Before the white supremacist massacre in Charleston ...

Forty-eight hours ago, the Reverend Clementa C. Pinckney was alive and leading his flock in prayer. I can think of no better way to honor his memory than to share this video of a talk he gave last February to group of 60 doctoral students traveling through his state on a tour studying civil rights. It's a little longer than what I usually post here, but we are fortunate to be able to hear from the man himself.

We don't see ourselves, or many of us don't see ourselves, as just a place where we come and worship, but as a beacon, and as a bearer of the culture and a bearer of what makes us a people.

... that's what church is all about: freedom to worship, and freedom from sin, freedom to be fully what God intends us to be and to have equality in the sight of God. And sometimes you've gotta make noise to do that. Sometimes maybe you have to die like Denmark Vesey to do that. Sometimes you have to march and struggle and be unpopular to do that.

...There are many people who say why would you as a preacher -- as a pastor -- be involved in public life? ... Our calling is not just within the walls of the congregation, but we are part of the life and community in which our congregation resides. .. we don't like to see our church as a museum, but as still a place of change ...

Let's keep the changes coming. Ta-Nehisi Coates writes that it is time that the Confederate battle flag be consigned to a museum.

H/t Talking Points Memo.