has come upon me. yes. it s just it s death. it s humiliating. it s hell. well, yes. and one i helped create. it s hell. and so he was done, finished, vanished. but, then, how could he blame an entire church for wanting to stick by its own cherished beliefs? still, he couldn t abandon his own either. and then one day when things looked very bleak indeed the defrocked bishop, the ex-mega-pastor, got a phone call from this woman. i watched them dismiss him like last week s garbage. coming up we never know, of course, what fate might bring. and carlton hadn t a clue what was in store for him. i thought to myself, what kind of man is this that would lose that much?
came home that night and julian was a little somber. i said, you okay, son? and he just crawled off of the bed, walked up to me, threw his arms around me and said, you did good, daddy. we just cried. we all cried. we didn t pray. we didn t quote any scriptures. and, all of a sudden, we knew it was over. the next day, he lost the building. i had to ask permission to go in there. it was like your home. and now i m a stranger at my own house. i was a stranger to that genre now. i m no longer welcomed there. i helped invent it for my generation. i helped create it. i helped refine it. that s where i was going to die. theologically, carlton pearson was simply disappeared, especially by one last act of the branch of the church which once named him bishop. he was now declared to be a heretic.
he traveled to europe, sang on tv. he was good. but, as a preacher, he had the magic. you want to say hallelujah! the grades were not particularly good, mind you. he didn t even graduate from college. he was so anxious to get out and preach full time. i was on the board of regents. the board of regents from the university but you had no degree from the university. that s right. it was 1981 when he started his own little church in jenks, oklahoma. we packed that house out, that little room out, in a month. jammed. had traffic jams within six months. proceeded into your life and be born again. not long before he was preaching in tulsa. his church growing so fast, he couldn t help but know how good he was. you had to get the people happy. you had to sweat and shout and spit and get emotional. a zeal to tear devils apart. you got to deliver.
on their way, shall be cast into the lake of fire. or a myth bathed in uncertainty? not everything is clear and that s why we need the spirit. my parent the devil in them. all of my sisters and brothers the devil in them. my neighbor was full of the devil. the devil was in that dog next door. the devil s in that cat. carlton pearson learned about hell a long time ago. and he learned the lesson well. i m the fourth generation classical pentecostal preacher. i was raised in denomination church of god in christ. he was just a little boy when the bug bit him or as he puts it i started with a little trash can turned over. my two little sisters sitting out in front of me. i was 5 years old. on the back porch of our home, preaching to them. didn t read hardly. church was our life. it s all i ve ever known. from the beginning he was eager to please not only his parents but also the members of the church. they were known as the saints. i was afraid of their disfavor.
sunday morning, said the minister, they celebrate a formal mass here, pipe organ, procession, the whole ceremony. but no one was using the sanctuary on sunday afternoons. would those few people who stuck with carlton want to worship here? well, yes, they did. at first, carlton s broken remnant filled just a few pews of this borrowed splendor. but, soon, the numbers began to grow. and now, on any given sunday afternoon, the old stained glass windows rattle with the kind of noise only a crowded church of pentecostals can make. blessed be the name assistant pastor jesse williams. by 1:00 in the afternoon on sunday, the place is already full to capacity including the balcony and the seats on the side. it s a wonderful feeling that maybe he s not through with us. maybe he s just changing the sentence. maybe god is still speaking and he wants to say something brand new. i think christianity has has distorted itself into a very