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- [Robin] Good morning.

- [Congregation] Good morning.

- [Robin] Welcome to
the good ship Mayflower.

Official YIFY movies site:
YTS.MX

It's a very
important day for us.

A congregation in covenant with
the United Church of Christ,

where we believe that no matter
who you are or where you are

on life's journey,
you are welcome here.

- Nobody has the absolute truth

and that would be to put it

in sort of old religious
language that would be idolatry.

To say, you know the truth,
you're absolutely certain.

And by the way, an
interesting thing about people

who say they're certain,

then you need no faith.

(upbeat music)

- There are no historical
errors in the Bible.

All that we know
confirms the truth.

(upbeat music)

- [Jeff] I would cite
you to the apostle Paul

and his clear and wise
command in Romans 13,

to obey the laws
of the government,

because God has ordained the
government for his purposes.

(upbeat music)

- I arrived here 32 years
ago and thought to myself,

what am I doing in Oklahoma?

(upbeat music)

I came to build a liberal
Protestant church in Oklahoma,

knowing there wouldn't be
one on every street corner,

but I made the mistake of
using the word liberal.

And so a woman on the
search committee said to me,

"I just wish you wouldn't
keep using that word."

I said, "Well, liberal
means open-minded,

"tolerant of divergent opinions
and exceedingly generous.

"That's what it means
if you look it up

"and I would like this
church to be liberal

"in that sense."

And she says, "No,
I don't like it.

"I don't want you to use it."

I said, "Well, what word
would you prefer that I use?"

And she said," Conservative."

That was my introduction
to Oklahoma.

Oklahoma is arguably the
reddest state in the country.

So we didn't have a single
County, for example,

that went for Barack
Obama and either election.

And all counties went for
Trump in the last election.

We are Southern Baptist in
our political orientation.

So that means that there
are certain messages

that get sent to young people
who are gay, for example,

or who are Democrats.

I'm always joking
when I'm out lecturing

that in Oklahoma,
you can be a Democrat

or you can be a Christian,

but you can't be both, right?

That would be peculiar.

- We've entered a time

where the power of
negative partisanship

has sorted us along lines
of race and religion.

So that if you
look at Republicans

there are about seven in
10 white and Christian,

Democrats are only at three
in 10 white and Christian.

And what it means is
that the two parties

have exploited race and religion

to the most visceral things

you can think of in terms
of human experience.

And they've locked them
into partisan identities.

(birds chirping)

(gentle music)

- This gets to be
called the Bible Belt,

largely because the
kind of religion

that was in the South was
created in the Civil War

and came out of the
support of slavery.

(gentle music)

It's a kinda religion
that's stuck in many ways,

and it's centered on the Bible.

They think the Bible is the
essence of religion, which is,

if you think about it
historically kinda odd,

that means Jesus can't really
have anything to do with it

because there wasn't
any Bible in his day.

(gentle music)

Most people who drive
through a landscape

don't really see much.

But the more you know,
the more you see.

The same thing's true in a text.

(gentle music)

It's kinda flat, it's barn,
the colors are subtle,

although they can
be spectacular.

It's a beautiful
landscape in its own.

And it's kinda
primordial in ways.

(gentle music)

(cows mooing)

(gentle music)

It's also the most damaged
landscape in the world.

You know.

We only have about
5% of prairie left.

So it's very damaged ecosystem.

It's somewhat like the Bible,

which is a highly
damaged ecosystem.

(gentle music)

- Oklahoma is viewed by
the rest of the country

as being distinctive.

Where either your
future are or your past,

I'm not sure which.

I taught for 26 Years at
Phillips Theological Seminary,

which is in Oklahoma.

A lot of students
would come here

and they have lived in a culture

that has been largely Christian

and largely unthinking
about its Christianity.

They don't really question it.

The Bible is a moving target.

If people who say, "Well,
you have to have a Bible

in order to be Christian."

Well, you can't
have any Christians

until the fourth century.

Cause that's when
you get the canon.

Canon is a fourth
century creation

masquerading as a first
century eyewitness report.

The various compositions that
are in the New Testament,

never thought they'd
be in a New Testament.

There are occasional.

Paul's letters are
clearly occasional.

They're just written
to specific people.

The gospels are quite local.

The canon takes them out
of their historical context

by force and they become
kinda self-referential.

Just kinda referring
to each other.

So then the text is cut free
of its historical context,

and you're then free to put
it in any context you want to

over and over again.

Which is what happens.

(Gentle music)

- The Christian right has
defined Christianity for us

and a God that's very judgmental
and vindictive gets angry,

punish his people is a
law-giver and a judge,

hands down these laws
and if you break them

you get punished.

If you follow them,
you get rewarded.

There's a very parental and
punitive model of Christianity.

I don't see that when I
study the new Testament

and the early church at all.

I see the opposite.

There are female apostles,

poor people are brought
to the table and fed,

you know, communion was
especially presented

to feed poor people who
otherwise wouldn't eat.

(gentle music)
(upbeat music)

"Why do you not judge for
yourself what is right?"

Jesus said it.

He put a lot of emphasis
on individual action.

The idea that God's
gonna do everything

and that everything has
been determined by God.

I think it's a very
harmful idea in religion.

And that there's nothing we
can do to change anything.

And I think one of the
things that Protestants

were supposed to tell the world

is with their whole
Protestant work ethic,

you can change things.

You can make a difference.

(gentle music)
(upbeat music)

But look at what's happening now

we have the largest gap
between rich and poor

in the history of
the United States.

And it's getting
wider all the time.

We have more churches
than almost anyone,

and yet some of the
worst social statistics.

In the country, teen pregnancy
addiction, domestic abuse.

- One in four, Oklahoma
children face food insecurity.

Oklahoma incarcerates more
women than any other state

in the nation.

And we have for over 25 years.

- We have the highest divorce
rate than most cultures.

This County, 67% of the
buckle of the Bible Belt.

- Well that tells you
something is really,

really wrong with our
whole approach to religion.

- [Robin And Congregation]
Be with us as we determine

our next faithful step,

and then see us through.

We pray in the name
of our Teacher Jesus.

Amen.

- We've operated
under this hierarchy

of humans are
better than animals.

Whites are better than blacks.

Men are better than women.

Straights are better than gays.

And if all those other groups

which are further
down the ladder,

start to rise up,

we push back using all
kinds of fear tactics

and quoting scripture
out of context,

to sort of hold on
desperately to what we have.

Because we're living through
sort of the last days

of the privileged white male.

And I think that's part

of what the Trump
presidency represents.

White people won't even be the
majority in another 50 years.

We don't really like
the way that feels,

but that's what's coming.

- I'm fourth generation

Classical Pentecostal
Fundamentalist Christian.

So I can address this
not as an outsider,

but as an insider.

Carlton Pearson.

The world knows me as Bishop.

But I don't look
like a Bishop so.

I look like a son of a Bishop.

That's what they think.

(Interviewer and Carlton laughs)

- [Announcer] Pastor
Carlton Pearson

will tell you that Tulsa
is the city of his prime

and of his crime.

His ministry was a sudden
and bright supernova

before it burned out
in a spectacular crash

that left Pearson shattered
for straying from the story

as it had always been told.

- I think that the
church itself in America

has become corrupt
and eroded and tired.

And we have an elite
attitude of superiority

to Christianity itself feels
that it's the chosen group.

We're the chosen people.

This is the chosen country.

This is chosen culture.

We must own it and control
it and keep it pure

so we can evangelize the world.

And that's why they like Trump.

Trump is the closest
thing to their image

of an angry vengeful
God who says,

"Vengeance is mine say
the Lord I will repay.

"I'm a jealous God that shall
have no other God but me.

"You're my chosen people."

- We were really never
a Christian nation.

Our constitution
made certain of that.

- It was a rare thing

to have kind of
non-religiously identified,

you know, people in
power all the way

from the beginning
of the country.

But yet this kind of general
sense of a theistic belief

that was roughly Christian.

- Christianity was
kind of assumed

cause it's just in the water.

There's not a lot else around.

But they're not founding
a Christian nation.

- Washington is a really
interesting example.

On the one hand, he
really does see religion

as tied up with morality

and morality tied
up with the success

of the democratic
experiment in the US.

He also though is very
clear from the beginning

that it's not overtly Christian.

The early Jewish
community saw themselves

and experienced themselves
as this extreme minority

non-Christian group,

and they were wondering where's
our place in the country.

(upbeat music)

And he wrote this beautiful
letter back to them

where he said we are
founded as a nation

based on the constitution,

and the only thing required
for one to be a good citizen

is to affirm the principles
of the constitution.

We will not be a place
where bigotry takes root.

(upbeat music)

It wasn't just these
lawmakers saying this.

They had allies in the
clerical community.

There's a Baptist
minister of this period,

this colonial period
named John Leland.

He believed in his religious
convictions very strongly,

but he absolutely
insisted that everybody

should have the right to
make their own decisions

about religion.

(upbeat music)

- One place where you really
see the power of Christianity

really on the negative
side of US' history

is the issue of slavery.

We really don't
get the Civil War

and the kind of moral arguments
around justifying slavery,

without it being rooted
in biblical arguments.

(upbeat music)

- [Narrator] Looking at
sermons that were preached

during the Civil War.

It's really clear that
those who were for slavery

had the better arguments
from the Bible.

The Bible is pretty
clear slavery is okay.

The abolitionism has had
a terribly difficult time

overturning them because
they really had to disagree

with the Bible.

(upbeat music)

There's another way
to look at it though,

the whole Exodus
experience for Israel,

is Israel coming out of slavery.

And that becomes a
kinda primary theme.

You know, that this
freedom from slavery,

you have Paul
saying in Galatians,

"There is neither Jew nor Greek.

"There is neither
slave nor free.

"There is neither
male nor female

"for you are all one
in Christ Jesus."

He says, "Within
this body of Christ,

"there is no distinction."

Now it took the church a
long time to figure that out.

- Virtually every white
Protestant domination split

over the Civil War and
the slavery question.

Most of them came back
together in the early part

of the 20th century.

Southern Baptist have
remained split to this day

from their Northern brethren.

That began to be the fault line

really we've been living with
through the 20th century.

And that is still
largely with us today

that you can see
in voting patterns,

you can say in
political activity,

and even in theological
differences.

(gentle music)

- I was born and raised
here in Oklahoma.

And so the fact that we're
a very religious state

and that our population
expects their legislators

to be very religious
and quite frankly

expects them to be Christian
does not surprise me.

- I came up with the phrase,
The Reverend and the Rev

in our 2014 campaign,

when Colin ran the first
time unsuccessfully.

But I thought, Oh man,
that would be a really,

that would be such a
fun way to connect us

and to talk about how our work
is really not that different.

- The Republicans hold
about 68 of the seats

while Democrats hold
about 28 of the seats.

So we are outnumbered.

- A lot of young
people are leaving

the State of Oklahoma
because of regressive taxes,

of closed-mindedness, of the
conservative culture here.

And we thought about it,

but came to the conclusion
that our family is here,

we love this place.

- Oklahoma has a history
of being a populous state.

We have a history of
being proud of our ability

to pull ourselves up
by our bootstraps.

- And so it's our responsibility
to insert ourselves

in the conversation.

- My name is Collin Waukee,

I represent House District 87
in Northwest Oklahoma City.

In 2017, three bills ran
to raise the minimum wage

in the State of Oklahoma
and not a single one

received a hearing.

As a result this year,

I'm running my own
minimum wage bill

that would raise the minimum
wage to $11 per hour.

- In Oklahoma we talk about
family values all the time.

Meanwhile, we pass legislation
that makes it harder

and harder on families.

- We have passed nothing
but shameful budgets

for the past six, eight years.

We continued to cut education.

We've cut education spending
more than any other state

in the nation.

We've cut Aid to DHS to the
Department of Mental Health.

There's two reasons why I think
a lot of these conservative

social spending cut
oriented bills get passed.

From a religious perspective.

The first one is that the
individuals who run these bills

have a sincere belief
that what you believe

as far as whether Jesus
is your Lord and savior

is more important than
what you actually do.

- Most Christians think Jesus
came and founded Christianity

and the church started and
you're off to the races.

And depending on what
your denomination is,

that's what the early
disciples were doing.

So for Methodists,

they're all singing
hymns, you know,

and for Catholics,
they're all saying mass,

and none of these early
folks in what you might call

the Jesus movement think
they're Christians.

They think there's
some form of Jews.

They're in a Jewish reform
movement in one way or another.

All of these reform
movements Phariseeism

what becomes Christianity,

the Jesus movement and
that they're all dealing

with a couple of
similar problems.

One is the thing nobody
wants to talk about,

but determines everything
and that's Rome.

They're living in
the Roman Empire,

and the Roman
Empire is an empire.

It's not Pax
Romana, Roman Peace.

It's only Pax if
you're a Romana.

If you're something else
it's called oppression.

It's too dangerous to be Jewish.

And the empire keeps
this pressure on.

And one of the big drivers
in the second century

is the rise of Martian
who comes along,

and he really reads Paul
as being anti-Jewish.

And he makes a collection
of Paul's letter

and something looking
like the Gospel of Luke,

and that becomes his gospels.

And that becomes
his New Testament.

So you've got this
political pressure,

you've got this emerging
new set of scriptures

that begins to push the
grip to identify itself

quite differently.

As over against
what is now trying

to identify itself as Judaism.

So the both movements are
engaged in self identification,

which pushes them apart.

The key player here
is Constantine.

(upbeat music)

In 321, he calls the
Council of Nicaea.

He begins to favor Christianity.

He doesn't make it the
official religion of the empire

that comes later.

But he does favor it.

He wanted Christianity
to help unify the empire

because the empire really lacked

a kind of coherent
ideological foundation.

And he thought Christianity
could provide that.

The problem was Christianity
was divided itself

cause it's doing all
this self-definition

and it's, you know,

it's not all that unified.

And so he calls the Council of
Nicaea which is fascinating.

The first Ecumenical Council
is called by a Roman emperor

who wasn't even Christian.

They meet in an
old pagan temple,

and they argue and
argue and argue.

They don't really know
where they gonna to go.

Eusebius who was there
describes it, you know,

he surrounded the
temple with troops

and cutoff the food supply
and you get the Nicene Creed.

(playful music)

That's a little quick and facile

but there is a certain
amount of force to him.

He will not let them
out until they agree.

And so the point of the
creed is to create unity.

The point of the creed
is also to exclude

those who don't agree.

So a creed has both a
unifying aspect to it

and an exclusive aspect.

It gets rid of folks.

And it still functions
that way today.

The other thing that's
really important

to know about the
creed is it changes

what becomes the new
Christian movement.

That's really in
a way you can say

who invented Christianity the
Nicene Creed, Constantine.

Because it shifts Christianity

from being a religion
of Praxis like Judaism.

It's what you do that matters.

And to being a matter of belief.

We don't throw
people out of church

because they don't
sell everything and
give it to the poor.

We will throw them out a
church if they don't say

the Nicene Creed.

(gentle guitar music)

- My dad grew up in this
very conservative world.

And actually at one time
was very enamored of it,

wanted it to be one of
the church of Christ,

great boy preachers.

And in that denomination, you
didn't have to go to seminary.

You just had to show promise,

and the elders would lay
hands on you and say,

"Go get him, sick em.

"You've got the gift."

And my dad started driving
around in the little towns

in Eastern Oklahoma
preaching at age 15.

And he was quite the
spellbinding preacher.

And then he went
off to World War II.

He left the farm.

He met all kinds of people
willing to die for him

who were Methodist,
Presbyterians.

They would take a bullet

and they weren't even
gonna get into heaven

according to his
childhood theology.

But my dad said,

"I saw this world
that was bigger

"than I had ever been
taught the world was.

"And all these people
believed in different things

"and surely God loved them too."

Surely the Presbyterian had
a chance to get into heaven.

Maybe even the Buddhist
could get into heaven

or the Jew could
get into heaven.

Surely the world I've
been shown is too small

and he just sort of outgrew it

and left it and became a
congregational minister

after he left the
church of Christ.

(suspenseful music)
(keyboard clattering)

Then I sort of heard
him in a free pulpit

questioning the Vietnam War,

conventional nuclear power,

pushing for women's
rights and civil rights,

and I thought,

Whoa, this is kind of exciting.

This might be a good way to
spend my life doing that.

If I could do it
without getting fired.

One of the first things
we did at Mayflower

we started marrying gay people
long before it was legal.

We just made up our
own marriage licenses

because we couldn't
get one from the state.

We thought might drive
a hundred people out,

and what happened was a
hundred more people came.

And so I learned
something at that point

about going ahead and
saying what I really thought

and the hunger for
that in people's lives,

and for them to feel like church

was gonna be an honest place.

They could agree
they could disagree,

but they could believe
that what was being said

is what the preacher
really thought.

That sort of set this
church on a new trajectory.

I have only one announcement,

but it's a very important one.

Notice is hereby given
of a special meeting

of this congregation
to be held today

at noon in this sanctuary
to discuss and vote

upon a plan to join
the Sanctuary Movement.

Your attendance
and participation

will be deeply appreciated.

- So here we are on the edge
of a congregational meeting

and a congregational
vote to discern

how we as a church will
respond to the crisis

faced by our
undocumented neighbors

who are threatened by
heightened ice activities

and oppressed by unjust
immigration policy.

(gentle music)

Since the beginning, our country
has used race and ethnicity

to determine who can come,
who can work and who can stay.

Even though I wanted
to keep it brief,

the history of racism
in this country is long.

The 1790 Naturalization Act

excluded nonwhite people from
eligibility to naturalize.

In 1882, Congress passed
the Chinese Exclusion Act.

The 1917 Immigration
Act banned immigration

from most Asian countries,

prior to 1965 residents
of only three countries,

Ireland, Germany and
the United Kingdom,

all overwhelmingly white were
given nearly 70% of the visas

available to enter the US.

The policy was clear white
people in brown people out.

I believe Mayflower Church
should be a sanctuary church,

both on paper and in practice.

- I'm not in favor of partisan
politics in the pulpit.

Nobody ever is told
here who to vote for,

or what side of an
issue God is on.

There is however, a
politics of the gospel,

and everybody's free
to interpret that
the way they see fit.

I'm not trying to
get other people

to interpret it the way I do,

but I think not
trying to interpret

the politics of the gospel,

which has to do with
how we treat people,

how we relate to our enemy,
whether we're compassionate,

whether we're forgiving,

all those things has
to be interpreted

and applied to the current

political, economic, social
situation of America.

Or you're not preaching.

You're just sort of offering
people a history lesson.

That's usually pretty boring.

- Growing up as a
Southern Baptist,

my family's life really
revolved around the church.

I can distinctly remember
before the age of eight,

just standing or
sitting in the pew

while everyone else
received communion around me

and noting the exclusion,

without praying the sinner's
prayer and asking Jesus

to be your personal savior,

when if you die you're
gonna go to hell

and spend eternity in that place

where there is weeping
and gnashing of teeth.

The other option is for
you to have accepted Jesus

as your savior.

And that is your
ticket to heaven.

St. Peter lets you in
and you get a mansion,

which we, you know, we
sing hymns about that.

I could sing you a couple of,

- [Interviewer] Sing it.

- Over the Hilltop.

* I've got a mansion
just over the hilltop *

* In that bright land where

I mean and the examples go on.

We grew up singing
songs like that.

(gentle music)

- I had lunch with my friend,

she said, "Your granddaughter
was in the paper

"again this morning so."

But I hadn't read the
paper that morning.

But there you are and I thought

that was a real good picture.

And of course I had
never seen a picture of--

- Robin.

- The lead.

- Yeah, we don't
actually get many,

many pictures together.

- A lot of it's not fair
for the persons involved.

(gentle piano music)

And my opinion is
who am I to judge?

And that's what I think
people are mostly doing.

Is judging.

And I'm not for that.

- Maybe I should have said
that at the press conference.

- You think you should have?

- Yeah, I'll do that.

I'll say that next time.

I like that.

(gentle piano music)

- [Novella] Lori and I
have always been talkers.

- [Lori] And we've talked
about all kinds of things,

even stuff we don't see
completely eye to eye on.

And from my perspective,

one of the things that I
am most grateful to you

for is the idea that you
should talk about it.

You should talk about things,

- [Novella] Oh, I agree.
- Even if you disagree.

- [Novella] I agree.

- You know, you were
an important part

of my spiritual development
and faith formation,

and it happened without me,

you know, really knowing
it was happening.

So I have sort of encyclopedic
knowledge of hymns

and that's your doing.

Can you sing a little
bit of it, grandma?

- Oh, will you sing?

- [Lori] Sure.

* Oh, them golden slippers

* Oh, them golden slippers

* Them golden slippers
I'm gonna wear *

* To walk them golden street

* Oh, them golden slippers

* Oh, them golden slippers

* Golden slippers
I'm gonna wear *

* And walk them golden street

- Can you see me with
three little girls

going down the
road and a pickup,

and singing songs like that.

But they all sing them.

(gentle piano music)

- Before you guys came in
and I came in the house,

how I knew she was
nervous about this

cause she knew that
we were gonna ask

about me being in the paper
and particularly about,

you know, the headline minister

decries LGBTQ discrimination.

I come in, give her a hug,

tell her Thank you
for doing this,

and she says, "I just
wanna know one thing,

"are you going to go to
heaven when you die?"

Which is her way of
asking me, are you saved?

Do you still consider Jesus
to be your personal savior?

And yeah, I do think I'm
gonna go to heaven when I die.

I did not also add, I don't
think that there is a hell,

so I don't think anybody
is going to hell.

Because that kind
of conversation,

well, it doesn't
do anybody good,

any good at this point.

She's not gonna change her mind

and I'm not gonna change mine.

And what I do appreciate is
that she cares enough to ask.

She cares enough to ask
cause it matters to her.

And if I didn't matter her,
she wouldn't worry about it.

But she is.

(gentle music)

It was not until college
that I was completely

removed from my
environment of origin

and experienced some new
people and new situations

that really pushed
me to question

the things I had
been taught about God

and about people who
are different than I am.

I'm on the basketball team
and developing relationships

and friendships
with my teammates.

Some of whom happened
to be lesbians.

And this was really
the first time

I was able to develop
a genuine friendship

with someone who
wasn't straight.

And I won't pretend that
I would have said to them,

"I'm an open and affirming
person for all LGBTQ people."

That's not where
I was at the time.

And you know, I was still,

I was struggling with
what I had been taught

to think about homosexuality.

But having in this other hand,

my teammates who
were real people

and good people and people
who are compassionate

and kind and hardworking,

who also loved God.

And so that was a really
transformative time for me.

(gentle music)

- [Collin] Are you going
up to the church today?

- Yes. That clinic starts at 10.

And I think it lasts
until four or maybe five.

(gentle music)

I started at Oklahoma City
University School of Law,

where I ran into Collin.

Who I would eventually marry.

And it was very clear to me
early on that he was someone

who encouraged questions
and was ready to explore

new ways of thinking
and had done

some of that work
himself already.

He actually was a Mayflower
member at the time.

- I started going to Mayflower
and about 2006, 2007,

after reading some
articles by Robin Meyers.

At that time, I wasn't
particularly diligent

in my religion if you will.

And I started reading
about this minister

who was in favor of LGBT rights.

Who was against the war in Iraq.

And I just thought
this guy can't be real.

And he certainly can't
be a Christian minister

in the Heartland of America.

(gentle music)

- So we would go to this
8:30 AM service at Mayflower

and hear Robin Myers
offer this new theology.

(gentle music)

And then we would go
to the 10:30 service

at Grand Boulevard
Baptist Church,

where we were hearing theology,

like God sent Hurricane
Katrina to new Orleans

because of the sin in that city.

It did not take me
very long to say,

"You know what, we've got,

"I've got to take myself
out of this other situation.

"I'll find a way to
serve this a new church

"and offer my gifts to God
in a different setting."

(congregation cheering)
(upbeat music)

- [Robin] I have never
had an associate minister

before I had Lori Waukee
as an associate minister.

And that's been just like a gift

that's just been
dropped in our laps.

And not only because
women preach differently,

understand the
world differently.

But a whole group of
people are now listening

and understanding Christianity

in a way that's
different because Lori

is explaining it to them.

- From what we can tell

early Christianity is
very open to women.

Paul knows female apostles.

Not many Christians
know that but in fact

if they would actually
read the Bible,

instead of just look at it,

they would find that out.

So you have women in
positions of authority.

You have women well
into the second century

into positions of authority.

You have the Gospel
of Mary, for example,

and some of these
kinds of texts,

which didn't make
it into the canon.

But which Christians
ought to read

if they wanna know
what's going on.

(gentle piano music)

There's some
wonderful art pieces

there called the praying women.

The most distinctively
Christian images

in Pre-gonna art is
of a woman praying.

And you find them in tombs.

In catacombs.

All over the place.

We have a large number of these.

(gentle piano music)

This praying woman in the,

Romans pray like this
with their hand out,

is a distinctively
Christian image.

It's never discussed
in the mail literature.

But it occurs in these catacombs

and it represents the Christian.

So, you know, what
do you make of this?

The most distinctive image
is of a praying woman.

That's what a
Christian looks like.

That's how a
Christian sees himself

or herself as a praying woman.

That's against the values
of the Roman Empire.

That's very antipatriarchal.

Okay?

That goes away with Constantine.

- So we're headed to the
Oklahoma State Capitol.

I am chaplain of the week for
the House of Representatives.

Last year when I was
chaplain of the week,

my prayers were a
little different

than what they were
used to, I guess.

And upset a few of the ultra
conservative representatives.

- We begin each day

in the State House of
Representatives with a prayer.

It's typically always
a Christian prayer.

And it's typically always from
a conservative view point.

- There's some
resistance in the Capitol

to a women clergy and
Collin had to fight for me

to be able to pray this week.

- Despite the fact that
we do have separation

of church and State,

there's always been
this little carve out

for certain ceremonial practices
that occur in government,

chaplains are one of them.

And that sounds
great on its face,

but it can be problematic
when somebody comes in

and says something
controversial.

Or when a member of an
unpopular religious group

wants to come in
and give this right.

- There was controversy about
the new Chaplaincy Policy,

which said that you had
to be invite somebody

that was a member
of your own faith.

So they changed their policy.

And they said that they
would hire a house chaplain.

And that would be the chaplain
of the day for everyone.

And anyone who had
not been confirmed

up until that point
would not be allowed

to be minister of the day.

Even though I had submitted Lori

at the beginning of session,

they had not yet confirmed her.

So I went to the
representative who's in charge

of the chaplaincy program,

and I told him he
had two choices.

He could either identify my
wife as a minister of the week,

or I was going to
go to the press

and call him out
for being a sexist.

- [Interviewer] A sexist
and what else did you say?

(laughs)

- Xenophobic,
bigot, all of that.

Because at the end of the day,

that was the problem with
the Chaplaincy Policy

as they instituted it.

We do not have any
Muslims in the house.

We do not have any
Jews in the house.

We do not have any
Hindus in the house.

So it's already a
Christian only club

and that's not the
way that should be.

It should be
ecumenical in nature.

- White evangelicals they
make up 17% of the population.

They made up 26% of voters
in the last election cycle.

The way to understand
some political space

is that our ballot
box acts a little bit

like a time machine.

It takes us back about 10
years in terms of our history

and demographic change.

And the main reason for that
is that white Christians vote

at higher rates than
other citizens do.

So it means that they are
able to be overrepresented

at the ballot box in a way,

in a much higher rates

than they are in the
general population.

(gentle piano music)

- Members offering our
invocation this week

is Reverend Lori Waukee

of the Mayflower
Congregational Church

in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma.

Reverend Lori Waukee
your recognized.

- This is our hope, Holy one,

as the representatives
in this room,

make decisions for
our beloved state,

that these women and men
remember that they have one job

and that's to make this
corner of the earth

a little brighter.

Dark shadows threatened
to overwhelm so many,

the 75,000 low-income Oklahomans

who need health care
for their families.

Our teachers who need money

not just the motto
printed on it.

These representatives,
depending on how they light up

the voting board
could turn this place

into a city upon a hill.

- Evangelical used to think

that you took care
of your own soul

and you did not sully yourself
with the things of the world.

You did not get
involved in politics.

- Jerry Falwell Sr. for example,

as late as the mid 1960s

was still delivering
sermons saying,

"You know, political stuff
is not the realm of pastors.

"We should stay out."

Now that he was mostly
motivated to say that

to criticize Reverend
Martin Luther King, Jr.

- Let us march on ballot
boxes until brotherhood

is more than a meaningless
word and at the end of a prayer

but the first order of business
on every Legislative agenda.

Let us march on ballot boxes.

(crowd cheers)

Let us march on ballot boxes

until we are able to send to
the State Houses of the South,

men who would do justly,

love mercy and walk
humbly with their God.

Let us march on ballot boxes.

- If we'd been having this
interview a generation ago,

we would still be talking

about the solid
Democratic South, right?

Now today it's the
solid Republican South.

Well, how did that happen?

(clapping)

The real mark for this shift

is when the democratic party

becomes identified
with civil rights.

- Let us close the
Springs of racial poison.

Let us pray for a wise
and understanding hearts.

- Then what begins happened
is that whites in the South

who have been voting
democratic for generations

largely because the
Republican Party

was the emancipation party

and they were the
slave owning party,

begin to take flight to
the Republican Party.

The parties began to
shift their positions.

So the Democratic Party becomes
the party of civil rights.

The Republican Party
begins increasingly

to become the party
of law and order

and really pushing
back on civil rights.

- This a nation of laws.

And as Abraham Lincoln had
said, "No one is above the law.

"No one is below the law."

And we're going
to enforce the law

and Americans
should remember that

if we're going to
have law and order.

- White evangelicals can
see that the tide of history

is shifting and they're
on the losing end

of the racial argument.

The kind of
precipitating spark here

was actually Bob
Jones University,

having a dating
policy that prohibited

interracial dating on campus.

And that ran a foul of
Federal Civil Rights Laws.

So there was a lawsuit filed

if they were gonna
take government money,

they couldn't then have this ban

on interracial dating on campus.

- [Lawyer] Mr. Chief justice,
and may it please the court,

I speak for the petitioner,
Bob Jones University.

- It was a evangelical
Christian college

so they really took a religious
liberty argument on this

and said this is
federal intervention

into a religious issue.

And we have a right to
make these kinds of bans

and keep the races apart.

As we understand that to be
a biblically mandated thing.

- [Lawyer] All of the policies
followed by the University

are obligatory upon
the university as
dictated by scripture.

- White evangelicals
really pushed back

into the national scene
after this incident

with Bob Jones University.

You immediately see like
in Jerry Falwell Sr.

for example, within,

you know, two or three years,

he has completely
flipped his position

becomes one of the architects

of the Christian Right
Political Movement.

- There is no Bible
Belt in America.

There's a Bible cloak
in America that covers

the home whole
blooming Republic,

and they're everywhere ready
for the leadership preachers

that you and I can offer them
and let's give it to them.

- That's right. That's right.

(crowd clapping)

- We have a threefold
primary responsibility.

Number one, get people saved.

Number two, get them baptized.

Number three, get them
registered to vote.

- The Christian Right
Political Movement

basically picks up
other issues as it goes.

So it picks up
opposition to gay rights

and it picks up
opposition to abortion.

(upbeat music)

- [Bernard] When Roe V. Wade,

the abortion issue
really hit hard.

The main group that was opposed
to abortion were Catholics.

- The first big meeting
of the Southern Baptist

after Roe V. Wade,

they actually affirmed
the Roe V. Wade decision.

- It's only much later

that Evangelical Protestants

got on the bandwagon
of Roe V. Wade.

(upbeat music)

In traditional religion
and traditional cultures

a woman does not
control her body.

A man does.

Whether her father
or her husband.

And, you know, virtually
nobody would own up today

to say a woman was
a male property.

But that's the way it was
up until fairly recently.

But a lot of the artifacts
of that are still in place.

Birth control, the woman's right

to control her own fertility,

her own fertility, not to
have her husband control it,

has become a fundamental issue

maybe the last straw
in women being coequal.

(crowd protesting)

- [Robert] And it wasn't
until the political movement

picked up steam,

that that issue
got kinda inserted

into the political platform.

It really pushed
down from the top.

(crowd cheering)

- [Announcer] Here in
Dallas, the religious right,

and the political
ride formerly wed.

The 1980 religious round
table was dominated

by Baptist pastors
and evangelists,

and W. A. Criswell
perform the vow.

- Ronald Reagan.

(crowd cheering)

- [Ronald] Thank
you, Dr. Criswell.

(crowd cheering)

- Now I know this is a
nonpartisan gathering,

and so I know that
you can't endorse me,

but I only brought that up

because I want you to
know that I endorse you

and what you are doing.

- [Announcer] And Ronald Reagan,

the fundamentalist
found a politician

who read the Bible as
literally as they do.

- That I continue to look
to at the scriptures today

for fulfillment
and for guidance.

Indeed, it is an in
controvertible fact

that all the complex
and horrendous questions

confronting us at
home and worldwide

have their answer
in that single book.

(crowd cheering)

- I'm sick and tired of hearing

about all of the
radicals and the perverts

and the liberals
and the leftists

and the communists
coming out of the closet,

it's time for God's people
to come out of the closet,

out of the churches
and change America.

We must do it.

- Christianity is
deeply inculpated

and woven into the fabric
of this country's nature.

We sing the Star-Spangled
Banner, One nation under God,

and part of our allegiance.

There's always this
references to God.

And most of the voters are
passionate when they have fear.

I've noticed that when,
even with offerings now,

I'm sort of in the
new thought community.

There's no fear of
God or fear of hell,

and so the offerings
are smaller because,

it's fear to say, "You
know, God is gonna judge you

"if you don't do this."

- There's no more powerful
force in politics than fear.

We see it now all the time.

Be afraid.

Be very afraid of
Muslim extremists,

immigrants who are
gonna take your job,

women who are gonna take your
masculinity, you name it.

We tell people to be
afraid all the time.

Religious folk,
preachers use this divide

and conquer strategy.

- Yeah the days before my
father passed away in 2007,

he joked with CNN
that he dreamed

that Chelsea Clinton
had interviewed him

about the three greatest
threats facing this nation.

He replied those
three greatest threats

are Osama, Obama and your mama.

(crowd laughs)

- The US has become
a dumping ground

for everybody else's problems.

On day one, we will begin
working on an impenetrable,

physical, tall, powerful,
beautiful Southern border wall.

Their sending us not
the right people.

It's coming from
more than Mexico.

It's coming from all over
South and Latin America.

And it's coming probably
from the Middle East.

- I had this
introduction all planned

about the theological rationale
of the Sanctuary Movement.

And then Lori
preached that sermon

and so it becomes
completely redundant.

So what Lori said.

(congregation laughs)

This is obviously an
important decision

that the congregation
should be making.

And each of you who are
members of this church

in good standing are
allowed to cast a vote

on the ballots that we
will be providing you.

And now we have some
special guests here.

- My name is Judith.

I'm a beneficiary

of Deferred Action for
Childhood Arrivals, DACA.

And I've been working with
Oklahoma City Public Schools

the way that I'm involved
with my community

is organizing through
Dream Act Oklahoma,

and getting information
out there to my community.

What is the church going to
do to protect the community?

- There over 800 churches
in the United States

that have declared themselves
to be sanctuary churches.

So we're not going
into this alone.

I'm gonna read the ballot

that you're gonna be looking at.

So you'll understand the three
choices that are provided.

A, do nothing at this time.

Option B declare Mayflower
to be a sanctuary church

with the understanding
that this includes

the full meaning of sanctuary,

which includes knowingly
hiding individuals

who are in the midst of
a deportation action,

or transporting them.

Subject to felony,

to a charge of felony or C
join the Sanctuary Movement

and join together with all
kinds of organizations,

providing all kinds of
resources in this church

and outside this church,

as part of that movement.

Those are the three choices.

And I know you have questions

and we're gonna try it again.

- I don't want to go to jail.

I would miss my husband.

I would miss my dog.

I'm extremely risk averse.

But if we follow the teachings,

there's no choice
but to vote for B.

That is my intention
to vote for B.

I'm willing to risk
my license as a nurse,

but fortunately, my boss
is Japanese American

whose parents were in
an internment camp.

I don't think he would fire
me for having a felony.

And I guarantee you, if
you guys are in jail,

it's gonna be a pretty
darn crowded jail cell.

- [Crowd] Yeah.

(crowd clapping)

- I'm a kindergarten
teacher on November 9th,

I did not teach.

I held crying Hispanic
children the entire day.

Two. Stop.

Ready. Okay.

I worry a lot for a
lot of my families.

It's hard for them and for me.

All of their energy,
if they're scared,

if they're worried
all 22 of them,

it just comes with them and
we unpack it how we can,

and we try to learn to read so.

And were past near the
post we'll do one of this.

We refer to counseling
like divorce,

death, and deportation
is an actual

like counseling referral for us,

for an external
counseling service,

because it is a frequent
experience of our kids here

in Oklahoma City Public Schools.

- Three, two, one.

- [Students] Kaza.

- [Student] Yeah.

Yeah, Mrs. Girlder.
- [Amanda] I know.

- The rest of you
feel ready to vote.

Please cast a vote.

We're going accept whatever
level of risk you authorize.

So please go ahead
and mark your ballot

and pass them forward and
we'll get account going.

And we'll let you know
what the results are.

Right now we've
got people fooled

into believing that
if you are a Christian

you automatically
vote conservative.

Conservative family values.

But just look at
the gospel itself

and see what Jesus was up to.

Everything he does indicates

that it's what you do that
makes you a religious person,

not what you believe.

- [Announcer] Most
Evangelicals and Pentecostals

believe that God loves
everybody but only likes us

because we accepted Christ.

Everybody else is going to hell.

- Now later dominated my
happy privilege and pleasure

to present the man
that God has raised up

with a message for
your deliverance.

God's man for this hour,
the Reverend Oral Roberts.

(gentle music)
(congregation claps)

- You really can't understand
the religious right

until you look into
its early roots.

* God is risen

* Thank the wisest man

- In the early seventies,

Oral Roberts was pulling in

something like 50
million a month.

In 1970 dollars?

The amount of influence that
he held on a national level,

he was an integral
part of creating

the whole structure of
the religious right.

- Big mama picked me
up just like I was,

took me out into
the living room.

That's the way Jesus does.

He goes into the
bedroom of your defeat,

of your illness, of
your bad self image,

he pulls the blankets
of sin off of ya,

scoops you up into his arms

and brings you out into
the living room of life

and washes you with his blood.

And treasure you where He is.

He loves you just
the way you are.

And somehow you qualify.

(congregation clapping)

Never forget that.

- I was affiliated with
the healing ministry

of Oral Roberts for 40 years.

The laying on of hands,
the anointed with oil,

all my parents and
grandparents and godparents

on both sides did
that kind of thing.

(gentle piano music)

- [Bernard] Oral Roberts
really kinda saw him

as his successor in ways,

which for Oral was a
revolutionary move.

(gentle piano music)

- I love this man.

I mean, I loved him like family.

He took me in from the day
I met him in August of 1971,

the first thing he said
to me, "What do you sing?"

And I said, "I try."

"Talk to my son we wanna get
you in the world action."

Cause he wanted an
integrated team.

Not just blacks but
Hispanics and everything.

And Oral was always
for the underdog.

He grew up in abject
poverty and ignorance,

as a portal Pentecostal boy,

he always hated that
aspect of his life.

He understood it and was
happy when his audiences

became not only Pentecostal,

but Methodist and
Baptist and Catholic

as the Holy ghost Movement.

The charismatic
movement was moving

into non-Pentecostal church.

We call it Neo-Pentecostalism,

and he was like the
godfather of that movement.

We used to get 32,000 average,

32,000 pieces of mail
a day in Oral's peak.

When I was there as
associate evangelist.

We were on nationwide
television.

Christian's Pentecostals owned

all the major
Christian televisions.

Not the Baptist and the
the non-Pentecostal,

Oral had the highest viewership,

anybody sacred or secular
on Sunday mornings

from the time people started
watching till about noon.

We had our University, Jim
Baker had Heritage USA.

Second, most visited
tourist spot in America.

Pat Robinson had the Regent
University in the 700 club

and a whole network.

Man, we were just kicking
butt and taking names.

We had it covered.

So we thought were the
most evangelistic people

on the planet.

* Got my war clothes on

* In the army of the Lord

* Got my war clothes on

* In the army

* I got my war clothes on

* In the army of the Lord

* Got my war clothes on

* In the army

- Underneath all of
that fundamentalism,

that kind of nativistic
charismatic religion,

there's a dualism
that really comes out

historically of Neoplatonism.

They're about saving your soul.

And they talk about
being soul savers,

and the soul is the real you.

It's the authentic thing.

And actually in
Neoplatonism it's divine.

Christianity has to
kinda do away with that,

but it still has
it in many ways.

And the body becomes evil.

Men become the soul part.

Women become the body part.

I mean, this just plays
out in horrendous ways.

They have a kinda
literalist view of hell

that people will go to hell
and pay for their sins.

- See that's Oral's
physical hand on the right.

Physical replica.

None of that was
here when I came.

The chapel wasn't here,
Howard auditorium, the quad,

this was all just
woods and weeds.

- Carlton in reading the Bible
kinda got onto this notion

that you can't really
find that in the Bible.

I mean, most of the imagery
that most people have of hell

comes from Dante and Bunyan,

not from the Bible.

It's the Bible is really
pretty modest to non-existent

on this topic.

And Carlton began to see
that like a lot of mystics

became kind of
overwhelmed, I think,

with the love of God,

and therefore could not
envision a loving God,

destroying evil people in hell.

And that was a no go.

- And he started
preaching universalism

from his pulpit.

And his congregation
didn't like it at all.

And it shrank down and shrank
down to almost nothing.

He lost all of his standing

because he allowed himself to
keep growing theologically.

And then was unafraid to say
what he really did believed.

- My old parents, you know,

they were so proud of me
because of what I'd done.

You have to take all
that into consideration.

My sisters (sighs).

Everybody was
embarrassed, you know.

Everybody was proud
to be my cousin.

"That's my cousin, Carlton.

"That's my brother."

And one of my nephews left
the country moved away,

didn't talk to us
for a long time.

Called me an educated fool.

We hurt so many people.

And that it wasn't
about me being hurt.

It was about me inflicting
pain on innocent people.

They had believed this
stuff all their lives.

I taught them after
they taught me.

Now they're old and tired.

And they were so
proud of me because,

"I taught that boy
in Sunday school.

"Look at what he's doing today.

"I saw it on television
the other day."

Those kinda things.

Those were precious to them.

I would hold those
little ladies,

and there was no
way I could fix it.

The hardest part of that whole
thing was losing the church,

the physical plant and being
basically a churchless,

like a homeless family.

They're more panic
about the no hell thing,

because if you say
there is no hell,

then there's no need for Jesus.

And Oh my God, you
got to have Jesus.

I never thought anybody
would ever attribute

the word heretic to me.

It just wasn't in
my mind at all.

It just means choice or opinion

or you to choose
differently from others,

(speaks in foreign language)

in Hebrew or Greek.

So the whole idea of getting
out of the traditions

or the traded down
ideologies and ideas,

and, you know,

developing an independent
way of thinking is dangerous.

- Here are the results of
the vote of Mayflower Church.

Those who voted for A,

which was to do nothing
at this time, 12.

Those who voted for B,

declare ourselves
in the fullest sense

a sanctuary church, 128.

And those who voted for
C, which are activities,

all of which are
subsumed under B, 63.

So,

(congregation claps)

By a two to one margin,

the congregation has
voted to declare itself

to be a sanctuary church.

Here we go.

(congregation claps)

- Before the
reading (indistinct)

- [Robin] We're the first
congregation in Oklahoma

to declare itself
a sanctuary church.

- [Woman In A Blue
T-Shirt] Thank you.

- [Lori] Your welcome.

- When you preach the gospel,
you have to be political,

but it's the politics
of the gospel.

It's not partisan politics.

Like God's a
Republican or Democrat,

which is an absurd
idea to begin with.

If all of us do matter,

and that's what we
choose to believe

then that means not just
privileged white people

sitting alone,
cloistered in church

and worrying about their souls.

- Over and over again,

we kept hearing that they
needed us to be public

and very clear publicly
that we were going to fight

for laws that were just
and treated immigrants

as the human beings
that they are.

(Robin knocks)

(Lori whispers)

Hello?

- [Woman] Hi.

(speaks In foreign language)

- [Man With Glasses]
Hello, John?

Hello.

(speaks in foreign language)

(gentle music)

- [Robin] We have a pediatric
oncologist in our church

who made us aware of a child

that has a sort of juvenile
form of Hodgkin's disease

and is also on the
autism spectrum.

(speaks in foreign language)

His mother is undocumented,

and she is terrified that
she's going to be deported,

and there's nobody to take
care of her son, John.

(speaks in foreign language)

- [Lori] We are going
to go with you today.

(speaks In foreign language)

There will be many people
there to support you.

(speaks in foreign language)

- One of the things that gets

talked about over
and over again,

there's a kinda saying
there are three people

for whom God has special care.

Widows, orphans and foreigners.

The foreigners are the
illegal aliens in your land.

Okay?

Because those are
the three people

that have nobody
to protect them.

So if God doesn't protect
them, they're in real trouble.

And it's kind of odd.

Here we are 3000 years later,

and we're still arguing about
the same three done questions.

Jesus and Joseph and Mary
are forced into Egypt,

which historically for Jews
is the place of slavery.

See but now it's gonna be
the place of liberation.

It's gonna be the
place of safety.

They are from our point of view,

crossing the border
illegally, you know.

Now if there had been a wall

(laughs)

they would have been
trapped on the wrong side

and the whole story
would have stopped.

So if you've gonna
take a Bible position,

certainly you should be
for illegal immigrants.

That's where the
Bible comes out.

It's on their side.

- Did you tell
him what happened?

Okay. Okay.

It's not terrible.

I mean, yeah.

A little a small stay

until we can do some
more advocating,

letter writing, political
pressure sort of thing.

So we're gonna get
to work on that.

They're gonna put a tracker
on her ankle which--

- [Blonde Woman]
But not house arrest

just a tracker.
- Right, right.

- [Blonde Woman] Right. Okay.
- Right.

- [Blonde Woman] That
was the clarification.

- Right.
So she knows she has friends,

and people helping her out
in that meant a lot to her.

That's where we are.

- [Woman] Robin
does he have cancer?

- All we were saying
was we're not gonna let

what's happening in country
to our immigrant sisters

and brothers go unnoticed.

We're not going
to just be silent.

Because we've been silent at
some pretty critical moments

in American history,

and we wished we hadn't been.

- You know, one of the,

I guess the biggest marks of
today's religious landscape

is the rise in the number of
people who are not religious.

If you go back to the 1990s,

it's still only less
than 10% of the country

claims no religious affiliation.

Today that's a quarter
of the country.

And if you look at young
people, it's four in 10.

- I happen to believe
that church is dying

in its old form and will
continue to die in its old form.

Nine churches a day,

close their doors on average
in the United States.

That doesn't worry me.

That doesn't worry me.

Social justice churches
will thrive, especially now.

(birds chirping)

(indistinct)

- [Man] Get them more here.

(indistinct)

- [Woman] Hi.

* Let the sunshine

- [Woman With A White
Blouse] I'm here, hey.

* Let the sunshine in

* The sunshine in

- [Singer] Can you
sing that with me?

* Let the sunshine

* Let the sunshine in

* The sunshine in

* Let the sunshine

* Let the sunshine in

* The sun shine in

* Let the sunshine

* Let the sunshine in

* The sunshine in

* Everyday let

* Let the sunshine

* Let the sunshine in

* The sunshine in

(congregation claps)

- Have you been following
the legislature's

hurtful and
heartbreaking Bill 1140.

- [Congregation] Yes.

- It's proposed to give
private adoption agencies

the right to take public funding

and then discriminate
against people

based on the agency's
religious beliefs.

Now, what this means

is that a qualified
family can be blocked

from adopting by
a religious agency

because the family's
Muslim or atheist or single

or a same-sex couple.

We still have time to stop
this from going through.

And I would appreciate
your help in doing that.

I'm inviting you into an
act of religious freedom.

Here at All Souls our focus
is not to try to save people

from a hell in the afterlife
that we cannot see,

but to save people from
very real hells in this life

that we can see.

Robin Myers reached out to
me pretty early and said,

"We need as many
progressive thinkers

"in this state as possible."

I'd read some of his books.

I saw what he'd done.

And I really admired Robin
and looked up to him.

- Good morning, church.

You're in the right place.

This is All Souls Church.

This is a beautiful day
in which we are living.

When Dr. King said,

"Yes, the road to justice
requires sacrifice,

"suffering and and struggle

"and you got to have
some passionate concern

"by dedicated individuals."

When Dr. King was
speaking like that,

he was trying to
say so therefore,

don't sit on the side and whin.

He was trying to
tell you come on now

because we are moving towards
something that's transcendent.

- [Congregation] Yeah.

- We are moving towards justice.

I don't wanna
preach this morning.

(congregation laughs)

But I'm trying to tell
y'all that you in for it.

We got Reverend Dr.
Bishop Carlton Pearson.

(congregation cheers)

Yeah.

So get ready for this.

Let us hear the song
cause if you listen to it,

you might learn something.

Come on.

(bright music)

* Long as you living
always remember *

* You are never beat life

* So don't try and cheat life

* Sisters and brothers

* Do onto others

* Love's for enjoying

* Hate's for destroying

* Never forget it

* Or you'll regret it

* As long as your living

* Forgive me if I
seem to preach *

* But there is something
that I have to say *

* A message

- Wow.

That's a cute
dangerous like girl.

(congregation laughs)

Devil would walk down that
aisle and just kiss you.

(congregation laughs)

We were raised with
a Bible and a belt.

(congregation laughs)

If they could preach
the gospel into her

they'd beat that
devil out of her.

(congregation laughs)

They'd go to jail
for that today.

(congregation laughs)

But you can also carry guns.

They're trying to put forth
legislation in this state.

Who are people who've
had no vetting,

no preliminary examinations,
no questioning,

any random person
can walk around,

like in cowboy days
and carry guns.

That's insane.

Especially while the
psychologists telling us that

one out of five people
you meet are mentally ill.

Count down the roads.

(congregation laughs)

If that one has a gun, slap him.

(congregation laughs)

You can go out
today when we finish

and ask Governor
Fallin, the veto,

permitless, carry.

But we talk about faith in God

but it's really fear and guns,

and Bible or bullets or ballots,

we've never had such
polarization in our country

or in our culture before.

And I think that All Souls

is a part of a new
spiritual paradigm

right here in the City of Tulsa.

- The first time that Carlton
Pearson came onto my radar,

I had just come to Tulsa
a year or so earlier.

And there was a issue of
Bush's Faith-Based Initiative

became a big national issue.

I was speaking against them.

He was speaking for them.

And then a few years later,

Carlton came out with this
new gospel of inclusion.

And so I reached out to him.

Because he was being
denigrated in the media

and in all kinds of other
ways in the churches.

And so I reached
out to him and say,

"Hey, there are a lot of
others who think like you."

And about a third to
a half of his members

joined at that time.

- Used to go drive
by there and say,

"It looks like such an
innocent little place.

"How could all those
demons live in there?"

They didn't like all of us,

black men Pentecostal
coming in there first.

I was willing to go and
he wouldn't have it.

Marlin would not have it.

And a lot of their
people wouldn't have it.

(gentle music)

- [Marlin] All Souls
started in 1921

at the same year as the
Tulsa race riot happened.

- The founder of All
Souls Unitarian Church

owned the Tulsa Tribune.

And initiated the terrible
massacre that took place

because of the way he
reported things in the news.

- The first time I found out
about the Tulsa massacre,

I was almost 30 years old.

I'm sitting in a church
in Chicago, Illinois,

and the pastor begins to
talk about the excellence

of Black Wall Street.

And I'm like, "Oh, well,
this sounds interesting."

Well, then he says that,

"The black wall
street takes place

"in the Greenwood District
in Tulsa, Oklahoma."

And I'm like, "Wait a
second. I'm from Tulsa."

And he tells the story of
how just two generations

out of slavery,

African-Americans built
this incredible city

in the shadows of Jim Crow.

(gentle music)

There are doctors,

there are lawyers and
there are black teachers,

black schools, and these
people are excellent.

- Nobody knows about it.

I didn't know.

I was here for years before
I ever heard of that.

- On May 31st in 1921,

a girl by the name of Sarah
Paige is an elevator operator

in a building downtown and
a young African-American boy

who's a shoe shiner had
to go to the restroom.

And so he chose the building

that I guess Sarah Paige was in,

and he's going up the elevator,

and the elevator
supposedly jerks.

There's a scream.

And Dick Rowland comes
running out of the elevator.

After Sarah Page screams.

Some people say that Dick
Roland assaulted Sarah Page,

and there's a warrant
for his arrest.

The next day, there's a
warrant for his arrest.

- The Tribune was
published in the evening.

And so when Dick
Rowland was arrested,

the paper that day, that
night said, you know,

"Nab a Negro tonight was
the headline of the paper,

right on the front pages.

And they're telling this
story about Dick Roland,

supposedly accosting
a white woman.

And in 1921 in America,

that was grounds
often for lynching

and all kinds of mob violence.

(gentle piano music)

- [Nehemiah] Hours later,
there are angry white Tulsans

coming across the
railroad tracks

to burn down this community.

(mournful music)
(gentle piano music)

- It was 34 blocks of businesses

and homes and people
that were destroyed

and killed in that devastation.

It's known as the Tulsa
race riot but in essence

it was white people coming
into the black community

and wholesale destroying
that community.

And so massacre is a
more appropriate word

for what happened.

(gentle piano music)

Because Tulsa kept silent
about the events of 1921

for so long,

there was a
conspiracy of silence,

both in the white community
and in the black community.

And still today, it's hard
work to bring people together

across race in Tulsa.

- I come from a very
Pentecostal background.

My upbringing was in
the Pentecostal Church,

The Church of God and Christ.

And I was a Church of God
in Christ, born and bred,

and would never have
imagined myself at my age

now being with a
Unitarian congregation.

In August it'll be 10 years

that we've been here
as a part of all souls.

I will say that it is not
without some challenge

when these black people are
perceived as invading a space

that has been pretty
exclusively white for, you know,

eight decades.

* Blessing

* What a blessing

* So amazing

- It's one thing to
put your dollars to it,

to march towards it, to sign
legislation and to do a sermon.

I say, "But it's another
thing when someone

brings in their luggage
and open your drawers

and put their stuff in there,

and they're not leaving,

that's a completely different
dynamic to deal with.

None of us asked for this,
none of us wish this,

but this is the most
divinely inspired thing

that could have happened to
any congregation or church.

And it's hard to
see that sometimes

when you feel a sense of loss.

So here we are with
our worship music,

we're hugging each other
and it's all spirit field

and heartfelt.

And we're asking
people to do something

that they're not used to.

There was some people
who thought that Marlin

was doing too much
racial stuff, you know.

But the difference became
you can now no longer say

that you don't know people who
have been impacted by this.

- In light the
beginnings 1921 to 2021,

and the arc of that story
that goes from our founder

and his role in the race riot,

all the way to this congregation
that is deeply committed

and has been working for
decades for the unity

and equality of all people
here in the community.

If you look over here.

And so moving into
downtown allows us

to be in what we might call
culturally neutral space.

In downtown that's
everybody's Tulsa.

- [Carlton] Where's
the entrance?

- The entrance
will be right here.

Like we'll come right in here.

It's gonna be beautiful.

This whole side is
gonna be gorgeous.

And then you have the main
sanctuary, right here.

Facing Greenwood.

Where the arts window
we'll have all that stuff

facing Greenwood right here.

- [Carlton] So the crowd
will be looking that way.

- [Marlin] Looking
right at Green.

Which is,
- Black Wall.

- That was the segregated--

- And that was the
Black Wall Street.

- That's right,
Black wall street.

- So we really see this role
as being border walkers,

between cultures and
between theologists

and religious expressions,

as something that gives
us a role in society

that can help us to
help lead the community

and the country
towards its promise.

- I think that churches
like Mayflower and All Souls

will be the premier mega
churches in the next 10 years.

I think people are gonna
come from everywhere saying

"I relate to this because
there's no judgment.

"There's no dogma in this place.

"I can be me.

"I could be proud of being me.

"I can come here
unapologetically."

If it was LA or Frisco
or even New York,

everybody expects it.

Nobody expects it.

What good thing can come
out of Oklahoma since Oral.

- We're making a
little tiny difference,

but I have this new
theory about God.

That God doesn't do
anything in my theology,

but without God,
nothing gets done.

So every single action
changes something,

which changes something else,
which changes something else,

which changes everything.

And you can depend on that.

And that's what
faith is all about.

(upbeat music)

- [Announcer] Welcome
to the All Souls studio.

(congregation laughs)

(upbeat music)

I think you can snap your hands

if you want to.

(upbeat music)

This is a song about
being grateful.

(upbeat music)

* You're my life,
you're my breathe *

* You're a smile, you my guest

* You're the earth,
you're the sun *

* You're the grass,
you are love *

* You're my hands,
you're a bug *

* You're my eyes, you're hug

* You're the light in the dark

* You're the spark,
you are fun *

* You're my mom, you are water

* You're the stars,
you're my daughter *

* Your my friend till the end

* You're my dreams,
you're my father *

* You're are the
ants on the ground *

* The miracles that surround

* I'm feeling it all around

* The hemisphere

- So your question,
why do we support

or how can we support?

- How can you support criminals?

- [Robin] We're
not here supporting

anyone who's breaking the law.

We're here trying to
stand with human beings

that are very
frightened right now.

- I completely understand
where you're coming from,

but I'm a veteran
and former military,

I'm a military brat.

- [Robin] I appreciate
your service.

- So I follow the law.

- [Robin] Right.

- And so when I see
groups here does it say,

"Oh, we stand with
illegal immigration."

I stand with Americans first.

I have to.

- We're standing
with human beings.

We're not making
the distinction.

For us it's are
they humans or not?

Cause if they're humans,

they're they're children of God.

And I think just
at a human level,

we have to remember that.

The problem is we don't even

have a coherent
immigration policy.

So you have people trying
to come to this country

for the same reason
you would or I would,

and that's to make a better
life for our families.

But there's a lot of
hypocrisy to go around.

And right now it gets deeper
and deeper every single day.

- I truly appreciate somebody
finally talking to me.

- Good.

- Cause I come from California,

- Yeah.
- I've lived my life

mostly in California and
all I get is you're racist.

You're bigot.

- I know, no.

No, I never thought that.

I don't think that now.

- And I think it's more
because you have the collar,

you have that.
- Yeah.

- And I get a more
respectful answer from that.

And I do have to
say, Thank you again

for that.
- You're welcome.

You're welcome. All right.

- And I hope you
have a wonderful day.

- All right.

We can solve our problems
but only together.

Only together.

- And with talk.

- Bye. Bye.

Bye, Easter bunny.

(indistinct)

(Robin laughs)

That just didn't happen, did it?

- [Interviewer] Yes that did.

Okay.

* You're the path
that I follow *

* You're the
blessing that exist *

* The small things
that are bliss *

* The gift to realize that

* Everything is a gift

* Every time I turn around

* Every time I think about

* Everything is a gift

* Every time I turn around