Prayer

service at noon the day after the killing

The Charleston Shooting and Race: A TIME TO REFLECT By Echol Nix, Jr.

T

he Preacher writes, “there is a time to be born and a time to die” (Ecclesiastes 3:2). In popular culture, it is often said, “birth is uncertain

but death is sure.” All of us will pass away yet we do not know how or when or even why. The existential question, “why are we here?” is just as pertinent as “why do we die?” There are reasons for life and death and God “gives and takes away” in God’s own time. It is difficult if not impossible to answer the question of the

problem of evil, yet many have attempted answers ever since Epicurus first formulated the famous phrase, “from whence cometh evil?” For believers, God can use bad situations to realize God’s purposes. For others, it is unfair or unjust for a loving God to make suffering, as Irenaeus thought, “a vale of soul-making.” Perhaps the problem of evil is really the problem of the

good where we have our own notions of what’s right and what’s wrong. However, modern societies have developed concepts of justice based on constitutional laws that respect the rights of all people. Indeed, what it means to be a human being is defined by “inalienable rights,” endowed by the Creator as guaranteed by the United States Constitution and other documents. Such documents protect the welfare of all people as all people are created in the imago Dei (image of God). Hence, harming another person is illegal and inhumane. The shooting in Charleston, South Carolina, in the United

States, on June 17, 2015, remind us of humanity’s inhumanity. For centuries, African Americans have been victims of racism and discrimination and the fight for freedom and justice is not over. Although there have been tremendous gains to secure the “blessings of liberty” for African Americans since the Civil War with the addition of the 13th

, 14th , and 15th amendments to the

constitution, racist acts continue to happen in public and private places, including places like schools and churches. Every generation must preserve basic human values and reject

any idea that there are superior and inferior races. Education is vitally important to help overcome prejudice and to better produce a color-blind society where “all lives matter.” However, the educated can be “miseducated” and false teachings can be counter-productive to a racially diverse and just society. This was true in the case of Nazi Germany with intellectuals supporting Hitler, and true for any country that oppresses people based on race. Martin Luther King, Jr. said it best, “the function of education is to teach one to think intensively and to think critically. Intelligence plus character – that is the goal of true education.” Indeed, there are many intelligent people who have no

character or conscience and perhaps King’s philosophy on education was influenced by his mentor, Benjamin Mays, a native South Carolinian. As an educator and minister, Mays wrote, “we have no guarantee that when we train a man’s mind, we will train his heart; no guarantee that when we increase a man’s knowledge, we will increase his goodness. There is no necessary correlation between knowledge and goodness.” The role of religion buttresses the function of education and

religion can break down personal and social barriers especially if people of different religions and faith traditions respect alternative perspectives in order to deepen knowledge, clarify questions, dispel misconceptions and, ultimately, pursue truth. The road to racial harmony is long and often seems unending.

There are many signposts with the blood of martyrs whose lives inspire us to keep moving forward despite roadblocks, setbacks or challenges. The list of names of men and women, boys and girls who suffer and die because of hatred and violence is also unending. The list includes those who died in the shooting at Emanuel

African Methodist Episcopal Church on June 17: Clementa Pinckney, Cynthia Hurd, Sharonda Coleman-Singleton, Tywanza Sanders, Ethel Lance, Susie Jackson, Depayne Middleton Doctor, Daniel Simmons and Myra Thompson. For everything, there is a season and this is a time to reflect

and to stop racial violence. Echol Nix, Jr., is a professor in the Religion Department at

Furman University in South Carolina in the United States and a member of the BWA Commission on Christian Ethics.

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