“FORGIVE us our trespasses, as we forgive those that trespass against us.”

There can be few readers of this column that have not prayed those words many times. The sentence is, of course, part of the famous Lord’s Prayer that can be found in both St Matthew’s Gospel and that of St Luke.

As with so many things in life, these words are much easier to say than to do. Yet, the world has just been shown a very powerful and moving example of how this can be done. I am referring to the statements and actions of the Christians who have been so cruelly bereaved by the mass murders carried out at Emmanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church in Charleston, South Carolina. Dylan Roof, the young man that has admitted to the mass murder of nine church members while they were attending a bible study and prayer class, has committed crimes that are very hard to understand, let alone forgive. Simply to apply the label ‘hate crime’ seems to me to stop short of explaining how any human being can take the lives of innocent strangers that have done them no harm.

The reaction of the relatives and fellow church members has been truly inspiring and remarkable. When the emotional pain of having been suddenly bereaved by such a heinous act of racism must have been at its height, they stood in front of the media and spoke, not of revenge and justice, but of love and forgiveness. There is a prime example of Christians who are having their faith severely tested and are using it as an opportunity to witness to the teaching of their Lord and Master. We live in an increasingly secular world but what is happening in Charleston must make even atheists and agnostics stop and question “have I got it right?”

It has been reported that Dylan Roof walked into the church meeting as a stranger. He was very probably the only white person present. Yet, he is alleged to have commented after being arrested that he was treated with such kindness and respect by the church members for the hour that he sat with them that he almost changed his mind about murdering some of them.

This only serves to magnify the revulsion to such a cowardly massacre. Under such circumstances it would have been understandable and easily dismissed as a very normal reaction if those that had lost loved ones had wallowed in grief, but their concerns extended to Dylan Roof as well as to themselves.

Sometimes, good can evolve from evil acts of the kind to which Dylan Roof now stands charged. President Obama has used it as a wake-up call to the citizens of the USA regarding the controversial lack of gun control in America.

It must also be true that the public utterances by Daryl Roof in attempting to justify the murder of black people have again brought into sharp focus the evil of racism.

This should make us all stop and think because, sadly, racism is a problem that festers below the surface of British society and in many other parts of the world.

Many have tried and failed dismally to put an end to racism. To visit parts of the USA is to make one think that their Civil War is still being fought. Until we replace hate with love and forgiveness racism will always be with us.

Whether or not you have a faith, I put it to you that we have all been set an example by those that Daryl Roof has wronged.