Tribute… President Barack Obama sings incredible Grace as he delivers the eulogy for murdered South Carolina state senator, Rev. Clementa Pinckney. As the president preached and broke out into worship, popular Christian and Gospel artists took to Twitter with their reactions. But the sight of Obama leading the assembled in “Amazing Grace,” singing from the pulpit, awkwardly and sometimes off-key, was a milestone.
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The services were held for Cynthia Hurd, Tywanza Sanders and Susie Jackson at the Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church in Charleston, 11 days after a gunman entered the church and killed nine people – all African-Americans.
The wiliness of the remanding church members to forgive the killer was a true testament to the God they all served and now President Obama has now given everyone another reason to remember God’s incredible grace. It was a poignant scene for America’s first black president who has typically been reluctant to play up his racial heritage. “It was an act that drew on a long history of bombs and arson and shots fired at churches, not random, but as a means of control … a way to terrorize or oppress, an act that he imagined would incite fear and recrimination … an act that he presumed would deepen divisions that date back to our country’s original sin”. That conversation, and others, must not “slip into comfortable silence”, as Mr. Obama said.
Meanwhile, a police officer in North Charleston was sacked Thursday after images of him wearing Confederate flag underwear circulated online, an ABC affiliate reported.
The thousands of mourners also heard from Reverend Pinckney’s relatives and friends who spoke about his life. For many, black and white, that flag was a reminder of systemic oppression.
Removing the Confederate battle flag from places of honor is a righteous step toward justice, he said. “If we can tap that grace, everything can change”.
The president wrapped up the four-hour funeral in song, belting out the first words of “Amazing Grace” all by himself.
For most of his time in office, Obama has been careful not to speak too eloquently, show too much empathy, or worse, anger, lest he be perceived as tilting toward one group over another instead of being the president of the United States.
“But god works in mysterious ways”, Obama said. “He has allowed us to see where we have been blind”.
Obama’s remarks came during an interview out on Monday with comedian Marc Maron for his popular podcast, where crude language is often part of the discussion. “God has different ideas”, he said. “But he surely sensed the meaning of his violent act”, he said. “It wouldn’t an insult to the valor of Confederate soldiers”.
Once again with this senseless slaughter America and its president had to pause and reflect on how to move forward, how to resume once more a national discussion on race and racism.
If left to the president, he would have grasped every extended hand, but with the Rev. Pinckney’s coffin wheeled from the church, a brigade of secret service officers wedged through the crowd and spirited the president and his wife from the church.
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The symbol’s removal from the South Carolina Capitol “would be an acknowledgement that the cause for which they fought, the cause of slavery, was wrong”. Friday, the Supreme Court announced that same-sex couples had a constitutional right to marry, rooted in the 14 Amendment, written in the wake of the Civil War to grant citizenship to people once enslaved.
