Nigerian Church Puts Texans Love for Their Neighbours to the Test

[Clara T]

Nigerian church puts Texans' love for their neighbours to the test

Evangelicals' arrival in former Ku Klux Klan haunt brings old prejudices but also new tolerance

Jamie Wilson in Floyd, Texas
Monday December 5, 2005
The Guardian


They say that God moves in mysterious ways, but perhaps never more so than when telling the leaders of Africa's largest evangelical church to build their North American headquarters in Floyd. Less than a generation ago this dusty railway stop on the prairie of north-east Texas was still a segregated community, the local philosophy summed up by a sign painted on a water tower in nearby Greenville that proudly proclaimed "Blackest Land, Whitest People".

<snip>

So far the arrival of the church in Floyd has not been greeted with much in the way of Christian spirit. "A generation ago it wouldn't have been allowed to happen," said Luanne Moody, who has lived in the same trailer for 27 years on Mockingbird Estates, a collection of broken down bungalows and mobile homes on a few acres of scrubby land a mile or so from the church camp.

"I heard talk - I don't agree with it mind - but I heard talk of people doing something stupid and taking the law into their hands," she added. "I was born and raised here and I lived her all my life. My daughter, my sister, my niece, they all live here and we just feel like we're being pushed out, and I know my neighbours feel the same."

<snip>

The church, which now has upwards of three million members in 80 countries, has compared its arrival in Floyd to the days when white missionaries first spread their message in Africa. And just like those Europeans venturing into the unknown, the evangelical church believes it is on a personal mission from God, this time to rescue Christians from the material excesses and moral torpor of American society.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/usa/story/0,12271,1657870,00.html

[Canuckistanian]

1. "lived in the same trailer for 27 years on Mockingbird Estates"

Ah, so she's the landed gentry, then.

Sounds like maybe this town is going to see what it's like to be considered "heathens in need of God's word"

[WhiteTara]

2. and by her speech, you know

she's refined. :rofl:

[tanyev]

3. Oh, I'm sure all the followers of Dobson and Falwell

will welcome a huge black evangelical power base with open arms. :sarcasm:

This could get interesting.

[MountainLaurel]

4. Aaah, Christian fellowship at its finest

:scared:

[TX-RAT]

5. Prairie of north east TX?