A Church Chooses To Forgive: “Mother Emanuel” AME Church

There are times when a church’s testimony of the gospel is so clear it cannot be missed. “Mother Emanuel” AME Church, in Charleston, South Carolina, USA has reached that high place. She lost nine of her children, but unlike Rachel weeping for her children because they were not, “Mother Emanuel” weeps, but not as those who have no hope because she knows that all who trust in Christ live with Him forever no matter how tragically they died.

With tears on her faces and a catch in her voices, “Mother Emanuel’s” people speak forgiveness. It is as though, similar to what her savior, Jesus, did on the cross to redeem humanity from sin, this local church fellowship realizes the death of her loved ones could redeem America from the hating which has so often been the cause of death and destruction.

She believes that men and women and children of all races should be safe in their own land to worship in peace. She believes that men and women of all races should eschew evil, criminal, terroristic behavior to make their country a safe place for all, and she holds up her lost loved ones as a symbol of the evil that men do when not rightly related to the living God. Do you know what the sins of humanity do? Look at the cross of Christ for your answer. Do you know what the sins of modern men who reject the transforming power of the gospel of the cross do? Look at the massacre at “Mother Emanuel’s” Bible study.

And yet, the people of that church, in the spirit of grace amidst their sorrow, say “We forgive!” How glorious a response, and how honoring to God.

So, dear brothers and sisters of “Mother Emanuel” AME Church, do not let haters overcome your testimony; do not let politicians hijack your testimony; do not let the populace ignore your testimony. Stand strong in that testimony of forgiveness repeating again and again the Christian refrain: the love of Christ constrains me.

There is no sorrow like your sorrow. Your loved ones murdered while they studied God’s Word and prayed, while they welcomed and expressed love to a stranger, while they felt safe in the house of God. But you have overcome.

And they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb, and by the word of their testimony; and they loved not their lives unto death (Revelation 12:11).