- Dr. Ronnie Floyd saysChristians need to stop

letting our nation define who we are.

Floyd is a former president

of the Southern Baptist Convention.

He joins us now with moreone his message of love

and racial unity recently delivered

at Mother Emanuel AME Church.

Dr. Floyd, welcome.

Of course Mother EmanuelAME Church is where

the South Carolina shootinghappened about 3 1/2 years ago.

The gunman Dylann Roof, a selfproclaimed white supremacist,

killed nine members of the church.

And you, Dr. Floyd, had theopportunity to preach there

during the Southern Baptist Convention.

Tells us about your messageand what you meant by

not allowing our nation todefine us as Christians.

- Well, as followers of Jesus Christ,

it's Christ who really defines who we are.

Our identities in Christand our authority's based

off of holy Scripture.

And so I was there to bringone of the keynote messages

at the South CarolinaBaptist State Convention.

The South Carolina BaptistConvention, which was meeting

in Charleston, was at another location.

But on Tuesday nightspecifically, they wanted to meet

at the Mother Emanuel Church.

And the churches have really come together

through the crisis back in 2015

and the very unfortunatemurder of those nine persons,

including the pastor of the church.

And so God really did agreat work in the heart

of the pastor at FirstBaptist Church of Charleston

in all of this, as wellas his church family.

And it was that pastor, Marshall Blalock,

who is the president of theSouth Carolina Convention,

who had worked with methrough racial unity

when I was president of theSouthern Baptist Convention.

And with that, ever sincethat time in July of 2015,

we've been working togetherto do everything we can

to forward the entiretheme of racial unity

in the United States.

Now, I'm also the presidentof the National Day of Prayer,

and our 2019 theme, on May the 2nd,

will be love one another, John 13:34.

And so with this, I reallytalked from that passage

that love one anotherjust as I have loved you,

that was my thematicpassage for the message

at Mother Emanuel Church.

I followed one of themen who had lost his wife

in the shooting, who was the leader

of the gathering that evening.

And then, of course,there were obviously a lot

of folks there from the church, as well as

a large, large overflowoutside of the auditorium.

It was an incrediblegathering, and obviously God

is bringing his body of Christ together.

And we're really really grateful for it.

- Why is your message possiblyeven more important today

than ever before?

- Well, there's neverbeen a message, you know,

that Jesus didn't deliverthat was not timeless.

And you look at where the country is

with all the decisivenessand the vitriolic speech,

and such division thatis just not Christ like,

that is just not right.

And while we can have differentideologies and approaches

and we can differ with one another,

we could still love one another.

And Jesus called us to ahigher way than we're living

here today in the UnitedStates of America.

And that is not a politicalstatement, that is a biblical

and spiritual statement because all of us

who are followers of JesusChrist have been called

to treat people at a higher level.

We bring value and dignityto human life from the womb

all the way to the tomb.

And everyone of us that arefollowers of Jesus Christ,

we need to do all we canto lift each other up.

And if we're gonna bringour nation together,

then we're gonna have to be together.

And one of the things that really

just really came to me over the last week,

even before I went there, aday or two before I was there

last Tuesday evening, is thatit just really came to me

that an unloving and divided church

cannot call an unloving anddivided nation to unity.

And how can we call thenation to love one another

and to unity if we cannot even do that

within the body of Jesus Christ?

And so I just would appeal toall followers of Jesus Christ,

we need to lead the way.

In fact, I said it theother day and I mean it

with all my heart, andthat is that we need

a movement of love thatbeings in the church house

that goes to every statehouse in this country,

all the way to the White House.

And we need to learnhow to treat one another

in a higher and a greater way.

- Dr. Ronnie Floyd, weappreciate your time.

We do need to lead by love, for sure.

Thank you.