02 July 2015, The Tablet

Mr Farron said something wry, memorable and a little sad about God


 
There was no doubt about the audio of the week. “Barack Obama sang ‘Amazing Grace’ yesterday in a eulogy for the victims of the US Charleston church shooting,” was the full report of the event under a picture in The Sun. “In the course of eulogising Reverend Clementa Pinckney, the pastor of the Mother Emanuel African American church who was shot dead in his own sanctuary along with eight of his flock last week,” The Guardian explained, “Obama sang ‘Amazing Grace’ in front of a rapt audience of 5,500 largely African Americans.”“The hymn was penned by an English slave trader turned clergyman named John Newton,” The Independent remarked. On Twitter many people seemed to think he was still a slave trader when he
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