CHARLESTON CHURCH MASSACRE, VICTORY FOR CHRISTIANS.

a scene at Charleston's Emanuel AME church after the shooting

      On Thursday morning, America wake up to witness another gruesome gun violence. A 21 year old man had walked into a church in Charleston-South Carolina, sat in an evening bible sturdy class for about an hour then later open fire on them killing 9 people in cold blood. 3 men and 6 women ages between 25 and 82.
The reason for this crime was not far fetched because he made his mission clear to the people that he was there to kill Black people. So right from the onset we knew this was a hate crime but one thing that was not clear was , what motivated him to commit such barbaric act and why that particular church?
Answers to these question was not readily available until 14 hours later when he was arrested and in his own confession to the police admitted to the murder and said he did that to ' spark a racial war" so it was easy to add that he chose the Emanuel AME church because it is one of the oldest African -American church with great historic heritage .
After this confession he was tagged as the ' face of evil" on social media. On a second thought one could not agree less to this description because who on earth does not want peace of mind except the devil,right???
However in the wake of all the pain, hurt,anger, trauma and provocation caused by his action, one thing stood up tall and that is FORGIVENESS. It resonate with all the survivors and their relatives as well.
Apart from the out pouring  of love from sympathizers to the victims, their families and the people of Charleston,it is amazing to see and hear almost all the grieving families talk about Forgiveness.
Speaking for the  first time to her son's killer in court a very emotional Felicia Sanders, one of the survivors who played dead and laid on top of her granddaughter to save her and watched her 25 year old son, Tywanza Sanders shot multiple times did something remarkable. She said " ...every fiber in me hurts but I forgive you and pray to God to have mercy on your soul". 
Believe it or not, their Courage , kind heart and act of forgiveness have indeed calmed nerves down and drastically reduced the level of outrage that may have resulted in serious retaliation. And this act of kindness shown by these people in my opinion is not just professed in vacuum. It takes the power of the Gospel and through the grace of  our Lord Jesus Christ to be able to smile at the storm in a very difficult moment such as this. It is only in Christ Jesus that we are able to forgive and  also find forgiveness. This proves the beauty of Christianity.
Surely " the word of God is tested and tried" and the greatest of all virtues is Love: that one may even show love to his enemies.
We all know that if this terrible provocation had happen in other religion, hell would have broken loose.
It is easy to revenge and retaliate for a justifiable course such as this,  but hey, if the victims and those directly affected are calling for peace and forgiveness, why will anyone further cast the first stone or cry more than the bereaved. Sparking any kind of war, be it racial, ethnic, religious, political or what so ever, is evil. Peace is relative so lets all try to pursue peace where it may be found and make the world a better place.
May God who through his power has given these families the grace to forgive, heal their broken hearts and grant them comfort and grant the departed eternal life for the repose soul of their departed.