Ran Henry

     "And who is my neighbor?"

 

  A lawyer questioning Jesus of Nazareth

 

 

Prologue: Visitation

 

     We gather to remember Clementa Pinckney's sacrifice, the history that shadowed him and the devoted souls who stayed with him for Bible study on June 17th, 2015 at the church in Charleston, South Carolina called Mother Emanuel.

     Love overcomes all, we want to believe.  What power does the Good Lord really have over well-armed hate?  Maybe the spirit of a preacher and lawmaker and peacemaker can remind us how alike we all are, under the skin, and save us.

     Some of us have to see for ourselves. 

     At the doorway to the room under the sanctuary where some say the devil himself fired 74 shots at people at prayer, reverberating still, a police officer with wary, weary brown eyes stands guard.  Seeing more strangers in a murderer's footsteps.

     We carry Bibles, notepads and a TV camera.  Whatever led the people who lost people in that basement room to forgive the murder, and his confederates, we want some of that saving grace -- along with some answers.  The policeman takes us on faith.  The solemn oak door to Wednesday Night Bible Study opens for everyone. 

     Parishioners and visitors, locals and tourists, garnet and black University of South Carolina Gamecocks and orange and purple Clemson Tigers sit side by side on venerable wooden seats with cushions and white plastic Lifetime folding chairs.  A white pine cross with nine nameplates nailed to the wood stands before us, marking the place where 12 disciples gathered around four cloth-draped tables and welcomed their betrayer. 

     The names of Myra Thompson, Daniel Simmons, DePayne Middleton-Doctor, Sharonda Coleman, Cynthia Hurd, Tywanza Sanders, Suzy Jackson, Ethel Lance and Clementa Pinckney are etched in silver and stone, knowable now by the company they keep.  The Ten Commandments, the Apostle's Creed and the Lord's Prayer speak from dark wooden frames on the knotty-pine paneling, along with six defiant words for yet another attacker:  Wrong Church, Wrong People, Wrong Day.

     That's the spirit that draws us all in, leaving no room for the tables.

     What disquieting thoughts float among us, in the hush before Bible study begins at the scene of the crime?  You know, the thoughts a terrorist wants us to think.  Did hearing talk about sowing and reaping around the tables take him back to Bible Camp, and Sunday School, learning the faith of his fathers?  What demons did he wrestle with, sitting beside the preacher staring at the study guide, feeling the weight in his fanny pack? 

     What a presence the head pastor and his church family must have been.

     A statuesque woman wearing a black pantsuit, black tortoise-shell glasses and pearl earrings stands by the pine cross and says, "I hope to be a good substitute."

     Smiling at all of us, ignoring the TV camera, Dr. Brenda Nelson asks us to start with a song, any song.  Some start singing.  The rest of us try to follow along.  As we read a scripture passage about the power of prayer Dr. Nelson sees our earthly concerns.

     "I'm grateful," she says, without anyone asking.  "I will never forget what could have happened."

     She can still hear the applause welling up in the basement room as she and her sisters in the faith received licenses to preach in the African Methodist Episcopal Church.  The head pastor beamed at the women he believed would revitalize Mother Emanuel.  Then Dr. Nelson left her pastor and friends and went out into the sweltering evening, just before Bible study began. 

     "Had an air conditioning emergency at home," she says, shaking her head, still in disbelief.  "Had to meet the repairman.  That was the only time he could come."

     Hours later, as a nightmare of sirens and lights strafed Calhoun Street people, tweeted and texted that Dr. Nelson was dead.

     "No one could believe I wasn't here," she says.

     "You've still got work to do," people keep telling her after her miraculous reappearance.

     "One day we will all go," she reminds us, glancing at the nameplates on the pine cross.  "They were prepared to meet their maker."

     A man stands beside his 11-year-old daughter to say they have traveled from Seattle, Washington to take part in Bible study at Mother Emanuel and hear this testimony.  A woman on the front row wearing pastoral black and earrings of pearl-shaped silver stands and says, "I too was here that night."

     Michelle Frayer saw three sisters receive licenses to preach and surprised everyone by going home, missing Bible study to study for her own ordination next year.  Leaving another empty space in the parking lot. 

     "God's timing is perfect," Minister Frayer assures us -- no matter what the devil does.  She wants us to see how the Lord can inconveniently save us. 

     "We meet death every day, facing those broken white lines on the highway.  We get mad 'cause we're stopped by a red light.  God might just be saving your life at that light, keeping you from meeting up with something evil," Minister Frayer says.

     She recalls joining voices with her pastor for the last time after a contentious business meeting, just before Bible study began.  Reverend Pinckney prayed the prayer he often prayed, asking the Lord to fill the empty pews at Mother Emanuel.

     "And what he prayed for is happening," says Minister Frayer, looking at all the people in the white plastic folding chairs. 

     What does a man have to do to get his prayer answered, some of us have to ask. 

     The murders in the church basement were "not the will of God," Minister Frayer tells us.  The Lord "allowed" the gunman to enter the room, she says, while "moving some of us out of the way.

     "Your father would not take your life," she concludes, for the doubters.  Some of us still want to feel the bullet holes in the paneling and see if evil is real.

     Near the end of the hour a beefy, silver-haired man with wire rim glasses named Jimmy Meeks stands to say he flew from Dallas, Texas, where he is a preacher and a policeman to conduct a "Sheepdog Seminar" in Charleston.  He invites the people of Mother Emanuel to the seminar -- where he'll teach pastors and parishioners to handle firearms and shoot intruders.

     Who among us hasn't felt that righteous anger?  Dr. Nelson calls Reverend Meeks up front to offer a closing prayer.  He asks the Lord for "a Holy Ghost revival" and a renewed bond between police officers and the flocks they protect, making the policeman watching over us with folded arms actually smile.

     After the prayer people say their good-byes.  Caterers dish up Mexican specialties for those still hungry for fellowship.  The TV camera lights up for an interview.  A man who's heard some Bible lessons around the tables in this room offers a stranger a chair.   

     "I was raised by my grandparents in this church," says Thomas Rose.  A long time ago they taught him to stay until the end of the service.  Yet he too left church early that night, he says, just before Bible study began, "to do my sister a favor."

     A visitor can't help but notice that tonight everyone stayed until the end.

     "On a normal night nobody leaves Bible study early," Thomas agrees.  Not willing to speculate whether he'd been saved by the grace of God or his own good nature.  Wincing when the light from the TV camera hits him.

     Clearly he still has work to do, explaining to a disbelieving world how the people of Mother Emanuel could withstand such hate and forgive the haters.  The rest of us can go home and watch ourselves on News2 at Eleven.  Wondering from afar if we can follow a leader who actually practiced what he preached.

     What makes a preacher with a church and a family want to be a prophet?  What a presence Dr. Pinckney and his church family had to be, welcoming a scruffy stranger with a black fanny pack to Bible study, seeing a chance to save a white Southern soul.

     "So nice," confessed his neighbor at the table, "I almost didn't do it."

 

 

"Committed to piercing the media-hyped myth of Spurrier, Henry has written a wise and honest biography of a man who has revamped the strategy of college football, making it more exciting for players and fans alike."

 

Publishers Weekly (Sept.2014)

"Ran Henry's 'Spurrier' is the most comprehensive book that will ever be written about the life and career of the iconic coach."

 

Dan Wakefield, author of New York in the Fifties and Going All the Way

“You’ve done a first class job. You’re a great writer. You did what you needed to do. And you did it all, because this is a good picture of Steve.”

COACH PEPPER RODGERS on Spurrier, the definitive biography and cover photo

"Ran Henry's Spurrier is the most comprehensive book that will ever be written about the life and career of the iconic coach."

~DAN WAKEFIELD, author of New York in the Fifties

"Ran Henry has written an all-American story of grit talent,and triumph. This meticulously researched biography details the life of one of college football's most iconic and galvanizing figures, Steve Spurrier. You may love him or hate him, but after reading this riveting tale, you will admire him. Spurrier is more than the story of one outrageously talented and preternaturally determined athlete; it's the story of how football came to be America's game, and it should be required reading for all SEC fans."

~JOHN DUFRESNE, author of No Regrets, Coyote and Louisiana Power & Light

"Ran Henry takes his subjects so personally that the depth of the details he reveals is packed with originality and an uncanny insight into the human condition. His journey into the heart and soul of a Southern football legend is a marvel."

~T.M. SHINE, author of Nothing Happens Until It Happens to You
and Fathers Aren't Supposed to Die