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The Guardian, UK
Dec. 5, 2005
Jamie Wilson in Floyd, Texas
www.guardian.co.uk

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ReligionNewsBlog.com • Item 12973 • Posted: Monday December 5, 2005  

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

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”.

The arrival of the Redeemed Christian Church of God – whose congregation is mostly black – has presented a challenge to the 100 or so inhabitants of Floyd, who are mostly white, that will ultimately reveal to both the locals and their new neighbours whether the community has been able to throw off the racist cloak of the past and embrace a multicultural future.

The Nigerian church, founded in Lagos in 1952, paid about $1m (£580,000) for 198 hectares (490 acres) of pasture, on which it is planning to build cottages, a 10,000-seat amphitheatre, an artificial lake and possibly a modest waterpark, leading some to dub it a Christian Disneyland. At the moment the only structure is a large conference centre that last month hosted a meeting of more than 1,000 ministers and volunteers.

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.”

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.

Ajibike Akinkoye, the regional church leader in Dallas, said that when he arrived in Texas more than 10 years ago a voice spoke to him. “The Lord … said ‘you are not going to build a megachurch church yet. You are going to plant little churches around the Dallas metroplex and then I will give you a camp.’” After a series of what he describes as miracles he was pointed towards Floyd. “God directed us there. Through him now we want to open up things that will be great and everlasting blessing to everybody.”

Mr Akinkoye said that before buying the land he had not known about the history of the area, where until recently the Ku Klux Klan had openly thrived. “It never crossed my mind there could be any opposition or danger,” he said. “But when people pointed that out it made me feel ‘thank God we are there’, because even if they are negative towards us, or violent, or kill one of us, that is not going to stop the work God wants us to do. We have no fear, because whatever happens it is God’s will.”

Judge Joe Bobbitt is everything you would expect a Texas judge to be: a walking giant with a crushing handshake, cowboy drawl and a ready smile. In his office at the courthouse two flags – the Stars and Stripes and the Lone Star of Texas – frame his desk. Continuing the stereotype, you might not expect him to have an entirely tolerate attitude towards outsiders taking over a patch of Texas land. But nothing could be further from the truth. “When they first came here I thought their plans were pie in the sky,” he said. “But I met with the head of their organisation from Nigeria and a gentleman from Dallas, and I’ve done my due diligence on this; there are no negative marks on this organisation.

“I did an internet search, and normally, you know, with an organisation this size, somebody, somewhere has something bad to say. But I haven’t been able to find any negative websites on these people. They’ve repaired the road, put in water and sewage and raised the value of that land for everybody. It’s going to be good for the community.”

The judge preaches hope and tolerance, and paints a picture of a society at ease with itself. “You hate to even start talking about racism, it just takes the whole thing in a completely different direction. That was our history,” he said, referring to the “Blackest Land, Whitest People sign” – a photograph of which hangs in his office as a reminder. “Every society has things in its past it is not proud of, but you learn and move on, and that is what has happened here.”

But back at Mrs Moody’s trailer the message does not seem to have got through. “They ain’t nothin’ but a big cult. What’s the difference between them and Waco?” she said, referring to the Branch Davidians, led by David Koresh, who engaged in a standoff with federal agents in 1993 at a compound a few hours south of Floyd leading to the deaths of about 80 of his followers. “It’s the same thing. Would you want them next door to you? You worry about the crime, there ain’t no crime here at the moment but you never know what kind of people they are going to bring.

“I ain’t no racist,” she added. “It don’t worry me they’re Nigerians, after all the Mexicans have been coming up here for years and taking all our jobs so why bother complaining about this lot?”

Joxie Golden, 41, who owns a property at the end of the road from the camp, said she welcomed the church’s arrival, but said many in Floyd were opposed. Asked if it was racism she nodded slowly. “There are a lot of redneck folk around here, and they don’t quite realise how far the world has moved on. I guess, when it comes down to it, it is all about fear of the unknown. But a lot of the younger people, they don’t have a problem, and hopefully it will be good for the community in the long run.”

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