(From a series of my essays which were published in 1988-89)

Church services tend to run toward two extremes — Showtime! on television and  Whispering Sweet Nothings at the local level. A sermon is a speech, which can  be defined as a performance. You are paying your preacher and choir to furnish entertainment. As Jesus the Christ, I prefer and use the method known as conversation. Everyone in the room can take part — and not just with their ears. It is more like a classroom, but without the lecture. There is a teacher (or rabbi) and there are questions and answers, comments and replies. The leader doesn't do all the talking. There is no paid preacher and no paid staff.

You may wonder how this procedure can be done in a large auditorium with thousands of people. My plan, which is patterned after the early Christians, is to hold church services in people’s houses. There you could have one dozen to three  dozen people attending (perfect for a class and its leader). Meet at a different house each time. Let the leaders rotate. Use the money for real needs. It will not take very much imagination to find other uses for existing church buildings and existing preachers. P.S. — Please work for inter-racial worship.

IN ORGANIZED RELIGION, as in all other areas which make up a democracy, there should be room for disagreement. The Bible is not exempt from argument, as is seen from more than fifteen hundred denominations in the United States alone. A preacher said it best: "It's a mighty thin pancake that don't have 2 sides."

Billy Graham says that disputes do not bring honor to Jesus. If he means the petty differences that arise in a church, I agree. Fussing over things like the following: Should we buy cushions for the pews or carpet for the floor? What colors should the choir robes be? Does the preacher need a microphone? Are we going to get a bigger chandelier? Will we buy a van or a bus for the church? And, if we do, which is a better vacation spot — Disney World or Opryland? These are the insignificant quarrels that divide congregations and lead to splits. These are the little spats that should be avoided.

On the other hand, if Mr. Graham is talking about doctrinal questions, these disputes can be healthy and helpful. A disagreement on a point of theology can stimulate thinking and lead to improvements in the foundation of a denomination. If you claim to believe in a certain creed, you should know why. Religious debate can either change your thinking or make you firmer in what you believe. Jesus welcomes serious thinking, because the Lord God needs our best ideas.

I used to say that it was sick for physicians to become rich off of people's ailments. Now I am extending that statement to millionaire preachers. I am convinced that every TV idol of the religious variety is harming the cause of Jesus. While it may not be necessary for every minister to take a vow of poverty, Jesus did and Jesus does. The Christ had no place to lay his head, has never made a public appeal for money and never will. Without the riches, how many televangelists would bother to charm the viewers?

It cannot be over-stressed: Brotherhood is what the Bible is all about.

Jonathan Swift, who died in 1745 said, "We have just enough religion to make us hate, but not enough to make us love one another."

North Carolina lawyer Ken Spaulding of Durham said, "The old South & its regional prejudice are dead and gone. The new South reflects the values of a nation," Perhaps the remainder of America has come out of the closet. Because prejudice — across the South, throughout the United States and all over the world — is alive and well.

Black civil rights activist Aaron Henry of Clarksdale, Mississippi, said, "The most segregated school in my hometown and yours is not the public school. It's the Sunday school."

What can we do? Two congregations of different races can become partners. A minority of each fellowship (say 10% of the members) can worship with the other congregation. The white majority will still be in control and the black majority will still be in control.

I have attended the worship services of many denominations. For two years in Memphis, I was a member of the Centenary United Methodist Church, which is a black congregation. This was shortly after the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and I was demonstrating my brotherly love.

In recent years I have not been a member of any sect.  During that time I have not entered any sanctuary that is segregated — but rather have been waiting for congregations to actively recruit people of all races.

Where does Jesus want to worship? It is obvious. The Christ will feel welcome only in religious meetings that include residents from all races, faiths, and stations of life.

Unless we practice brotherhood on Earth, we will be the most miserable angels.

When I urged a white Corinth church to actively recruit black members, I was told that the blacks "wouldn't have any social life." Is this what our congregations have become — social clubs?

You may say that everyone is welcome at your church, but I don't believe you. The Lord's House is for people from all races, faiths, and stations of life, not just for "our kind of folks."

If mankind cannot meet at the altar, then our reverence is a joke. However, some souls are earnestly trying to live without prejudice.

Noted racist David Duke of New Orleans said, "I do want to preserve my white heritage and culture. I don't want to see this country looking like Haiti, Brazil, or Mexico."

You may feel that ethnic troubles are not your fault. True, none of us ever owned slaves. But the results of slavery and segregation are stubborn. It is our responsibility, as the heirs of bad traditions, to make things right.

Churches should have been the first to integrate, not the last to confront brotherhood with weeping and wailing and gnashing of teeth.

I took a bus ride that aimed to calm Charlotte NC with big printing on each side of the bus: "We don't hate anybody. We love everybody.'

Author Katherine Anne Porter, who died in 1980, said, "Love must be learned, and learned again and again; there is no end to it. Hate needs no instruction, but wants only to be provoked."

The most important question you should ask before joining a congregation is this: Do the members glorify God by obeying the principal commandment of the Bible — brotherly love? In other words, what is the parish record on charity work and missions, on church unity, and on the active recruitment of all races? Bigots who pose as Christians are the most hateful liars and hypocrites.

The petty differences which keep denominations apart are not worthy of comment. Every congregation in the world should humbly call itself The Church . . . that meets at 123 Union Circle, City, State, Nation.

The following words were spoken on Wednesday, August 28, 1963:

"I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: We hold these truths to be self-evident; that all men are created equal.

“I have a dream that one day on the red hills of Georgia the sons of former slaves and the sons of former slave owners will be able to sit together at the table of brotherhood,

"I have a dream that one day even the state of Mississippi, a desert state sweltering with the heat of injustice and oppression, will be transformed into an oasis of freedom and justice.

"I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.

"I have a dream today. I have a dream that one day the state of Alabama, whose governor's lips are presently dripping with the words of interposition and nullification, will be transformed into a situation where little black boys and black girls will be able to join hands with little white children and walk together as sisters and brothers • • •

"When we let freedom ring, when we let it ring from every village and every hamlet, from every state and every city, we will be able to speed up that day when all of God's children, black men and white men, Jews and Gentiles, Protestants and Catholics, will be able to join hands and sing in the words of that old Negro spiritual: Free at last! Free .at last! Thank God almighty, we are free at last!"

The quoted words are from a speech by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D. C.

There are 21 black churches in Corinth and Alcorn County and, because of the population ratio, there are many more white congregations. The opportunities for inter-racial worship are numerous.

Inter-racial worship is not a new thing. For approximately 200 years, the plantation owners took their slaves to church, although the blacks were segregated in balconies.

Sermons were designed to keep the slaves in their place, with Bible commandments such as "be humble" and "don't kill" and "obey your master" and "don't steal." While the blacks were denied a formal education, many of them were able to learn reading and writing and freedom — in church,

Christianity has made a profound impact on the black community. The civil rights movement has been largely conducted by religious leaders. And these are not voodoo churches. People of all races worship the same God.

What color is Jesus? All people are various shades of brown — from very dark brown to very light brown. No one is really black, white, yellow, or red. And so to decide the color of Jesus, what does it matter?

Now we have come full circle. It is time to practice brotherhood without the balconies.

Why is organized religion such a big disappointment to so many people? It is because hardly anybody is Christian (and I don't mean perfect).

We have white congregations and black congregations. Churches are the last great   hope of segregation. They are starving spiritually because the key ingredient — brotherly love — is missing.

Jesus is waiting to enter our hearts and is also waiting to enter our churches.

Churches filled with bigots are nothing more than social clubs. Jesus is not there. Like a member of another race, Jesus is not even welcome.

I am mostly Caucasian and it depresses me to sit in the midst of an all-white or lily-white congregation. The prayers don't even hit the ceiling.

What is the last place on Earth where you would expect brotherhood to take root? Many people would pick the Bible Belt (USA), with emphasis on Mississippi. Let's make the world take a second look. We can shock our fellow Americans and the people of other nations by being the first to practice inter-racial worship throughout our community.

Consider Corinth and Alcorn County — of all places — leading the way. And there are signs of local progress already.

Under our influence, the Middle East and South Africa and Northern Ireland (to mention just a few trouble spots) will achieve justice and love.

The family that prays together stays together. The family that is made up of all human beings.

Civil rights laws can change some of our actions. But attitudes cannot be legislated. That's where the love of humanity comes in. If we worship inter-racially, we will care about whole communities.

While we worship our ancestors, let us remember that they wrested this country from the Indians and built fortunes on the backs of slaves.

The mixed breeds of black and white are primarily the products of black women and their white slave masters. The object was to harvest as many little slaves as possible. Black couples were not allowed to marry and often the male or the female was sold to a faraway plantation.

Despite these facts, there are today more white people than black on welfare. And, as a rule, the black people show more concern for their old folks.

The most important teaching of the Bible is brotherhood. If your church is not receptive to inter-racial worship, then I call on you to conduct a holy boycott  against segregation. That is, do not meet with the congregation again until it practices integration.

— William Godwin, Corinth MS, December 1993 —