A BAPTIST DEACON REPORTS on the Mother Emanuel Nine and the Confederate Flag

By George Bullard F

or many people in South Carolina (SC), Wednesday June 17, 2015, could have been the worst day of their lives. But the amazing grace of God did something else with it. When Dylann Storm Roof entered Emanuel African Methodist

Episcopal Church in Charleston and joined the Bible study taking place, he had no idea what he really joined or what he really started. The evil that possessed him and permitted him to carry out a horrendous series of murderous acts was already in the process of being overcome by good. Jeffrey Collins, a deacon at Spring Valley Baptist Church in

Columbia, SC, is a writer/reporter for the Associated Press (AP). It became his assignment to cover the stories that unfolded over the next 23 days. During that time he also developed a deep, spiritual story of his own:

On my drive down to Charleston June 18 as the sun was coming up after working hours into the new day after the shooting, I wasn’t sure what was going to happen. Would Charleston riot? Would the killer, still on the loose, find another place to attack? What kind of profound sadness would I have to relay to the rest of the world? As always, the story took a surprising series of twists and turns. I used my connections and local knowledge to make sure I was the only national reporter in the small courtroom [on Friday of the same week] where several family members of the nine Emanuel AME Church victims stunned the rest of the world by offering forgiveness to the man charged with their loved ones murders.

Days later the focus of the story shifted back to Columbia

where I am based. When I got back the South Carolina history book on my desk was still opened to the page about Denmark Vesey, the former slave who founded Emanuel AME church and was later executed for trying to organize a slave rebellion. The governor called for the Confederate flag to be removed. My first big assignment with AP 15 years ago was helping out when the rebel banner was taken from atop the Capitol dome and placed on a flagpole in front of the Statehouse. Since then, I’ve written a number of stories about the flag and the aftermath of that compromise. Plenty of times I was the only reporter asking the questions. To see the flag come down was another amazing assignment in a career full of them. I interviewed people I hadn’t seen in years – civil rights leaders, former governors, even a Confederate flag supporter who remembered me from 15 years before. Working for AP is almost always interesting. In 23 days I

saw sadness in the eyes of South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley I have never seen before. I had a pro-Confederate flag lawmaker tell me he was especially down the week the flag was furled for good because he had to put his dog “Rebel” to sleep. I spoke to men with eyes brimming with tears. One overjoyed the flag was coming down, the other devastated because it was coming down.

In August, Jeffrey Collins spoke to a gathering of deacons at

Spring Valley Baptist Church to reflect on what he had experienced. His reflection focused on prayer both as to its importance, and to our patience. He also referred to and talked about the prayer of a former

South Carolina governor who prayed the flag would come down, but it took 20 years to come to completion. Timing is so important. Collins recently talked to this former governor who acknowledged this spiritual reality. “God’s got his own timing,” former Governor David Beasley

said with a laugh. “I knew it would happen. I didn’t know it would be at this date, and I think we all regret that it happened the way it happened, but the fact is, we are where we are. And all things aren’t good. But God says all things can work to the good if we only truly believe.” Here are six things Baptist Christians and churches can do as a result of the Mother Emanuel Nine and the removal of the Confederate flag to continue the spirit of those 23 days: l Pray without ceasing. Realize responses to prayer are in

God’s timing.

l Love without conditions. Just as God is love we are to be embodied by love.

l Reach out without building barriers. Invite the stranger into your fellowship.

l Forgive without hesitancy. God has forgiven each of us too many times to count.

l Share God’s free grace without any added cost. Both the prodigal and the elder brother received God’s free grace.

l Show mercy without judgment. Mercy, like grace, is unmerited, and it is just as freely given. George Bullard is BWA regional secretary for North America and general secretary of the North American Baptist Fellowship.

Left: Front view of First Baptist Church of Charleston the day after the shooting at Emanuel A.M.E.

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