Finding Freedom in Charleston’s Good Example

News of the shooting in Charleston’s Mother Emanuel church is still raw and hard to digest as I write this. This will certainly have affect every church in America. I confess, I thought about safety last Sunday when people streamed into the church I attend.

Christianity is inclusive, not exclusive, so it’s normal to see newcomers at church activities. But with violence now moving into churches, how are Christians to react? Should we give church ushers pistols along with their name badges? Frisk people coming into prayer meetings? Stay home?

Since 1981, Dr. Caroline Leaf, author of “Who Switched Off My Brain?” has researched the human brain and emotions. She says there are only two basic human emotions: fear and love. Out of fear comes anger, bitterness, discouragement, dishonesty, stress and depression. Murder certainly belongs on that list also. Out of the emotion of love comes joy, peace, patience, kindness, well-being, fulfillment and forgiveness.

Put simply, our train of thought begins with either fear or love. Then it runs along that track until we begin to act on our thoughts. The Charleston shooter was steeped in hate when he acted on his emotions.

The good people of Charleston are choosing to forgive the shooter. I’m thinking they’d already been on the love-one-another train for a while. Their natural response was to demonstrate the love of Christ. No riots that tear up their community. No hate talk infecting others and possibly inciting more hate crimes.

A similar story is playing out in Africa where 21 Coptic Christians knelt in orange jumpsuits last February so Islamic State jihadists could cut off their heads. Yet, this week a news report out of Libya said their families have chosen a path of forgiveness. The report showed a young widow with her children, her face radiating peace. This morning I saw a TV interview with a young Christian woman from Kenya who survived a massacre. Over 100 of her fellow students were murdered. Again, she is choosing to forgive.

There is nothing easy about forgiveness when loved ones are treated unjustly, let alone senselessly murdered. We must never minimize the horror of a crime or deny our painful emotions. Murderers must be brought to justice. But it’s equally important to choose to forgive others.

Forgiving others frees our souls in a way that clinging to fear, hate and bitterness can never do. Dr. Leaf’s huge amount of research shows forgiveness is also healthy for our minds and bodies.

One of my favorite TV programs is “Father Brown.” (PBS, Thursday evenings.) The good father is fearless as he solves a new mystery every week. Often he ends up alone with a killer or being shot at. In one episode he was left in a coffin. (For a small town priest, he leads an exciting life.) Instead of cowering, he eagerly seeks the assailant, because his mission is to care for every soul. He is the definition of courage in the face of evil.

The members of Mother Emanuel church and the survivors in Africa show authentic courage in the face of evil. May they all be be blessed and may their examples of faith in action inspire us all.