President Obama delivered the eulogy for slain pastor and state Senator Rev. Clementa Pinckney and it was one of the most incredible moments we’ve ever seen for him. It was more than grieving the nine lives that were lost.
At times it was a call to action, other times it was a sermon. Needless to say, that was an experience like none other. President Obama addressed the uncomfortable conversation about systemic racism in America, gun control and stayed on the topic of faith, grace and God more than we expected.
MANDEL NGAN/AFP/Getty Images
Here’s some of President Obama’s best and most riveting quotes:
“To the families of fallen, the nation
shares in your grief. The church is and always has been the center of
African American life. A place to call our own in often hostile world. A
sanctuary from many hardships. The Black church is our beating heart.
There is no better example of this than Mother Emanuel.”
“[It was] an act that he imagined
would incite fear and recrimination, violence and suspicion, an act that
he presumed would deepen divisions that track back to our nation’s
original sin. God works in mysterious ways. God has different ideas. He
didn’t know he was being used by God.”
“God has visited grace upon us for he
has allowed us to see where we have been blind. Amazing Grace, how sweet
that sound, that saved a wretch like me. He has given us a chance to
find our best selves.”
“It’s true that a flag did not cause
these murders. The flag has always represented more than ancestral
pride. That flag was a reminder of systemic oppression and racial
segregation.”
“Removing the flag is not an act of
political correctness, but a sign that the cause for which the
Confederates fought, the cause of slavery, was wrong. By taking that
flag down, we express God’s grace. I don’t think God wants us to stop
there.”
“We guard against not just racial slurs, but also…the subtle impulse to call Johnny back for a job interview but not Jamal.”
“To long we’ve been blind to the unique mayhem gun violence
inflicts upon this nation. Sporadically our eyes are open. When eight of
our brothers & sisters are cut down in a church basement, 12 in a
movie theater, 26 in elementary school, I hope we also see the the lives
cut down every single day. Every time another act of gun violence
occurs, someone says we need to talk about race. We can’t expect a
transformation in race relations over night. There’s no short cut, we
don’t need more talk.”
“It would be a betrayal of everything
Reverend Pinckney stood for, if we allowed ourselves to slip into a
comfortable silence again.”
” History must not be a sword to justify injustice, but must be a manual for how to avoid repeating the mistakes of the past.”
” We don’t earn grace, we’re all
sinners. We don’t deserve it, but God give it to us anyway. It’s our
decision how to honor it. May God continue to shed His grace on the
United States of America.”
And more importantly, President Obama broke out into song and lead the full congregation in “Amazing Grace.”
“May God continue to shed His grace on the United States of America." —@POTUS http://t.co/14Z3HnNi8v
— The White House (@WhiteHouse) June 26, 2015
Today's funeral concluded a three-day procession that started with Pinckney's coffin lying in state in at the Capitol building in Columbia, after which he was taken to his childhood church, St. John A.M.E. in Ridgeland, and then to Emanuel A.M.E. last night.
Pinckney is survived by his widow, Jennifer Benjamin Pinckney, and young daughters Eliana and Malana.
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