Chapter 5:
A Mighty Long Journey
- Define a “hate crime.” In your opinion, how is it different from a general crime, and why?
- After reading about Dylann Roof’s crime, do you agree with the statement made by Assistant U.S. Attorney Nathan Williams, “You can see what kind of hatred he had. A vast hatred that was cold and calculated”? Why or why not? What is your definition of “hatred”?
- Why is Emanuel AME Church called “a beacon and a bearer of the culture”? Research and describe its history and what the church means to African-Americans.
- Evaluate this statement by Sarah Collins Rudolph, who lost a sister and an eye in the bombing of the Sixteenth Street Baptist Church in Birmingham, Alabama, in September 1963: “Being bitter won’t bring the girls back, won’t bring my sight back. So I had to forgive because it was what God wanted me to do.”
- Ponder and give your opinion about this statement: “Does biblical forgiveness require ‘forgiving the debt’ when the vicious crime is complicated by centuries of deep racial hate, violence, and cruel injustices? Does our heavenly Father really expect us to forgive such horrifying hate crimes?”
- Contemplate the following statement: “How can someone possibly forgive somebody who would kill or maim in the name of white supremacy?” Do you believe “those are the people who are irredeemable”?
- Why are hate crimes often huge obstacles to forgiveness?
- Do you believe that the African-Americans’ forgiveness of white racist crime is simply a way to eliminate anger from the black Christian’s heart? Why or why not?
- Anthony Thompson states he feels no anger toward Dylann Roof: “If I allow myself to feel intense anger, the fiery rage inside me will complicate my decision to forgive Dylann, making me want to do something drastic about the murder, to seek revenge. If I focus on anger, the fury in my heart and mind will cloud my judgment about biblical forgiveness.” Pen your thoughts.
- Think about the difference between cultural and biblical forgiveness. Do you consider forgiveness a way for African-Americans “to move forward and acknowledge historic and recent racial pain”? Do you think this type of “ritual forgiveness and forgetfulness allows racism or white silence in the face of racism to continue to thrive”? Explain.
- “Some argue that this type of cultural forgiveness is based on weakness, not strength, and that ‘by forgiving racist crime so quickly and easily, black people cheapen their forgiveness.’” Do you agree or disagree? Why?
- What did it cost Anthony Thompson to forgive Dylann Roof? What did Anthony Thompson gain?
- Why is anger not always a negative emotion? Name circumstances in your life or throughout history in which righteous and constructive anger made a good difference.
- Read John 2:13–16. What type of anger does Jesus show when He drives moneychangers out of His Father’s house?
- Ponder this statement: “It would be grossly unfair to the victim to be dependent on the whim of the perpetrator. It would make him or her a victim twice over. The gift has been given. It is up to the intended recipient to appropriate it.” Please record your thoughts.
- Desmond Tutu gives a formula for forgiveness, summarized here: “First and second, tell the story and name the hurt, that in order to forgive one must ‘admit the wrong and acknowledge the harm.’ Third and fourth, he encourages the victims to grant forgiveness and then either renew or release the relationship.” Look at the value and reason for each of the four forgiveness recommendations. Do you agree? Why or why not?
- How does forgiveness “recognize that the love of God is more powerful than white racist hatred”?
- Read Acts 22:20. If time allows, study the life of Paul, how God redeemed him, and Paul’s future work for the Kingdom.
- Ponder the following statement: “None of us deserves God’s forgiveness . . . we all have sinned . . . but the good news is this: God loves us, and Christ came into the world to save us. When we repent of our sins and receive Him into our hearts, God has promised to forgive us—completely and fully.”
For Deeper Understanding
[Note: The following material is given only to bring more understanding through suggested research and websites.]
- Sullivan’s Island Pest Houses: The plaque that greets tourists at Sullivan’s Island reads: “This is Sullivan’s Island, a place where . . . Africans were brought to this country under extreme conditions of human bondage and degradation. Tens of thousands of captives arrived on Sullivan’s Island from the West African shores between 1700 and 1775.” See https://loyaltytraveler.boardingarea.com/2014/06/09/sullivans-island-sc-is-perhaps-the-most-significant-historical-site-in-the-usa-you-never-heard-of/.
- The history of Charleston’s slave trade: During the Atlantic slave trade, the city processed nearly half of all incoming slaves from the African West Coast. Read more about the slave trade at https://iaamuseum.org/history/.
- South Carolina slave population: In the late 1600s, some four-fifths of the state’s population was white. But by the mid-1700s, slaves accounted for more than 70 percent of South Carolina’s population. And by 1800, Charleston had 10,104 blacks—both slave and free—and only 8,820 whites.
- Denmark Vesey: Sick and tired of watching continuing horrors inflicted upon Charleston’s slaves, Vesey, a freed slave, attempted to seize the city of Charleston in what was, at that time, the nation’s largest slave revolt. Thousands of slaves prepared to follow Vesey’s well-organized plan of 1822, willing and eager to kill every white person in sight, steal weapons and cash from banks, and escape by boat to Haiti. But just prior to the rebellion, some fearful followers betrayed him, rendering his uprising a disastrous failure. Seeking retribution for Vesey’s planned revolution, the white citizens of Charleston sentenced Vesey to death, hanging him with about thirty-five of his black supporters, and imposing even stricter laws upon the city’s African-Americans. See https://www.biography.com/people/denmark-vesey-9517932.
- Charleston’s 1886 earthquake: The Emanuel AME church is demolished when on August 31, 1886, the largest recorded earthquake in the history of the southeastern United States strikes South Carolina. Charleston takes the biggest hit, with more than one hundred townspeople killed, and most of the city’s buildings destroyed. See https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/earthquake-shakes-charleston-south-carolina.
- The Sixteenth Street Baptist Church: The first black church in Birmingham, Sixteenth Street Baptist Church, was organized in 1873 as the First Colored Baptist Church of Birmingham, Alabama. The church moved to its current location in 1880, erecting a brick building four years later. When the city condemned the building, ordering it to be torn down, the members constructed the current church, a mixture of Byzantine and Romanesque styles adorned with two impressive domed towers. Located in downtown Birmingham, it was completed in 1911 and served as headquarters for African-American activism, bringing in speakers like W. E. B. Du Bois, Mary McLeod Bethune, Paul Robeson, and others. See http://www.16thstreetbaptist.org/brief-history%2C-part-1.html.
- KKK church bombers: It took almost four decades to charge all the Ku Klux Klan bombing suspects, known and named in 1965: Bobby Frank Cherry, Thomas Blanton, Robert Chambliss, and Herman Frank Cash. In 1977, Robert Chambliss was indicted by a Jefferson County grand jury on four counts of first-degree murder, and was sentenced to life imprisonment. Chambliss died in prison in 1985. Herman Frank Cash died in 1994, without being charged. In 2000, a grand jury in Alabama indicted Bobby Frank Cherry and Thomas Blanton with eight counts each of first-degree murder—four counts of intentional murder and four of murder with universal malice. Both men were sentenced to four life terms. Cherry died in prison in 2004. Blanton won’t be eligible for parole until 2021.
Your Notes