2015/07/08 – 

Ministers from numerous denominations and faith traditions name love for Mississippi and love for others as reasons to remove the Mississippi state flag.

“My blood runs deep in Mississippi,” said Isiac Jackson Jr., president of the General Missionary Baptist State Convention of Mississippi, speaking Wednesday during a prayer vigil in front of the Governor’s Mansion.

The vigil called for the removal of the state flag and honored the nine people killed during Bible study at Emmanuel A.M.E. Church, a historic black church in Charleston, South Carolina.

“I love Mississippi, but I hate the emblem that Mississippi flies over our state.”

A call to remove the state flag, which includes a representation of the Confederate battle flag in its canton corner, has been in the news since the Charleston shooting. The alleged shooter, 21-year-old Dylann Roof, posed in social media photos with the Confederate flag.

Mississippi House Speaker Philip Gunn has said he believes the state flag “has become a point of offense that needs to be removed.” Gov. Phil Bryant has said citizens voted in 2001 not to change the flag and he supports the will of the people.

Speaking at the service that attracted 225 people, the Rev. C.J. Rhodes — pastor of the oldest black church in Jackson, Mount Helm Baptist Church — turned to Proverbs 21 for guidance.

“Proverbs 21 says the heart of a king is in the hand of the Lord,” Rhodes said.

“We are praying the hearts of our elected officials are in the Lord’s hands and that the Lord will turn those hearts however the Lord sees fit.”

Brandiilynne Dear, pastor of Joshua Generation Metropolitan Community Church in Hattiesburg, read from 1 Corinthians 13, which explains the importance of love. She asked that “love would engulf our governor, our state and our nation because love is louder and love overcomes hate” and that state leaders would have a change in heart that would lead them to remove the Confederate battle flag image.

The Rev. Susan Hrostowski, vicar at St. Elizabeth’s Episcopal Church in Collins, told the crowd at the vigil that the Episcopal Church of the United States has passed a resolution asking that the Confederate battle flag emblem be taken off the flag.

“We recognize that that symbol, that Confederate battle-flag symbol, has a two-sided history,” she said.

“For some people it has been a symbol of heritage, but I have to say I believe to most of us that symbol is a symbol of hatred. It is a symbol of prejudice. It is a symbol of terror. It is a flag that terrorists carried with them as a terrorist did in Charleston. … There is nothing about love in that symbol.”

Father Jeremy Tobin of Christ the King Catholic Church in Jackson called for all symbols of hate to be purged from the nation.

“We are Americans. We are not just black, white, Italian, Greek, whatever. We are Americans.”

The Rev. Reginald Buckley, pastor of Cade Chapel Missionary Baptist Church in Jackson, suggested some people would call the vigil sensational, reactionary or opportunistic.

“All of them would be correct,” Buckley said.

“This is a sensational gathering of believers, a sensational collection of like-minded Christians, a sensational amalgamation of God’s children who believe the massacre in Charleston demands a thoughtful reaction, a meaningful reaction, a purposeful and passionate reaction that says to the world that our faith does not retreat from the opportunity to witness and the opportunity to declare tonight that there is one flag that reigns supreme to them all.”

Naming the Christian flag as the supreme flag, Buckley called on Bryant and Lt. Gov. Tate Reeves to consider their Christian convictions and retire the state flag, which Buckley said for for some is a reminder of the segregated South, has been used as a platform for hatred and bigotry, and is associated with the Ku Klux Klan and Confederate army.

During the service, candles were lit in memory of those killed in Charleston.

Edelia Carthan of Jackson stepped forward as a volunteer to hold a candle. She said the service made her recall her cousin Emmett Till, a black youth who was killed at age 14 in 1955 in the Mississippi Delta town of Money after reportedly flirting with a white woman.

“Being here today brought back memories of his death and what it represents,” Carthan said.

Frank Figgers of Jackson said he thought the service, which was attended by people of all ages and races, went well.

“We’re trusting God to do what God does, and for us as God’s children to walk in God’s will,” he said.

Justin M. McCreary, minister at the Unitarian Universalist Church of Jackson, attended the service and said afterward that he supports a change in the state flag and “the deconstruction of white privilege in the United States.”

Source: Nell Luter Floyd

The Clarion-Ledgar