To Pray or to Prey: Racism, Religion and Violence in Charleston

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http://religiondispatches.org/to-pray-or-to-prey-racism-religion-and-violence-in-charleston/

BY WILLIE DWAYNE FRANCOIS JUNE 21, 2015



“God wept; but that mattered little to an unbelieving age; what mattered most was that the world wept and still is weeping and is blind with tears and blood”

–W.E.B. Dubois, from Black Reconstruction in America, 1935

This Sunday morning, services were held at Emanuel AME Church in Charleston for the first time since the massacre on June 17th.

As so much of this week’s commentary has reminded us, it is not possible, not honest, to discuss the Charleston massacre without taking into account the reported statements of the shooter, the sacred venue of the tragedy and the racial identity of the victims.

This was a crime that was deeply and tragically American.

In the Jesus movement, the disciples petitioned their leader on the nature and framework of prayer in the context of Roman oppression and Temple-state tyranny (Luke 11:1-13). While Dylann sat this past Wednesday, disturbed no doubt, saturated in the spiritual exchanges of the people of Emanuel, he might have been ruminating on another prayer: “Lord, teach us how to prey.”

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