President Barack Obama delivers Eulogy at Pinckney Funeral

ABC NEWS–Charleston, SC– President Obama eulogized the Rev. Clementa Pinckney in Charleston today, nine days after a gunman killed the pastor and eight other people at Bible study in a historic black South Carolina church. “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.” In addition to memorializing Pinckney and those killed last week, the president used the eulogy to address the state of race relations and the growth of gun violence in this country. “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.” Obama first met Pinckney in 2007 during his first campaign for president, he said. “I cannot claim to have the good fortune to know Reverend Pinckney well, but I did have the pleasure of knowing him, meeting him here in South Carolina back when we were both a little bit younger,” he said to laughter. The president recounted Pinckney‘s work as a pastor, as well as his career in the state Senate, saying he always worked to help others. “He was full of empathy and fellow feeling,” the president said. “What a good man. Sometimes I think that‘s the best thing to hope for when you eulogize. After all the words and recitations and resumes are read, to just say somebody was a good man.” Along with honoring Pinckney, the president named all 9 victims in the shooting.