About Charleston

I go wild on a regular basis over Christians in the news, but until the Charleston murders, it's been because the Christ-professers show so little knowledge of the teachings of their Savior. Amidst the usual horror of a mass shooting is the grief that the victims indeed were being Christians. They met together to pray and study. They welcomed a stranger in their midst, even if they felt uncomfortable with a white man in their midst. But it was church; so he was welcome. If he indeed sat with them an hour, I know each of them welcomed him, tried to find common ground (in the South, usually talking about "your people" to find a connection), and if he was a bit strange, well, many come to church deeply troubled. And he shot them.

I was born into a Southern racist family. I was horrified by their attitudes for as long as I can remember. I moved away. I raised my child differently. But not everybody did, and a 21-year-old walked into God's house and murdered God's family. At least Southern courtesy should have kept him from that, but I've always known that much Southern courtesy is a micro-thin film.

Long ago I adopted St. Francis' prayer as my motto: "Where there is hate, let me sow love." How do I do that? Yes, I'll send donations. But racism, from the time I learned about Emmet Till, has always seemed like a tsunami of hatred, overwhelming, engulfing, impossible to divert. Having an AA president, whom I worked to elect, just rubbed off that film of courtesy,

I'm posting here because I want to hear from AAs. How do I sow love, bring comfort, be Christ (not make myself feel better).

Anyway, I'm listening.*


* not to be confused with putting up with BS