Fighting Fear with Love: Charlotte Residents Hope for Healing

By   •   September 24, 2016

Billy Graham Rapid Response Team chaplains pray with a Charlotte, North Carolina, resident.

It’s not every day you see a desert Humvee in your downtown Park n’ Go lot. But, for Charlotte residents, that’s been an unfortunate reality this week.

The Queen City has been in the national spotlight after the police-involved shooting of Keith Lamont Scott on Tuesday, Sept. 20.

By Wednesday morning, Billy Graham Rapid Response Team chaplains started preparing to minister in the heart of the city and the north side neighborhood where the shooting took place.

But by Wednesday night, prayer walks and peaceful protests were overshadowed when demonstrations took a violent turn. Businesses raided, looting, vehicles destroyed and one person killed.

Matt Allen is the general manager of the Hyatt House hotel in Uptown Charlotte that was vandalized. Boards in every first-floor window are a reminder of what went down that night.

“Everything seemed to be fairly peaceful, then suddenly we heard a gunshot,” he recalled.

It wasn’t long before “we had 500 to 600 people in this area,” he added. “It was a little frightening to be honest. … I thought about my wife. She called me in tears.”

Allen, a white man, admits he’ll “never fully get it” but—referring to outrage across the nation about shootings of African-Americans—he said, “I understand why everyone is upset.”

Billy Graham Rapid Response Team chaplains are still ministering in Charlotte. See photos and help share hope in times of crisis.

“We need to try to see the world from other people’s point of view. We all get wrapped up in our own world,” Allen said. “You can’t just assume. Take the time and empathize. Learn who people are before you make [any] kind of judgment.”

But the glimpse of fear that Allen and many others have experienced in Charlotte’s civil unrest is something another resident says he’s constantly dealt with as a black man.

chaplains talking with young man
Though it references a song, Eli’s “God Loves Ugly” jacket was a conversation starter with Rapid Response Team chaplains on Friday.

“It’s just the way it’s always been,” said 22-year-old Eli (pronounced Eh-lee).

Though he was born in Hawaii, Eli has lived all over America, landing in Charlotte after his 18th birthday.

“I get so worked up,” he said of the numerous headlines in recent years of blacks being killed by police. “I’m angry, upset, frustrated. All of the above.

“People of color, we’re all prone to this,” Eli continued. “People don’t really understand that [fear]. There’s a level of detachment. It’s hard to stay in that peaceful space when it’s literally right there.”

As Eli leaned on his bicycle wearing a jacket with “God loves ugly” on the back, Rapid Response Team chaplains walked over to say hello.

Soon, the trio were sharing a smile and talking about Eli’s upcoming cross-country bus ride to Washington state.

Chaplains took time to pray for him—that God would keep him safe and give him guidance and direction as a young man trying to figure out life. It was a gesture Eli appreciated.

“It’s really a small world. It’s like ripples in a pond. One small act can cause great, great change,” he said about how neat it was meeting the chaplains.

“When people who don’t look like you take the time … it’s nice to know that there are people who are sympathizing and actually aware of the ways it’s affecting us.

“That initiative is enough for me.”

Accepting the Call

Bob Gamble and Bob Cooper are two chaplains who have been ministering in Charlotte since unrest started. Ironically, they both got in town on the same day, initially for strategic training held by the Rapid Response Team.

Little did they know, they’d have to put that training to work immediately.

“I woke up to news of the shooting,” said Gamble, who will retire from the Greenville Police Department in South Carolina this November after 23 years.

He says it’s been a “unique” experience for him not being an enforcer, an experience he calls a “real blessing” because it’s allowed him to interact more with those who are hurting.

chaplains pray with officer
Billy Graham Rapid Response Team chaplains stop to pray with an officer who was all smiles despite a long night of work Thursday in Charlotte.

“Everyone has been so receptive,” he said, later adding that more than anything, “We have to engage in the community.”

“As we approach people, we ask them, ‘How are you holding up? What do you make of this? What are your thoughts?’” Gamble added, talking about a strategy of the Rapid Response Team.

“And that’s all they talk about: the fear, the frustration, the anger. Especially African-Americans because they’re saying, ‘This is our reality. We’re getting gunned down.’”

Bob Cooper’s background also gives him a unique perspective of what’s happening around the country today.

In addition to volunteering as a Rapid Response Team chaplain, he’s a lawyer who’s represented police departments and officers being sued by families.

Gamble says it’s important for people on both sides to realize we are flawed.

“People make mistakes,” he said. “That’s the Gospel.

“All of us are lost. All of us are hurting. And if we admit it, we were all scared before knowing the Lord.”

The real solution to this plight: unity through Christ.

“My belief is the faith community has to lead that,” Gamble said. “When people get close together, the fear will disappear.”

“This is a spiritual war. War that’s going on because this country is moving as fast as it possibly can from God, and we’ve got to reverse that,” Gamble explained.

“God is calling us to action, and we have to answer that call.”