BERKELEY COUNTY, S.C.—More than two weeks after police say Dylann Roof, 21, walked into Emanuel AME Church in downtown and slaughtered nine people attending Bible study, lowcountry pastors are still trying to make sense of the tragedy.
Lowcountry pastors react
“My initial reaction was how could someone come into the Lord’s house to do a shooting like this?” stated Dr. Roderick Sumpter, a pastor at Mitten Lane Holiness Church in Moncks Corner and White Chapel Holiness Church in St. Stephen. “How did one man slaughter this many people at one time without being rassled down or his gun taken away from him?”
“I think they were probably just placed in a state of shock and froze,” stated Frank Jackson, a pastor at New Bethel Sounds of Praise in Summerville.
The shooting quickly made headlines all over the globe. Friends of the alleged shooter say Roof
wanted to start a race war. He was eventually arrested within 24 hours of the shooting during a traffic stop in Shelby, North Carolina.
“It was a shock to me because I believe that most people respect the house of God. I would never think that anybody would come in the church to destroy something,” stated Leon George Brown, a pastor at Moncks Corner Baptist Church. “He came in. He sat down during the whole Bible study and they (churchgoers) never thought nothing of it.”
Where was God?
The massacre inside the church, which also claimed the life of state senator and Pastor Clementa Pinkney, prompted some folks to ponder the question, ‘How could God let this happen?’
“The scripture tells us that all good things come from God, but then each individual has their own mind. He didn’t make us robots. He allowed us the ability to govern our own selves,” explained Jackson, who is also a lieutenant at the Berkeley County Sheriff’s Office.
“God does not cause anything to happen. He permits it to happen. I believe that it’s a wakeup call for
all of us to see our needs,” stated Brown.
“We have to remember that God is still in control of us and everything around us. Even with all of this going on around us, we still have to keep the faith. We still have to trust God, and that he’s going to see us through this. He didn’t bring us this far to allow us to go through this and fear the things the devil is putting around us,” stated Sumpter.
A call for church security
The recent church shooting has also prompted many lowcountry churches to take a closer look at the need for security. Jackson is the chief of security at his own church. He also has been providing church security consulting since 2003 through his company Defensive Technologies LLC.
“The church welcomes everybody. The Bible says ‘whosoever will let him come.’ What we do is that we observe closely. We don’t let anyone sit next to our pastor. It’s just like the president. You can’t get to the president unless he approaches you or you ask to approach him—and then if so, there’s always security,” explained Jackson. “When somebody comes and brings a backpack or instrument into the church, we check them out before we let them into a big program. We have security set in different places in the church to observe.”
Both Sumpter and Brown say they’ve discussed the need for security at their own churches, too.
“I have discussed security with both churches, asking out ushers to be more observant of the congregation, and I’ve also discussed with the men at our church that they need to be active at every meeting to make sure the church is secure,” stated Sumpter. “Our job as a pastor is to make everyone feel comfortable and not have them afraid to come to church because of the incidents that have occurred inside the church recently.”
“We don’t search their bags when they come in. However, we have recently discussed increasing security around the church because we are right on Main Street,” stated Brown. “We have to train our people in the church and on the outside. We’ll have to put our trust in God. He’ll see us through whatever we’re going through. He also gives us the since to protect ourselves.”
Should church members arm themselves?
While Jackson believes churchgoers should have the right to protect themselves, he says no one should carry a firearm without the proper training.
“You can’t shoot across a congregation. In law enforcement, we go directly to the threat. You have to know when to shoot and don’t shoot,” stated Jackson.
The veteran law enforcement officers says there are three things a person who wants to do harm to a church and its congregation will do: steal, kill and destroy.
“If they’re going to steal something, ID the person. As long as no one is hurt, let him have the money and let him go,” explained Jackson. “But if he comes in with a gun, intent on hurting people—a knife is not going to do it. You need to have somebody trained and in place to deal with that threat.”
The Future
Although police have said that the shooting was racially motivated and the shooter’s intent was to reportedly cause a ‘second Civil War’ among the races, for the most part, the shooting has spawned just the opposite. People from not only the Charleston community but beyond have come together in unity.
There have been a few groups; however, determined to incite trouble in the lowcountry. The New Black Panther recently rallied on Marion Square calling for the slaughter of white people. The KKK, a white organization many consider to be a hate group, will rally in Columbia on July 18th in support of the Confederate flag remaining on Statehouse grounds.
In the days following the shooting, there have also been several church fires. According to Sumpter, he believes the continuous violence against the church and people in general is reflected in the ‘Book of Revelation’ found in the New Testament of the Bible.
“This all comes back to let us know that God is soon to come. That the end of time is being fulfilled. The scripture is being fulfilled,” stated Sumpter.
