵but, speaking the truth in love, may grow up in all things into Him who is the head—Christ— ¹⁶from whom the whole body, joined and knit together by what every joint supplies, according to the effective working by which every part does its share, causes growth of the body for the edifying of itself in love.