Bishop believes slays may be ‘redemptive force’ for Hub

By Joe Fitzgerald
Wednesday, October 6, 2010

“There’s going to be a great deal of emotion in that sanctuary,” he said, “and we’re going to do our best to speak to it.”

But he also knew he had to keep a grip on his own emotions.

This coming weekend will mark the 29th anniversary of his pastorate in Mattapan, meaning there are very few situations he hasn’t seen or experienced before. Some occurrences, however, can still shake him to his core, and what happened a week ago yesterday was one of them.

“I never have a feeling of despair,” he insisted. “I never have a feeling of hopelessness. But, yes, I do have feelings of being overwhelmed, feelings of not being strong enough to do what will be required of me, such as leading this service we’re about to have. Yet I also know God’s grace will be sufficient and that He will provide the strength that’s needed in my weakness.”

Borders has been personally acquainted with horrific violence. Indeed, Morning Star Baptist Church, whose new home now towers over Blue Hill Avenue just blocks from where this massacre occurred, was the site of bloody mayhem in 1992 when hooded assailants invaded a funeral there and began attacking mourners.

It galvanized this city, giving birth to what became known as The Ten Point Coalition, because some crimes are simply too unconscionable to ignore or forget.

Back in 1963 such a crime occurred in Birmingham, Ala., when four young girls perished after a bomb was placed in the 16th Street Baptist Church where they were attending Sunday school.

“They did not die in vain,” Martin Luther King Jr. declared in eulogizing them. “God still has a way of wringing good out of evil. History has proven over and over again that unmerited suffering is redemptive. The innocent blood of these little girls may well serve as the redemptive force that will bring new light to this dark city.”

Borders, mulling those words, believes there’s a parallel in Boston this morning.

“What Dr. King said that day absolutely applies to this service we’re about to have,” he said. “And I’ll tell you why it applies.

“This little boy and his mother were innocent victims, and it’s as innocent victims that their sacrifice takes on a whole new redemptive element, an element that is intended to shock our consciences.

“I intend to speak to that, to speak to this city about its spiritual climate, about the steps we need to take toward achieving peace. There’s a mandate for peace in the Scriptures. Where the Church is, peace should come as a result, yet we’ve seen just the opposite.

“I believe the innocence of this young mother and her child will stagger us into a realization of how far we’ve gone in a wrong direction, and how much we need to turn to a different way.”