16th STREET BAPTIST CHURCH @ 15 SEPTEMBER 1963

The anguish and the pain when justice is denied deliberately is something that can be understood only when we are in that shoes, ourselves. Such a predicament will make us feel how weak, helpless and vulnerable we are; and the anguish is multiplied many times over, when we realise, that we cannot do anything about it, nor can we bring the culprits to justice.

The prophet Habakkuk, felt precisely the same, and is deeply troubled by what he sees in the Jewish society, and the corruption of the strong and powerful, in the society at large, in particular, the decay of the God ordained justice system.
– “1 The burden which the prophet Habakkuk saw. 2 O LORD, how long shall I cry, And You will not hear? Even cry out to You, “Violence!” And You will not save. 3 Why do You show me iniquity, And cause me to see trouble? For plundering and violence are before me; There is strife, and contention arises. 4 Therefore the law is powerless, And justice never goes forth. For the wicked surround the righteous; Therefore perverse judgment proceeds.” – Habakkuk 1:1-4
Sounds like the twenty-first century world? Habakkuk is talking about the Jews and the Jewish society just before the Assyrian and Babylonian invasions around, 650 BC…3,650 plus years back. What the prophet Habakkuk laments about, is a true reflection of the human heart, even if they are the “Chosen People” of God.

On 15 September in 1963 the Klu Klux Klan, a white supremacist group, bombs a Baptist Church, on the 16th Street in Birmingham, Alabama, USA, out of racial prejudice and bigotry, which killed four little “Negro” girls, who were attending the Sunday School. Such bombings became so common on homes, churches, and businesses, belonging to Black people, that the place began to be referred to as, “Bombingham.’ Ironically, the sermon that day was to be “The Love That Forgives,” based on Matthew 5:43-44.

All such incidents went unpunished, according to the article *”Lessons from Birmingham: 60 years after the 16th Street Baptist Church bombing”* by Debbie Elliott, in September 2023. She goes on to say, “The FBI determined that four members of a local KKK klavern known as the “Cahaba River Bridge Boys” were responsible for the bombing. But the first prosecution didn’t come until 1977. Then two more in the early 2000s. The fourth killer died, never being brought to account.”

What former U.S. Senator Doug Jones says about the bombing of the 16th Street Baptist Church is profound…
– “It was an unsolved murder in which there were four families that were destroyed, and those families never had had the full measure of justice,”
He was also the U.S. Attorney in Alabama, who re-opened and prosecuted the case nearly 40 years later…can you imagine…40 years latter!!!

What prophet Habakkuk was lamenting about, and what happened on the 16th Street Baptist Church, and still continues in many parts of the world, is a systemic and intentional system, put in place by the powerful, where justice is never fully and properly meted out, to the victims of inhuman and dastardly bigotry.

Any society or nation, that deliberately drags its foot, in meeting out justice, fairly, squarely and quickly, will suffer injustice to such an extent, that there would be no more trust in its administrative systems, nor in the people, who sit on the seats of power, to govern the people. The rot does not end there. The society at large will begin to decay, and fall apart, simply because, there is a systemic support for injustice. Such discriminatory system prevails because, justice, equality and fairness are inconvenient truths, for a certain prominent and powerful section of the society, who intentionally uphold such racism, and criminal discrimination, so that such crimes would continue, and continue to hold to their supremacy, no matter what.

The delay and international withholding of justice is indicative of a bigger and more serious malice. The heart is corrupt, and it deliberately does not want to correct any wrong done. The notion that fuels such a system is this logic – the wrong is done by “our people” who matter the utmost to us; and those seeking for justice, are the “other people” who do not matter to us, whatever their case. This is evil in its purest form. It does not proceed from the God of the Bible, NEVER, but from the lord of this world, ALWAYS.

Sadly, the church is tainted with the blood of the innocent, and the oppressed. The first three hundred years of the Church is markedly different, from the rest of the history of the church, till date…especially the church in the west. The church and the many “christians” all over the world, have willingly prostituted themselves to such bigotry and evil. May the LORD help us to live a life that makes our LORD say…
– “21 His lord said to him, ‘Well done, good and faithful servant; you were faithful over a few things, I will make you ruler over many things. Enter into the joy of your lord.” – Matthew 25:21