Download We Are Charleston: Tragedy and Triumph at Mother Emanuel AudioBook Free
We Are Charleston not only recounts the happenings of that terrible day but also offers a history lesson that discloses a deeper look at the fighting, triumph, and even the ongoing trend of people who formed Mother Emanuel A.M.E. church and the wider denominational movement. On June 17, 2015, at 9:05 p.m., a man with a handgun opened fire over a prayer conference at the Mother Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal (AME) Chapel in Charleston, South Carolina, killing nine users of the congregation. The captured shooter, 21-year-old Dylan Roofing, a white supremacist, was recharged with their murders. Two days and nights after the shooting, while Roof's courtroom hearing was held on videoconference, the families of his nine victims, one at a time, came out on the screen - forgiving the killer. The "Emanuel Nine" placed a serious example for their young families, their city, their land, and indeed the entire world. We Are Charleston not only recounts the happenings of that terrible day but also offers a history lesson that discloses a deeper look at the fighting, the triumph, and even the ongoing trend of people who formed Mother Emanuel AME church and the wider denominational movement. In lots of ways this church's story is America's story - the oldest AME church in the Deep South fighting with each other for independence and civil rights but also fighting with each other for sophistication and understanding. Fighting to transcend bigotry, fraudulence, hatred, racism, poverty, and misery. The shootings in June 2015 exposed a deep wound of racism that still permeates Southern organizations and remains part of American society. We Are Charleston tells the story of a people, constantly beaten down, who appear to continually overcome the most severe adversity. Exploring the storied history of the AME Chapel may be a way of detailing the price and electricity of forgiveness, a means of exposing God's mercy in the midst of tremendous pain.
