Murder in the Church

It is shocking. Just to have those two words in a sentence or title: Murder - Church.

We are all still reeling from the events in Charleston, South Carolina this week. A crazed young man interrupted a prayer meeting at a local church with unspeakable violence. How could this happen?

I will never forget March 3, 2011. It was a Thursday afternoon. I was home preparing for a Men's Retreat and my phone rang. One of our staff members informed me that something terrible had happened at NorthPointe Baptist Church. NorthPointe is a mission of our church and one of my seminary students, Clint Dobson, was serving as pastor there. I dropped everything and jumped in my car and headed to NorthPointe.

I drove into the parking lot at our mission and was met by a couple of staff members. Police cars were literally everywhere. A helicopter was overhead. SWAT police officers were surrounding the building. To say that it was surreal is an understatement.

Finally, the details emerged. The unspeakable had happened. At CHURCH. A young black man had entered our mission church and murdered our young, white pastor. He also had left the church secretary for dead after severely beating her. Miraculously she survived.

I remember thinking -- How could this have happened? At CHURCH? Is nothing sacred anymore?

Obviously, Clint's family, friends, church - and our church - have never been the same since that day. The violence perpetrated in that church has changed all of us.

When I heard about the shooting at Emanuel African Episcopal Methodist Church in Charleston, I couldn't help but re-live our experience just a bit. Similar emotions emerged. Similar questions surfaced. How could this have happened? At CHURCH? Is nothing sacred anymore?

This time, a crazed white man murdered several black Christians. Evidently he was motivated by his racist hatred.

When Clint was murdered, as best we know, racism was not a motivating factor. Evidently, his murderer was a young man who lived in a violence-ridden and drug-crazed environment. He needed a car, some money and a few things to sell. He killed a brilliant young pastor to satisfy his wants.

Senseless.

As I have reflected on it all for a couple of days, I have just been reminded of the darkness of evil and the impact of sin. Clint's murderer was (and is) a broken, sinful individual. We discovered at his trial that his days were marked by senseless acts of violence and drug use. He had no problem with abusing others to get whatever he wanted. He was even willing to kill another human being if that was what it took to meet his demands. He was even willing to walk in a church in broad daylight and murder a pastor at his desk working on Sunday's sermon.

This young man in Charleston seems to have nursed a racist perspective over the course of a lifetime. I have only briefly read about his propensities, but they are the product of a sinful mind encased in the evil of racism. He was willing to walk into a church prayer meeting and presumably kill the pastor and other parishioners just because they were black.

Senseless.

There are no easy answers today. There weren't any easy answers when a church was bombed in downtown Birmingham in the early 1960's. There weren't any easy answers when a crazed individual walked into a youth prayer meeting at Wedgewood Baptist Church in Fort Worth, Texas back in 1999 and just started shooting. There were no easy answers that day in the parking lot at NorthPointe. 

In the face of such evil, we grieve. We grieve over the senseless loss of life. We grieve over the incredible darkness that can live in a human heart. We grieve over the reverberating pain felt by family members and survivors.

We also continue to turn to a loving God who grieves more deeply than we ever will. We turn to a loving Father who has promised us that love will outlast and overcome hatred. We turn to a loving God who personally visited our planet and entered into the suffering of humanity. We turn to a loving God who can and will bring comfort and peace to troubled souls. We turn to a loving God for strength to enable us to walk through our grief and loss with hope. We turn to a loving God who can enable us to continue to be beacons of light in the face of such darkness. We turn to a loving God who alone can bring about the transformation of human beings and deliver us from the darkness of evil in our own lives. We turn to a loving God who alone is the hope for a future where the light of His love will overcome the darkness of a broken world. We look forward to the new heaven and the new earth where there will be no more evil or death.

Until that day comes -- may God use us as His ambassadors to share His love and His hope in our own corner of the world. May we be able to share the love and hope of Jesus with others so that hatred, racism, violence would be overwhelmed. 

I also must say that we acknowledge that evil has penetrated the walls of our churches. Yes, there have been murders at church. But, the church itself has not been murdered. In fact, the church opens its doors for murderers, drug abusers, racists and all sinners ----- yes, the church is open for business in Arlington, Birmingham, Ft. Worth and Charleston today. The church is open and at work. The church continues to say to everyone, "Come inside. Find hope for your life. Find rest for your soul. Find answers for your questions. Find beauty in your ashes. Find healing for your pain."

May God have mercy on all of us today.