Local faithful mourn Charleston shooting victims, pray for delivery from racial violence

Staff Photo by Tim Barber/Chattanooga Times Free Press - June 18, 2015 
Robert Winslow prays in the sanctuary Thursday at Mercy Junction Justice and Peace Center at St. Andrews on Union Avenue. "I prayed for they that died, and that there not be more hate," Winslow said following the time of silence.
Staff Photo by Tim Barber/Chattanooga Times Free Press - June 18, 2015 Robert Winslow prays in the sanctuary Thursday at Mercy Junction Justice and Peace Center at St. Andrews on Union Avenue. "I prayed for they that died, and that there not be more hate," Winslow said following the time of silence.

"He came to stop hope. I don't care what he does, he can't stop people from wanting freedom to vote, freedom to live."

Parishioners at St. Andrews Mercy Junction Justice and Peace Center prayed earnestly for peace and the end of hate.

They prayed, some shaking with tears, for victims of racial violence.

"Our focus is on white supremacy and sometimes our own privilege and how we need to repent of those things in the midst of a greater evil of racism that's in the world," said the Rev. Brian Merritt, director of the Mercy Junction Justice and Peace Center.

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photo Rev. Brian Merritt leads a group of staff and volunteers in a Presbyterian Confessional Thursday evening in the sanctuary at Mercy Junction Justice and Peace Center at St. Andrews on Union Avenue. Merritt began reading from Psalms 13. "It's a painful Psalm," the Reverend said.

Others met around the city, including at Renaissance Presbyterian Church, and around the nation Thursday after nine people were shot to death while attending a prayer service at a historically black church in Charleston, S.C., on Wednesday night. Church pastor and state Sen. Clementa Pinckney, 41, was among the dead.

Organizations across the country expressed sorrow for families and friends of the deceased.

"Like so many others, my heart just is broken," said Democratic Party of Georgia Chairman DuBose Porter in a news release Thursday. "When events like these occur, we should rally around our brothers and sisters and seek new ways to create a world where there is no room for hate."

The Anti-Defamation League said in a statement that the shooting rampage at Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church in Charleston evokes memories of the Birmingham, Ala., church bombing that killed four black schoolgirls more than 50 years ago.

"We should all be looking in the mirror and asking ourselves how such a tragedy could happen in America in 2015, and what we can do to ensure that it doesn't happen again," according to the news release from the organization.

Black and white children played together at Gloria Griffith's summer program for children at Renaissance church Thursday, but Griffith was so overcome with anger about the shooting that she had to pause and gather herself when talking about the attack.

"My anger for him [the shooter] is that he chose to hurt people in a church, which is supposedly a safe haven for people in need of hope," she said. "He came to stop hope. I don't care what he does, he can't stop people from wanting freedom to vote, freedom to live."

No blacks attended the first prayer vigil at Mercy Junction on Thursday afternoon, and whites outnumbered blacks at Renaissance Presbyterian.

Asked about the attendance, retired Renaissance pastor the Rev. Leroy Griffith responded, "Where did this killer's motivation come from? It sure wasn't the black community. This kind of stuff is a white community's problem. The black community did nothing to stimulate this guy's attitudes."

The shootings at Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church also left some local faith leaders concerned about safety at worship activities.

Local Nation of Islam leader Kevin Muhammad said he posted a plea on his Facebook page Thursday for pastors to consider security at worship.

"It's not extreme, because we live in a dangerous world," he said.

photo Staff Photo by Tim Barber/Chattanooga Times Free Press - June 18, 2015 Rev. Brian Merritt prays aloud inside the sanctuary following a Presbyterian Confessional for staff and volunteers of the Mercy Junction Justice and Peace Center at St. Andrews on Union Avenue.

Everyone attending a Nation of Islam meeting must agree to be searched for weapons. No weapons are allowed in the service, he said. The one time that Malcolm X, a key figure in the Nation of Islam, did not mandate a search was the time he was fatally shot, Muhammad said. Malcolm X was assassinated in 1965.

Martin Luther King Jr.'s mother was also shot in a church while playing the piano, Muhammad said.

Former Bradley County Sheriff Tim Gobble was so concerned about church safety that he started a program around 2008 that his office set up a program to train people in church congregations to carry concealed weapons so they could protect the church. Other churches across the state and as far away as Texas called to learn more about the program. Gobble couldn't be reached for comment Thursday.

Eastdale Village Community United Methodist Church pastor Charlotte S. Williams said she doesn't plan to seek more security. She said men in the church and people in the community keep a watchful eye on the church. She said the shooting is sad, but it's not new.

"We've always had to be on guard," said Williams. "The killing of unarmed African-Americans, both male and female, the violence that the African-American community has to face, goes on and on."

New Jerusalem Missionary Baptist Church clerk Cynthia Coleman said Wednesday's church shooting surprised her. Churches were considered a sanctuary, she said.

"But folks don't care anymore," she said.

Contact staff writer Yolanda Putman at yputman@timesfreepress.com or 757-6431.

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