This week in Christian history: SBC's ‘conservative resurgence,’ Charleston shooting

By Michael Gryboski, Mainline Church Editor Twitter

Charleston Church shooting – June 17, 2015

The nine victims of the 2015 Emanuel AME church massacre in Charleston, S.C.
The nine victims of the 2015 Emanuel AME church massacre in Charleston, S.C. | (Screenshot: WRDW)

This week marks the anniversary of when a white supremacist entered Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church of Charleston, South Carolina, during a Wednesday night Bible study and murdered nine people, all of whom were African American.

Dylann Roof, 21, entered the Bible study and killed most of the attendees, with the stated intention of starting a race war in the United States.

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However, the mass shooting instead instigated broad efforts at racial reconciliation as well as family members of the victims publicly forgiving Roof for his actions.

In August 2021, a three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit issued a per curiam decision upholding the Roof's death sentence.

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