Discussion for article #237674
Love is stronger than hate.
What this man did was despicable and wicked, but I hope he has a very long time in prison to contemplate what he has wrought.
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I started listening to some of the victims’ families statements but I couldn’t go on. Just too painful. Their ability to speak of forgiveness under these circumstances seems almost super-human.
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These beautiful people have utterly defeated Roof with love. He thought he was going to start a civil war with his hatred but boy did he misjudge the content and the character of those he tried to start a war with. The hatred of racists like Roof is based on fiction. They have no idea who these people really are that they hate so much.
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I don’t think anything could have hurt him more than these good people saying they forgive him.
Maybe he thought that black people would be in the streets protesting and could be denigrated by the media as the problem. He said he wanted to start a race war.
Boy did he get a surprise.
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These are all far far better people than I. Bless them.
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Yup. Compare and contrast the dignity of those family statements to the response of the GOP candidates who refuse to publicly acknowledge that the shooter is a racist.
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Wow. What a refreshing reminder of what Christianity is supposed to be about. I don’t know anything about these families or the congregation, but the courage and love shown here are breath-taking. I’m not much of a believer myself, but this kind of example is sorely needed in a landscape that is otherwise littered with the likes of Huckabee, Santorum, the Duggars, et al. ad nauseum. Far too many Christians seem to find their courage only when it comes time to tell women or the poor or the LGBTQ community or the undocumented what to do with their lives and their bodies. I just don’t see those folks having the guts and decency shown by the Emanuel AME community in these statements. It’s the answer to the question, no? This is what Jesus would do. This.
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21 If your enemy is hungry, give him food to eat; And if he is thirsty, give him water to drink;
22 For you will heap burning coals on his head, Proverbs 25:22
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Dr. King would be proud. These family members have more willpower than I would. Especially when you consider the way the horrible racist judge tried to hijack the hearing.
“Fory ou will heap burning coals on his head,” that phrase is often left off.
Not super-human, fully human. That’s the kind of behavior true believers aspire to and achieve.
This brings a clutch to my throat. I grew up in the Evangelical Christian milieu. The ability to forgive and to express concern for the perpetrator of this unspeakable crime is the essence of the faith, as opposed to the dominionisist b.s. we hear from too many of the Christian “leaders” today. God bless you. I only wish I had the same strength you have.
I can never be as forgiving as these gracious people. Right-wing media have to take some responsibility for this. Who warped this malleable kid’s mind to make him admire apartheid states that don’t even exist in Africa anymore?
Sorry, but he deserves whatever prison abuse he will endure, for a long, long time… Whoever helped warp his murderous mind should suffer too, if they have a conscience.
Oh yes, he is so young., and I hope he suffers for many many years years for what he did. That would be justice. The most heartbreaking thing is what he told the cops today: he almost didn’t go through with his plan because they were so nice to him. OMG…the other incomprehensible thing is that the Reich wing won’t call it for what it was! A Racist hate crime! Who are they trying not to offend? Racists?
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People who have been hurting all their lives from the injustices done to them have to forgive. If they let the anger get to them it would eat them up,destroy them.
Yesterday I kept rereading the article where he says he almost didn’t go through with it. It’s unfathomable.
Useless violence and death, that is all Dylan Roof achieved. His hated targets are so much more than his hateful mind ever took the time to contemplate.
Good people can be hurt by bad but not destroyed and as these survivors prove, not lowered to the level of their attacker.
Yes, that was in some ways the most horrible part of the whole story. It seemed to show the possibility that some humanity, some natural compassion could break through the thick ideology that has so warped this guy’s perception. There was that moment of wavering but then he went ahead with his ideological habit anyway. To me, that just underlined how this act was not some inevitable, completely unavoidable outcome of a particular viewpoint but rather something that was totally unnecessary. That’s tragic.
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The grace and dignity of these people in the wake of absolute heartbreak is inspirational. These folks are heroes that put me to shame knowing I could not be so forgiving.