Was It Disrespectful to Protest Biden's Speech At Mother Emanuel AME Church in Charleston?

Before President Joe Biden walked to the pulpit to kick off his campaign in Charleston, South Carolina on Monday — Senior Pastor Reverend Eric Manning, 56, of the Mother Emanuel Church laid out ground rules.

“This is sacred ground,” said the Reverend, who warned against protests and interruptions, recounting his speech to The Root. “We always do our best to treat each other with dignity and respect.”

But by now, most people know that an interruption did occur. “If you really cared about the lives lost here, you should honor the lives lost in Palestine,” shouted a young Palestinian American woman during Biden’s speech — referencing the roughly 23,000 Palestinians killed in the Gaza Strip.

The tension was quickly broken by chants of “Four More Years!” from the crowd gathered at the church — who drowned out the quieter calls for a “Ceasefire Now!”

The moment blew up on social media in large part because Mother Emanuel AME isn’t just any church. In 2015, the historic church was the site of a horrific mass shooting carried out by avowed white supremacist, Dylan Roof. Nine congregants, who invited Roof into their bible study, were slaughtered.

As Vice President, Biden visited the church and prayed with survivors and the families of the victims. “To have [Biden] treated that way was hurtful to [the survivors and the families],” said the Reverend, adding that some of them were triggered by the disruption. “Sometimes protesters don’t think about how their actions might re-trigger someone else,” he said.

However, not every leader within the broader AME Church agrees with Rev. Manning.

“You cannot call to honor lives taken because of white supremacy and hatred, while that same sort of white supremacy and hatred is motivating what’s going on in Israel,” says Rev. Darien Jones, 29, Pastor of the Monck’s Corner AME Church in South Carolina. “If you honor life, if you respect life, then this is your only responsability.”

Rev. Jones, who sat in the front row of the church and also helped to plan the protest, says he expected backlash. “This was a moment to honor the lives of the Emanuel Nine, the massacre that took place. This was also a moment for the church to celebrate itself,” he says. But Jones says that he felt it was his moral responsability to act, a sentiment he shared with his congregation during Sunday worship.

“We have a mutual understanding that anywhere people are being oppressed or overlooked or harmed or violated that we have an ethical responsibility to stand up for them,” he says. “That’s our ethical responsability as Christians. To show up anywhere that’s present.”

Opinions among the AME faith community are clearly mixed on the subject.

Reverend Joe Darby, who’s served as Senior Pastor of Nichols Chapel AME for the last 46 years, says he agrees with some of the sentiments of the protesters, but strongly disagrees with the choice of venue.

“I thought it was a gross and ignorant invasion of a sacred space,” he says. “I thought they hurt themselves greatly by what they did. I think that most of the people there are in basic agreement that there needs to be a ceasefire in Palestine. But I think that when you act in an immature and ignorant way that doesn’t help.”

Rev. Darby acknowledged that AME has a long history of protest — but says this was different because it wasn’t “sprit-led.”

“I think that what Martin Luther King Jr. did was spirit led, what Denmark Vesey did was spirit-led in helping to establish the church before the Civil War,” he said. “I think that if it’s spirit-led, then it is constructive and that it will draw people to you. What they did, didn’t draw anybody to them. It actually just made people drown out, chanting four more years. So there was nothing spirit-led about that protest.”

Ariyanne Colston Johnson, 28, an ordained minister in the AME Church in Georgia, says she has deep respect for Rev. Darby — who she views as a mentor, but disagrees with the backlash to the protest.

“In the midst of what’s going on in Palestine, as a church that was born out of protest, out of what many people would call speaking truth to power or the prophetic tradition, we had an opportunity to stand in that heritage and take a principled stand,” she says.

Johnson, whose mother was ordained at Mother Emanuel, says she understands the other side of the argument and why the church would support Biden, despite his support for the Israeli government, over Donald Trump.

“I understand in some respects the opposite point of view,” she says. “But, I also think that we’re in this kind of moment of time where people are talking about choosing between the lesser of two evils... But also, as a young person in the AME Church, I understand that the lesser of two evils can sometimes function as a kind of scare tactic to shield politicians from accountability.”

Johnson also noted that this was a campaign event not a memorial service. “I think Biden’s campaign team appeared to present it as a campaign speech, and I perceived it that way as well because the actual anniversary of the shooting isn’t until June,” she says.

Antjuan Seawright, 38, a Democratic strategist, who was at the church to support President Biden’s visit, says this was an inappropriate moment to protest. “I think people [at the event] were angry and frustrated about it,” he said.

Seawright, who is 5th generation member AME and whose uncle is a Bishop of the church, says protests are encouraged by AME, but not in this moment. “The movement has always been about pushing the envelope,” he said.“But that service in the worship center yesterday was not the place.”

Marcus McDonald, 27, a member of Charleston Black Lives Matter chapter who lead the organizing of the protest but says he was denied entry to the church, says he also felt a duty to challenge the President.

“I believe in the Jesus that used to flip tables,” he said. “He was not about sitting down while injustice occurred.”

McDonald, who is Black, shared frustrations that this being framed by some as a disruption caused by outside agitators without a stake in or understanding of the Black church. “My family has been going to Mother Emanuel since the 1800s,” he said. “All of this is very personal to me.”

The larger group launching the protest put out a statement, arguing that it was imperative to protest the speech in-light of “Biden’s refusal to call for a ceasefire, ongoing arms transfers to Israel without congressional approval, and failure to acknowledge that Israel’s actions constitute genocide as outlined in the U.N. Genocide Convention.”

McDonald says the real disrespect to the legacy of Mother Emanuel was inviting Biden in the first place. “The people who don’t have respect for the church are the people who allowed someone with blood on their hands into the church,” he said. “This wasn’t a church service. This was a campaign event.”

Bakari Sellers, 39, an attorney and former South Carolina Democratic State Representative who represented the families of the victims of the shooting, argues that it was wrong to hold the protest at Mother Emanuel. “ I thought it was highly disrespectful,” he said. “Mother Emanuel is extremely hallowed and sacred ground and I’m all for protest, but I think even the leaders of SNCC would tell you that it’s not just the venue, but it’s the who, what and where as well.”

However, for Johnson, her faith takes her to a different conclusion.

“God demands that we stand with the oppressed,” she says. “And if you read the gospels, Jesus himself wasn’t above disrupting a temple.”