The Masked Saint by Chris Whaley

Author:Chris Whaley
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781630477974
Publisher: Morgan James Publishing
Published: 2016-01-15T00:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER ELEVEN

PREJUDICE

The sixties were volatile years. This was only a few years after Rosa Parks had refused to give up her seat on the bus in Alabama. My folks were born in South Alabama. I have learned that prejudice is something learned. My dad grew up with prejudice. Most of what I had heard about black folks was never positive. The longer I knew Mr. and Mrs. Williams, the more my prejudice went away. Miss Edna was very influential in helping me to find the call of God on my life. My dad wasn’t a bad man by any means, but he was a product of what he grew up with, namely prejudice.

People can become prejudiced about many things, but when we think of the word prejudice, we usually associate it with skin color. I never thought I would be dealing with it in 1988, but I was wrong.

The church I pastored was a small, Southern church. The town the church was located in was divided. The community was made up of 52 percent black and 48 percent white. Little did I know when I went to pastor my first church out of seminary that a former Klansman was a member of the church. I found out while my family and I were in the receiving line, being welcomed as the new pastor. Someone came up to me and pointed out a man and said, “Do you know who that man is, Pastor?”

I assured him I knew very few people since this was my first Sunday. He said, “That’s Jimmy Earl Smith. He used to be the grand dragon of the KKK.”

I remember the sick feeling in the pit of my stomach as I hung my head and thought, Why me, Lord? I had a lot of questions come to mind as I stood there. One question was obviously answered: why there were no black people in the church.

Why was this guy a member of a church if he was that evil? Why did the members of the church let him in if they knew what he was involved in? Then, I had a thought; maybe God had gotten ahold of his heart and changed him. It didn’t take long after my first conversation with him to learn that God, indeed, had not changed his heart.

I remembered a great lesson about prejudice that I learned from Miss Edna. We experienced a bad freeze one winter that affected the citrus crop throughout the state of Florida. My dad drove a truck for the citrus industry, and his work was cut back considerably. My folks were behind on their bills and things were very tight financially. My mom always planted a little garden every year, and unfortunately, the freeze also affected the garden. We were not able to enjoy the vegetables we usually had every year from the garden.

Whenever my dad became stressed, he was not very pleasant to live with. His temper was volatile and sudden when he was under stress. Not being able to pay your bills and buy groceries will stress a person out.

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