From June 3, 2007

For me, the “mega church” we visited on Sunday wasn’t really exceptionally “mega” at all. Coming from a church with a congregation of at least four times that size, the experience was not overwhelming at all. I was expecting a much larger and more technologically advanced building with at least a few jumbo television monitors, an assortment of bibles, elaborate walkways, and a band with numerous musicians. When we arrived, the location of the church was surprising to say the least; it is located in the middle of a rough neighborhood and as a result has bars on the front windows. The location of the church puts them in a very interesting social position, they more than likely feel a responsibility to the surrounding community to give back to those around them who are in need.

In terms of the service, I feel that it was a very open and thoughtful sermon that was geared towards not only the adults in the audience but also all of the youth. The message of not looking to Michael Jordan, or basically any worldly person, but instead to biblical figures like Daniel, was very effective and eye-opening. This message was more universal while the one from 16th Street Baptist Church was more specific. Seeing a black woman preach was nothing incredibly groundbreaking for me as that is a relatively common practice at my church. For many of my classmates, however, it is apparently very unusual and perhaps even prohibited to allow women to preach to the congregation. I feel like this is something that puts a lot of perspective on my views of women’s status in religion. I used to feel that women were sometimes put down in my church and considered second-class to men. However much that perception may be presented in my congregation, it seems that this patriarchic view is carried out more so in other religions. I think that is an issue that should be addressed in all religions as it clearly identifies some of the few inequalities that can develop based on religion.

We checked out today and went to church and unlike the church on 16^th street Baptist in Birmingham Alabama I really think that if was living in New Orleans I would attend that church. We arrived into the Delta of Mississippi

This morning we went to a mega church in New Orleans. Going in, I expected lots of fancy technology, flash displays of church wealth, and a new, modern structure. While the commercialization of the church was abundantly clear, I would not say that the other aspects were necessarily present. When we came in, someone handed us several pieces of paper and brochures…none of which contained an order of worship. Several times during the service, the speakers made announcements, referring to different causes or occasions to give money. I’m certain that I had never heard “and you can make your check out to…and if you want to pay with a credit card” so many times in a CHURCH service. In fact, I’ve never been to a service where money plays such a large role. They took up three different offerings. The first one was for tithing, the second was for some special offering, and the third was for the pastor’s birthday. It was all I could do not to sit open-mouthed for the entirety of this proceeding. This is so radically different from the church where I was raised. In my church, which is United Methodist, they take up the offering once. Sometimes there is a special offering, but it is part of the regular tithe collection. No differentiation is made. And there would most certainly never be a collection taken up for the preacher’s birthday. I found this deeply offensive and even an irresponsible action on the part of a church, located in such a poor community.

After church, we had a lively discussion about this on the bus. When I pointed out how I did not like the idea of taking up a birthday offering, many of the boys acted like this was normal operating procedure, or at least like it was not outside the realm of acceptable actions. They pointed out that the money probably would not go directly to the preacher and that it’s the same as buying her a birthday present. I just feel as if there is a better ways to accomplish the same thing…especially given the neighborhood where this church is located. It is right around the corner from where we stayed over spring break. When we were here then, the people running the organization we were working with said this was one of the poorest areas, with a shockingly high crime rate. It would seem to me that making your church members, who likely live in the area close to the church, feel obligated to give so much money is not an economically responsible decision on the part of the church…at least with respect to supporting its members. I think it is one thing to have church members tithe in support of the church. This is a Biblically rooted exercise that is expected of those who believe. People who support the church can generally turn to the church for support in their times of need, making tithing helpful for allowing the church to give back to you. And this is the entire point of tithing. The idea behind it is to give to God what He deserves because of how good He has been to you…and He will bless you in return. Having a church family to turn to in times of desperate need can be one form of such blessing.

Visiting this church was most definitely a great experience. As I have never been to a church anything like this, it was quite eye opening. However, the extreme commercialization of this church is deeply distressing to me because it takes away from the message of Christianity by giving people the perception that they must or can buy their ways into salvation.

We had the opportunity to fellowship with Co-Pastor Debra B. Morton at her church, Greater St. Stevens Full Baptist Church. The worship experience was phenomenal. They had a broad array of worship styles incorporated into the service; which included but was not limited to praise dancing. The title of the message was “I wanna be like Mike.” In the message Morton drew connections; which ultimately led to the message “Why not be like Daniel.” One important thing to note about this congregation was how diverse it was in comparison to 16^th St. Baptist Church in Birmingham, Alabama.

Immediately after service left New Orleans for Cleveland, Mississippi - and, we are all anticipating what Cleveland has in store for us all. We have already heard about an awesome jook joint, Po’ Monkeys.

To be continued ….

This is my first post in a while as I have had a rough couple of days, emotionally speaking. At the church this morning, I thought again of something that has bothered me off and on throughout the trip and hit home most especially in Hancock County.

Primum non nocere means “First, do no harm.” Sociology involves the science of observing people and then analyzing how and why they behave the way they do. I am not a sociologist, but the techniques of observation and analysis are familiar to me from my doctoral work. What has bothered me is the risk we take in harming the people that we study through the very act of observation. I was uncomfortable at both the George Washington Carver homes and the Lower 9th Ward because it seemed we were close to the line, if not crossing it, of gawking at the residents of the neighborhood and causing them discomfort. A 45′ bus is not an easy thing to disguise and neither is a multicultural group of 23 people with cameras. A number of participants have already blogged guiltily about the hand-lettered sign on a falling-down house in the 9th ward reminding us that “1600 people died 4 u 2 take this picture.”

In Hancock County, students had the additional complication of carrying out a service project while at the same time being trained to observe social stratification issues around them. These blogs are wonderful tools for collaborative work but they are also a public display of research in progress. In the 72 hours we stayed in Hancock County, views of the community matured rapidly among many participants. Surface observations at the beginning of the trip often did not hold up to be valid. The consensus at the end was that this was a strong, closely knit community trying its best to recover from a storm of unnatural ferocity and restore the community to all its residents. We went to help, I only hope that we did no harm.

We’ve been busy over the weekend, so I’ll catch up with two days of reports in this posting.

Saturday, I saw a different New Orleans than my previous pre-Katrina visit. The first stop of the day was at ACORN (The Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now), the “nation’s largest community organization of low- and moderate-income families, working together for social justice and stronger communities.” Beth spent an hour with our group discussing the myriad of problems that exist post-Katrina. This organization is a national one and has existed for 29 years. But with the magnitude of Katrina issues, it appears their main focus is on attacking the problems that have worsened since the flooding. It was interesting that she made a point of saying that everything that was bad pre-Katrina only has worsened since. Even though I’ve read regularly about all the issues that have been in the news concerning the recovery efforts, Beth gave it a much more personal picture of how poorly the recovery is coming along for the citizens of the Ninth Ward.

Our next stop was a bus and walking tour of the Lower Ninth Ward. All the photos and video that have saturated the media paled compared to seeing the area in person. It was desolate and had a very hopeless look to it. It was inspiring to see two new houses that have families who have returned to the area, but at the same time, they were sad because they were the only two after almost two years.

Saturday evening Lynn and I had another delicious dinner in the French Quarter at the Red Fish Grill. I walked off the double chocolate bread pudding before heading back to the hotel. We had a much earlier evening than did the students. I heard them around midnight, but understand they were heading out then, not coming in! Must be nice to be young and still have that much energy late at night.

This morning we attended another Baptist church service, this one at the Greater St. Stephen Full Gospel Baptist Church. This one was more elaborate than last week: more people (with a wider range of ages, young to old), bigger choir, full immersion baptism of 14 youths, a woman preacher plus screen projection that included what was happening up front, words to the songs and Bible passages, and what I would call advertisements. The collection process was much more elaborate with the tithers (is that a word?) lining up to walk their donation to the front. One collection request was made to buy the preacher a birthday present! Many people went up to be saved at the end of the service. I have a question about this part of the service that I should ask Marcus or one of the others who are familiar with this. Is the call to be saved a weekly occurrence, and if so, what happens if nobody goes up to be saved? Do they hang in there until someone finally goes forth, or do they have a standby person who is planted in the congregation just in case? My very favorite part of this ministry was the fact that they have coupled religion with technology: church members can receive inspirational text or voice message on their cell phones!

After the 2 hour 10 minute church service, we hit the road for Cleveland, MS. The five hour drive (with one stop for lunch, one to wash the bus and a dinner stop) turned in to over 6 I think. But we made it here to Cleveland safely and I think most of us are blogging or working on assignments. Tomorrow is a long day, according to Dr. Hattery, so look for the next update sometime Tuesday.

Today was our second Sunday together. This morning we attended church service at the Greater St. Stephen Full Gospel Baptist Church in New Orleans, LA. This church is a mega church with another branch in Atlanta, GA. The leaders of the church are Bishop Paul S. Morton, Senior Pastor and Elder Debra B. Morton, Co-Pastor. This church experience was very different from our last experience at 16^th Street Baptist Church in Birmingham, Alabama. This morning, there was definitely more of a vibe of contemporary worship style especially through song and the praise dance ministry. Even though the church has a very large congregation, it seemed like there was a great sense of community and a welcoming presence. The service was led by the Co-Pastor Elder Debra B. Morton. So, the fact that a woman was leading the sermon made it different from last week’s church experience. You could tell how much the community has been through because of some of the topics brought up in the sermon. The title of her sermon was “Like Mike”. It focused on the fact that many people wanted to be just like Michael Jordan when he first entered the scene. People wanted to look like him, dress like him, and more than anything be able to play basketball like him. This part of the sermon was the point when she was trying to captivate everyone, from all different age groups to become involved in the service. Co-Pastor focused on how people of God need to be like Daniel, a major character of the Old Testament. Daniel was led out of the lion’s den. The focus for me was realizing that everyone has gifts and that we should not idolize Earthly figures. I thought that the sermon was powerful and well delivered. After church when he had our reflection, we learned that a former professor at North Carolina A&T and a resident of New Orleans wrote a note dedicated to our class. The letter was heart felt and she gave us great advice. It was nice knowing that someone took the time to think about our group that was visiting.

After church and reflecting today, we had student reports and watched the film, The Trials of Darryl Hunt. This was my second time viewing the film and it really gives you a chance to think about the conditions of prison and the impact of 20 years living knowing that you are innocent. Darryl Hunt endured three trials before justice finally came. It took a lot of hard work on behalf on Hunt’s lawyers and other people in the community. Hunt’s story is one that definitely needs to be told across the country because this kind of case occurs way to often. There are issues brought up in Hunt’s trial that deal with racial tensions in the Winston-Salem community that continue to be strong. I think that this film is a good sedgeway into preparing for Parchman. I’m looking forward to an exciting day in Cleveland, MS and surrounding areas tomorrow.

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 16^th 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.

Today was very similar to last Sunday in structure, but very different in experience. The day consisted of attending a Baptist church in the morning, and then spending the rest of the day on the bus traveling to our next destination. The church we attended this morning was Greater St. Stephen Full Gospel Baptist Church. This was now my second experience in a primarily African American Baptist Church, but it was very different from the 16^th Street Baptist Church. First of all, the congregation was much larger, as was the building itself. The music at church today was performed by a large gospel choir, and was pretty jubilant with clapping and some dancing. This pretty much fulfilled my expectations about what a gospel choir would be like; the music was lively and contemporary, but more traditional than last Sunday’s. Today’s pastor was a woman, which is something that I am not used to at all, but I thought she was great. She talked about a variety of things, but her main message was about being like Daniel from the Bible. Her message related to the crowd very well, which was pretty diverse in age and much younger than 16^th Street. This church was also very contemporary compared to what I am used to, passing out very colorful handouts and cd’s to all of us, and projecting the service and Bible passages on large screens around the church. You can even sign up to receive inspirational messages on your phone everyday! Another very interesting part of the service was right at the end when people were “saved.” There were about 8 people who were saved in front of the congregation, and it was different to see them be touched on the head by the pastor, and then fall back into somebody’s arms. I am not used long services, and this was very long to me because it was over two hours. I think all the singing and the long sermon are what particularly contributed to the length.

After church we got on the bus and spent the rest of the day traveling to the delta region of Mississippi. Cleveland to be exact. The drive was long, and we had a lot of class time with discussion, presentations, and documentaries. It was also interesting to watch the scenery change as we progressed through Mississippi and seemed to be in the middle of nowhere. Half the class, myself included, do not have cell phone service here, which is bizarre because of how dependent we have all become on technology. This also demonstrates how we are now in a completely different world from all of our previous stops. Now its time to watch a documentary about a woman who lives in the county we are staying in, and shows the terrible poverty around here. This should be a nice, relaxing way to end the night after a long day and a crazy weekend.

Before our departure from New Orleans, we attended what has been explained to us as a “Mega Church”. While this was a much different experience than what we had at the 16^th Street Baptist Church last week in Birmingham, I was too distracted from the commercialization of the church to really involve myself in the service (that, and for those of us on the trip, the insane amount of Benadryl in my system did not help my attention span).

Emphasis was continually put on the programs offered by the church and training of new members to be able to go out into the community and attend multiple trips to Atlanta to convene with other members of the church. The commercialization of the Bishop and Co-Pastor’s pictures on everything in the church–from the CD/DVD that was handed out to the visitors to envelopes that were passed out to give money for the Co-Pastor’s birthday—was very disconcerting. I really felt like I was in a business instead of a church because of the over emphasis that was placed on the process of monetary giving during the service. This may just be a personal issue that I have, but I feel that my monetary contributions to a church are my own business, and not something I should feel that I have to flaunt in front of a massive congregation as if I was being judged for not walking to the front of the sanctuary to place a tithe in the plate. I know that I’m probably reading entirely to far into this, but this is definitely something that has been bothering me, as well as every person in power in this particular church having the same last name.

Our brief introductions to what we’re going to be looking at during our VERY long day tomorrow really have me pumped up and ready to discuss our visit to Parchman on Tuesday (Katie, PLEASE call me tomorrow evening so I can talk to you before I go in there on Tuesday). I’ve taken several IDS classes at ASU pertaining to prisons with my dear friend and professor Katie Adams and when I found out that we were going to be going into Parchman, I called her almost immediately to talk to her about it and she was totally ecstatic for me. Katie has worked with many people such as Spoon Jackson and Elmo, and has also spent countless hours working in arts programs in prisons working to rehabilitate inmates instead of institutionalize them. Due to this interest she has sparked in me through these classes (as well as my liberal-ness), I’m really interested for our next discussion of the status of the inmates at Parchman.