A Macon trademarks is its number of churches. So it seemed natural to ask a Macon pastor how churchgoers should deal with the news of the church shooting in Charleston? And Pastor Michael Ephraim of the Saint Paul African Methodist Episcopal Church shared how we will approach this tragic and sensitive issue.

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Michael Caputo, GPB - What will you say to your congregation about what has happened?

Michael Ephraim, St. Paul African Methodist Church, Macon - There has always been hate in the world, and that hate has always crept into the black Church. So I would say to them, "We've come this far by faith."

And I will say to them, "Let us go to the hymns. The hymns that said, 'O God our help, in ages past, our hope for years to come. Shelter from the stormy blast and our eternal home.' Let us go to those things that we can find strength and allow God to heal us of this wound.’"

Because it is painful. It is very painful, and it can be destructive if we don't understand that it is hate. Hate, pure and simple.

I think that it encourages us to watch our rhetoric. Some of us get on radio and TV, and we say things that are hateful. It has nothing to do with ideas, but it's hateful. Let us watch our rhetoric. Let us try to prescribe what the text says. "Love your neighbor as you love yourself." Who is my neighbor? Be in community with one another.

Caputo - People are talking about race right now and they are talking about southern identity right now. What would you counsel people, right now -- beyond your congregation -- what would you counsel people when it comes to this, more specifically, to race and the southern identity.

Ephraim - I think that there are those who don't want to talk about race, because they don't want to deal with the history of racism and what that really means.

So what I would encourage the conversation to be: Can you get to know me in my context? And allow me to know you in your context?

You have your culture. I have mine, but God created us all. So let us learn to get to know one another.

And then you have this thing called respect. Can I respect who you are, what you feel, what you believe without deconstructing you? If you believe what you believe, that's fine. I should be able to respect that. But I shouldn't deconstruct you or demoralize you because you don't believe what I believe.

Allow me to get to know you. Let us create a safe space within our person that is inviting for others so that I can learn from you and you can learn from me.

Caputo - But can conversation help in any way?

Ephraim - The conversation needs to take place, and intellectual engagement needs to take place where people can sit down and talk and understand one another's position and remove the hate.

Tags: Macon, St.Paul AME Church, race, Michael Ephraim