Love vs. hate in South Carolina

Murder suspect in the Charleston, SC church massacre, Dylann Roof, was accepted with warmth and love when he walked into the bible study meeting taking place in Emanuel AME Church.   And he sat with them for nearly an hour -- some say arguing with them -- but we don't yet know how that hour really transpired.

Did they know he had come to kill them?    Did they see him as a troubled young man that they might help?    One source says that in his confession to police he said that he almost changed his mind about killing them "because they were nice to me."   But then he remembered his plan and felt he needed to carry it through.

The public doesn't really know yet the answer to many questions about that hour.    What we do know is that Dylann Roof was obsessed with symbols and slogans of white supremacy and that he was filled with hatred of black people as a group.    This was not a random killing.   He specifically went to this church with the intent to kill them because of who they were.

What he encountered was a group of people who had been taught and inspired to meet hate with love.  And they tried.   In fact, some of their surviving relatives addressed the killer in court at his bail hearing.   They expressed their loss and their grief -- and then said directly to Roof, "But I forgive you."     

The daughter of one victim told him, "You hurt me, you hurt a lot of people;  but I forgive you."   The granddaughter of another victim said to him, "Hate won't win.  My grandfather and the other victims died at the hands of hate.   Everyone's plea for your soul is proof that they lived in love and their legacies live in love."

It didn't take long for a gun rights advocate to say this proves we need to allow people to carry guns in churches.   If someone in that congregation had been armed, they could have taken out the killer before he shot nine people.

That is not the answer.    This country already has more guns, by multiple times over, than any other nation on earth -- and yet we still have the highest murder rate of any developed nation.   "Love those that hate you" may not be sufficient for the short term solution, but I suggest it is the long-term answer.

And by love, here I don't just mean saying that you love the person who hates you.   I mean putting love into action to change social conditions that breed this kind of hatred:   the ignorance, the economic disadvantages, the lack of mental health initiatives, the shaming that builds resentment.

Idealistic?   Yes, of course it is.    So was Jesus of Nazareth whose message was based on:  "Treat other people as you would want to be treated."   And "Love those that hate you."

Ralph