Mega Church
After two eventful nights in New Orleans, we got up very early to attend Sunday service at Greater St. Stephen Full Gospel Baptist Church. The church is located in a pretty rundown neighborhood and the make-up of the church members was very different than the 16th Street Baptist Church we went to last Sunday. The people ranged drastically and this was shown by their attire. There were some women dressed in fancy dresses with hats and then others wearing jeans and tank-tops. I even saw a woman with a gold grill in her mouth! The service was exactly what I expected when I learned we were going to a “mega church.” The dancers at the front and the video advertising daily voicemails that you can sign up to receive from the pastor fit into my stereotyped perception of what a church like that would be like. I also completely agree with how Dr. Hattery described the woman standing closest to us while waiting for people to go to the front to be saved because I was staring at her the entire time. She was almost staring people down to get them to stand up and I couldn’t decide if it was nice that the other people holding their arms out were welcoming or also being overly persuasive. The sermon was engaging as she opened with Michael Jordan and Tiger Woods metaphors that allowed all of the members to relate. She was also really funny, open, and honest with what she was saying and you could tell that she was truly genuine in her beliefs.
During our incredibly long bus ride to Cleveland, Mississippi, we had several reports and the topic that we spent the most time on was the treatment of prisoners and we also watched the HBO documentary The Trials of Darryl Hunt. We discussed at length the idea of prisoners getting paid for the labor they are forced to do and after hearing the statistics and injustices that happen within the system, everyone who spoke was in favor. There were valid arguments and it is a hard topic to decide one way or the other but I feel for the families of victims they could never be able to accept the guilty person being paid. Although the instances like Darryl Hunt are heartbreaking and knowing that now he is out of jail and still will not be able to find employment even though his innocence was proven, I still think that the majority of prisoners are in jail for a reason and paying prisoners will not fix the corruptions that are prevalent in the system or ease the pain for those affected by the crime.