Obama Eulogy Lifts Clementa Pinckney With Song and Praise

Jun 26, 2015, 2:53 PM ET
By ARLETTE SAENZ

... "We are here today to remember a man of God who lived by faith, a man who believed in things not seen, a man who believed there were better days ahead off in the distance," the president said at funeral services for Pinckney at the TD Arena in Charleston. "He believed his efforts would deliver a better life for those who followed."

The most emotional moments during the nearly 40-minute eulogy came when the president led the crowd of 5,500 people in singing the hymn "Amazing Grace" ...

“Maybe we now realize the way racial bias can infect us even when we don’t realize it,” the president said. “For too long, we’ve been blind to the unique mayhem that gun violence inflicts on this nation.

“It would be a betrayal of everything Reverend Pinckney stood for if we allow ourselves to slip into a comfortable silence again,” the president said. “Once the eulogies have been delivered, once the TV cameras move on, to go back to business as usual. That’s what we so often do” ...

http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/clementa-pinckney-president-obama-eulogizes-slain-charleston-pastor/story?id=32056212