(choir singing) - Let us bow our heads for the invocation. Dear Lord, giver and sustainer of all life, we thy humble servants have come, at this appointed hour to worship thee in spirit and in truth. We come, O God, humbly seeking thy presence, seeking to draw nearer to thee, seeking to be more like thee. We ask, O God, that you would bless us in this worship experience, that whatever part we are to play we will be able to play it with the assistance of thy Holy Spirit, that the songs will be lifted from fervent hearts, that the Word will be preached from the power of thy Holy Spirit, that these songs, words, and prayers will go forth and find fruitful soil and bare fruit in our lives. This we pray in the name that is above every name, in the name of Jesus the Christ. Amen. For our opening congressional hymn would you join with us in singing What A Friend We Have In Jesus, number 261 in our hymnal. All our sins and griefs to bare, what a privilege to carry everything to God in prayer. Oh, what peace we often forfeit. Oh, what needless pain we bare all because we do not carry everything to God in prayer. Let us stand and sing together this wonderful hymn of praise. (choir singing) At this time we are happy to have two selections by the Damascus Road Experience followed by the scripture lesson by Brother Herald Spears. (soft singing) (choir singing softly) - Our scripture for the day is the 95th Psalm. "O come let us sing to the Lord, "let us make a joyful noise to the rock of our salvation. "Let us come into His presence with thanksgiving, "let us make a joyful noise to him with songs of praise. "For the Lord is a great God and a great king above all gods "and his are the depths of the earths "and the heights of the mountains are His also. "For the sea is His, for He made it, "for His hands formed the dry land. "Oh come, let us worship and bow down, "let us kneel before the Lord, Our Maker, "for He is our God and we are the people of His pasture "and the sheep of hand. "Owe that today you would hark into His voice. "Harden not your hearts as at Merrillville "as on the day is messiah in the wilderness "when your fathers tested me and put me to the proof, "though they had not seen my work. "For 40 years I loathed that generation and said, "there are people who air in heart "and they do not regard my ways, "therefore I swore my anger "that they should not enter my rest." Could we bow in prayer? Thank you dear Lord for all that you've done for us. Many of us have it so easy, many of us hard. We pray first of all Lord that you search each of our hearts, we all have concerns and that you lift our burden through Jesus. We also pray that you work through our institutions, our universities, and governments and clean out the hearts of those people, our nation. Lord, be with us always and we know you are. Help us not to harden out hearts so that we can't find that love that you're always giving us. Bless each and everyone of us Lord, bless us worshiping hearing. In the name of Jesus Christ. Amen. - This time we shall be favored my a number coming from the senior choir of the Russell Memorial CME Church of Durham, Reverend L.H. Welchol, the pastor. We are happy to have you and look forward to your part that you will play in the service at this time. (choir singing) It is a great privilege to introduce to some, but I'm sure present to most the speaker of the hour, the Dr. Tom Skinner, president of Tom Skinner Associates in Brooklyn, New York. Born in Harlem in 1942 and since I was born in 1943, I feel he is a very young man. Now chairman of the board of Urban Ministries and member of the board of directors of Barrington College. The author of Black And Free, Words Of Revolution, How Black Is The Gospel, and his latest work, If Christ Is The Answer, What Are The Questions? Following this selection, Dr. Skinner will come to us as led of the spirit to bring the message of the hour. I would like to add to this service by singing to you a Negro spiritual, one that I love very much and one that I often sing. It's called Poor Pilgrim Of Sorrow and it gives you and I the opportunity to eavesdrop on someone who long ago and possibly even today, communicated with the Creator by singing this expression which is an out-pouring of one's spirit. I am a poor pilgrim of sorrow. ♪ I ♪ ♪ Am a of pilgrim of sorrow ♪ ♪ I ♪ ♪ Lived in this wide world ♪ ♪ Alone ♪ ♪ No have I thought tomorrow ♪ ♪ Lord ♪ ♪ I'm just left in this wide world ♪ ♪ Alone ♪ ♪ My mother done gone on me ♪ ♪ My father still walking 'round here ♪ ♪ My prison relation ♪ ♪ Don't own me ♪ ♪ I'm ♪ ♪ Just left in this wide world ♪ ♪ Alone ♪ ♪ Sometimes I am talked about ♪ ♪ And driven ♪ ♪ So many times ♪ ♪ I don't know where to go ♪ ♪ Where to go ♪ ♪ Where to go ♪ ♪ I head out the sea ♪ ♪ For heaven ♪ ♪ And I'm trying big heaven my boat ♪ ♪ One day I'll get within my stay ♪ ♪ This old body be laid in ♪ ♪ The grave ♪ ♪ But I'm goin' on home with Jesus ♪ ♪ And then I'll never ♪ ♪ Know ♪ ♪ Sometimes ♪ ♪ I am tossed in the river ♪ ♪ So many times ♪ ♪ I don't know ♪ ♪ Where to go ♪ ♪ Where to go ♪ ♪ Where to go ♪ ♪ I didn't see ♪ ♪ I'm heading ♪ ♪ And I'm just a trying ♪ ♪ Everyday of my life ♪ ♪ I'm just trying ♪ ♪ Sometimes (mumbles) ♪ ♪ Sometimes I'm still trying ♪ ♪ To make heaven ♪ ♪ My home ♪ - Thank you brother. That song reminds me of the history of the struggle of a people who developed an attitude about God out of their struggle. You see, what most people didn't realize was that when slavery existed in our country, most people pictured the slave as a docile individual who just kind of lived with his circumstances, but most of the spirituals that grew up out of slavery grew up out of a hard-nosed relationship both with God and a hard-nosed relationship with the circumstances that they encountered from day to another and often times the spirituals psyched out the people who were listening to them, example, you take a song like steal away, steal away all, I aint got long to stay here. Well you see, originally the song was the introduction or the basis for a prayer meeting and so when the slaves were down in the slave quarters and begin to sing, steal away, steal away steal aways long, a aint got long to stay here, the master back at the house got real excited because he knew that the slaves were gettin' together for a prayer meeting and stealing away meant stealing off into the secret closet where we were praying and prevail with God and it meant that, but it was also a code song, which also meant that tonight that Sister Tubman and the underground railroads coming through and we stealing out of here. (audience laughs) Or the take the song Wade in the Water. Wade in the water, God's gonna tumble the water and when folks got together and sang that that was baptismal song and whenever the folks were gonna have baptism they began a baptismal service by singing, wade in the water, wade in the water, God's gonna trouble the water. But it also had another meaning because you see the way the song really got started was that out in the slave fields, whenever the slave driver, the guy who was responsible for supervising the slave activities in the cotton fields would pass through when he got to the far end of the field, quite often a slave at the other end would take off and start running to freedom. Sometime later when the slave driver found out that a slave had escaped, he immediately made haste to the master's house to report that the slave was missing. The master immediately had someone go and get the dogs to track down the slave and the moment the dogs were sent for, a house slave who was working in the house would begin to sing wade in the water, wade in the water, God's gonna trouble the water and then the folks in the field would start singing, ♪ Wade in the water ♪ ♪ Wade in the water children ♪ ♪ Wade in the water God's gonna trouble the water ♪ and before long they would all be out there singing, wade in the water, wade in the water. Now of course, the master back at the house thought that revival was breaking out in the cotton fields and so he didn't pay too much to the singing, but the problem was that the singing was picked up and went from one plantation to another and slaves working in fields for miles would pick up the song and start singing, wade in the water, wade in the water God's gonna trouble the water when really the song was a signal to the slave who was escaping. The dogs are loose, make for the water, in order to throw off the scent. And so that the songs, the spirituals that grew up out of slavery had a double meaning. They grew up out of the hard-nosed reality of a relationship with God and the circumstances of slavery. Or songs like going home on the chariot in the morning, going home on the chariot in the morning. Of course, whenever the slave master heard the song he thought they were talking about he rapture, the great gettin' up morning when all the folks and saints would be gathered together and that was true, that was part of what it meant, but on the other hand, it also meant, come morning time master, we aint gonna be here. And so there all kinds of ways in which they dealt with their circumstances out of the songs that they sung. And I really appreciated hearing that. I'd like to take the time that we have left to share with you this afternoon some of the observations that I have made in the kind of world in which we live. And I don't think that there has ever been a period like the period in which we live in human history where a great number of people are looking for alternatives to the world's situation. And most people confess that they are frustrated in an attempt to put it together and an attempt to really discover what it's about. Back in my neighborhood, we have an expression whenever guys see each other, they walk up to each other and say, hey man what's happening? And everybody says, hey man what's happening, hey baby what's going on, what's happening? The reason everybody asks what's happening is 'cause nobody has the slightest idea what's happening. And it's very much like the world in which we live, most people really don't know what's going on. Most people are trying to put it together because it's like running into a guy back at my block and I ask him, how you doing brother? And he says, trying to get it together and about a week later, I run into him and say, hey brother how you doing? He says, trying to get it together. And about a month later I run into him again, and say, brother how you doing? He says, trying to get it together. Just one time, you'd like to run into him and hear him say, got it together, you know, because most people are spending their time tying to get it together. Trying to really discover what it's all about. And there are at least three issues that I have discovered that people are trying to overcome, they're trying to face. The first issue is the issue of identity. Where large numbers of people are trying to discover who in the world they are. Most people don't know who they are. Most people have never even answered the question, who am I, why am I alive, what do I exist for, and what the name of the game is for me? It's summed in the words of that great contemporary composer, Burt Bacharach in is description several years ago of a young man who goes from one bed experience after another, one trip out after another, one bottle after another. Finally wakes up one morning in a drunken stupor, looks himself square in the mirror and says, what's it all about Alfie? Who's going to sort it out Alfie? Is it just for the moment we live? Think about it for a moment, what is it really all about for you? Why are you alive? What difference does it make that you ever lived? Kid goes to his old man and says, hey dad, straight from the shoulders, I want the facts of life, what's it all about dad? Well son, it's all about going to school and getting a better education. Yeah, but why dad? Well, so son you'll be able to get a better job and make more money. Yeah, but what for dad? Oh, so son you'll be able to make the proper investments in the right stocks, securities, and bonds. Yeah, but dad why? Well, so son you'll be able to retire comfortably. Yeah, but dad what for? (chuckles) Well, so son you'll die and leave something. Now, as cynical as that may sound, that is what most people live for. That's the vicious cycle the world of which we live. We go to school to get a better education to get a better job to make more money to make the proper investments to make the right kind of retirement so that we can die and leave something and that becomes the sum total of most people's existence. In fact, you go up to most people on campus today and say, hey, what's going on, how you doin', what are you trying to accomplish? Man I'm just trying to get over. You ask people when they go to work from day to day, what are you doin', what are you working for man? I'm trying to make a living and everybody's out trying to make a living, everybody's gotta hustle. And the tragedy is while most of us hustle day by day to make a living, most of us never learn how to live, we spend our lives making a living and gorillas in the jungle make a living, and a gorilla eats more in one day than you and I eat in two months and I've never heard of a gorilla going to college to learn how to make a living. You see because anybody can work their way out of any of the bags that the system creates to get to their dinner, getting to your dinner is not the issue, the issue is not how to make a living, how do you live. And most people have never answered that question and they spend all of their lives, 60, 70, 80 years living without ever putting it together as to what it was really all about. Which is why a large number of people commit suicide in our society because they can't put it together. Large number of people live of a bottom of an alcohol bottle because they can't put it together. Large number of people escape through drugs because they can't put it together. They can't answer the question. There are five million chronic alcoholics in America who day by day are trying to get it together; who haven't answered the questions as to what it's all about and as people look within themselves they don't find answers. In fact, it might interest you to know that the professional group in America that has the highest rate of suicide are psychiatrists. That more psychiatrists as a professional group commit suicide than any other professional group in America because you see what introspective analysis does is that the more you look within yourself and analyze yourself and the more you analyze human nature the more disillusioned you get and the more the disillusion that leads to despair. And so people suffer an identity crisis, they don't know who they are. Try this, don't tell me your name, without telling me your name, who are you? And don't give me your address don't tell me where you live. Who are you? And don't tell me your vocation, don't say you're a student, a lawyer, an architect, or an engineer, or whatever it is. Don't tell me your a house-wife, or a truck driver, or a cab driver. Without telling me your name, your address, or what kind of work you do, who are you? Most people have difficulty with the answer. The second issue is the issue of community. Now once I found out who I am and what I'm about, the question is who are the people sitting next to me and what are they about? What is my responsibility to the people I live with and I work with and I have to relate to everyday? And the amazing part about it is that we are now 3/4 of the way through the 20th century and the number one issue in American society is still whether we can relate to each other. That we're still dived between young and old; we're still divided between labor and management; we're still divided between black and white; rich and poor; the educated and the uneducated. And the question is who's gonna bridge the gap? We all remember back in 1968 during the presidential election that year when Richard Nixon was steam-rolling through the state of Ohio on the back of a Caboose car speaking to a crowd, we all remember that sign. There was the people gathered, this young girl held the sign high in the air that later became the beam of Mr. Nixon's campaign, bring us together again. Bring us together again. Because what that young girl was saying is that we need some kind of catalyst, we need somebody or something in the society that is able to bridge the gap between the powerful and the powerless, between the haves and the have-nots, between the educated and the uneducated, between the penniless and those with money, between the decision-makers and the people who only react to decisions. Who's gonna bring us together? Who's gonna bridge the gap that separates us? Now, we're in our 200th year in America, celebrating the bicentennial and of course, there're a great number of people who are hoping that the bicentennial will become the basis that would bring America together, that we'll all come together around celebrating our 200th birthday. And of course, there will be the familiar platitudes we'll be reminded of our great American heritage and we'll be reminded of the forefathers who fought and died for liberty and freedom and there'll be a revival of the old patriotic songs and hymns, but the question is will it really bring us together? That as we stand up in the bicentennial and we celebrate the land of the free and the home of the brave, I wonder which braves we're talking about when there're 500 thousand to a million of our Indian brothers in this country who've been raped, shot, pillaged, driven from their land and forced to live in isolated pockets called reservation. The home of which braves? Who will bring us together? And the tragedy, the tragedy is that most people today don't want to be bothered. In fact, most people don't even want to be reminded that we are divided. Folks say, speak to us good things, let's not stir up trouble, let's be positive. And if you look at the word community it's got at least three root words in it. It's got the word comm, C-O-M-M from which the get the base word commitment, it's got he word commun in it, C-O-M-M-U-N from which we get communion and it's got the word unity in it, U-N-I-T-Y which means singleness of preference. Where is there a model of people who are committed to each other, a group of people who are in common union with each other, a group of people which singleness of purpose, who have lived, who have entered into a covenant with each other to be the kind of people they ought to be? There will great platitudes like we ought to come together and love one and other, but how can you love people you don't know? People that we don't rub shoulders with, people we don't ache and bleed, hurt with and celebrate with and rejoice with and overcome with. The people who are gonna be the leaders of the future, the people who are going to be the outstanding leaders of the future are gonna be the people who can help people discover who they are and who can bring people together, but even in business today, they're discovering that while a great number of people are moving into management positions, who understand economics and they understand the bottom line and they understand return on investment and they can work out the kinds of economic decisions that need to be made to make a business go that businesses are deteriorating in America because they can't get people to work together and the people who are going to be the great leaders of the future are gonna be the people who can create in people the desire to want to share their lives with each other. How many folks do you know get up in the morning and say, can't wait to get to work today, wow? How many folk do you know come home at the end of the day say, had an exciting time on the job today, can't wait until tomorrow? Most people are bored stiff with their work, they can't stand what they do and they can't stand the people they work with. Who's gonna bring us together? The third issue is the issue of power, P-O-W-E-R because once I find out who I am and once I found out what my responsibility to other people is, how do I do it? You see, it has never been a question in American society of knowing right from wrong. Most of us have the intellectual capacity to analyze and sort out what is right and what is wrong, but we don't have the power to pull it off. Even our four fathers, when they wrote 200 years ago, that all men are born and created equal endowed by their creator with certain inalienable rights and among them life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, I have no problem believing that they were sincere when they wrote those words, but they could not pull it off, they couldn't do it. In fact, when Tom Jefferson wrote, "all men are created equal endowed by their creator with their certain inalienable rights" he would of had his mind blown in two or three dozen of his slaves would have said, me too. Because while he was committed to that for himself he was not committed to his slaves, he was powerless to make that happen for everybody. Where will we get the power to be where we want to be? How many times have you run into people after committing some kind of act of violence will certainly say, I don't know what got into me. How many times have you read the news paper where some tragedy took place between one human and an other and the person replies, I don't know what made me do it. What he's saying is, I lost control, I'm powerless to control myself, to control my own future, my own destiny. Where will we get the power from to control ourselves? It is summed up in the words of a man who lived about 30 years after Jesus, the Apostle Paul. In the sixth chapter Romans he puts it's this way, he says, "the will to do is present with me, "in my mind I know precisely what I ought to be, "I know what kind of human being I ought to be, "I know the kind of person that God created me to be. "In my mind I want to be what God wants me to be "and I want to live up to my full potential," but he says, "how to do that I can't not discover." He says, "that which I don't want to do, I do it and that which I do want to do, I don't do it." He said, "I find another law present with me "that when I would do good, evil is present." In other words he is saying I don't have control, I don't have the power to even be what I want to be. Have you ever sat down January 1st and made New Years resolutions and broke 3/4 of them by January 3rd? Because you found yourself powerless to live up to your own standards, your own demands? That's what Paul is saying, Paul is saying, that "everything I want to do, I can't do it "and that which I don't want to do, I do it. "I find myself powerless" and then he makes a fantastic statement he says, "what a messed up person I am. "who will deliver me from the body of this death?" Now the body of his death is very interesting. You see, during Roman days when a man committed a murder and they caught up with him, they chained him back to back of the dead, stinking corpse of the man he killed and he literally had to carry on his back the dead corpse of the man he murdered until somebody liberated him. The Apostle Paul is saying, there's like a dead man on me, there's a dead corpse on me and that every time I try to lift myself to be the kind of person I know God wants me to be, there's like this dead corpse keeps dragging me back to the common level that I do not seem to have the ability to shake it. It's what the drug addict calls the monkey on his back. You see an addict who is taking hard drugs can kick the habit in 72 hours with what we call cold turkey. You take him, tie him to a bed so he can't break loose, cover him with warm blankets because after 24 hours he's gonna reach a high fever. You feed him with dextrose and simple sugar because he won't be able to keep anything on his stomach, he will be regurgitating all the time. He will scream and beg you to let him go, he will cry out and as hard for another shot, but if you hold him and keep him there after 72 hours, the fever will break and subside and he will physically have extricated himself from the drug. As soon as you let him go, he takes to the street, he will look for anther drug pusher and take anther shot, because while he has kicked the physical habit, he's not been able to kick the psychological habit, the monkey on his back and what Paul is saying is that there is a monkey on my back, there is something that keeps me from being what God wants me to be. He says, "who will deliver me from the body of this death?" And then amazingly he answers his own question, he says, "I thank God through Jesus Christ." Now the question is how does he arrive at Jesus? I mean of all the possible solutions in the world today, of all the possible alternatives, of all the things that a person can do to discover his identity, to live in community, to have the power to be what the ought to be, why Jesus? Well let me suggest to you that he arrives at Jesus by the process of elimination. Nothing else works. Nothing else works. If you don't believe it, check it out. Look at the alternatives that our society has tried. First the society said, hey there's a way to get folks together, there's a way to change the course of history, there's a way to put things back together again. It's economic. All we have to do is supply enough money to the problems of the world and that will solve it. If we can get enough money in people pockets, that will solve the problem, it's economic, they said. Now, part of some solutions are economic but the situation in our society is not economic. We are today the most affluent society in the history of man. We throw away in the garbage pails what the rest of the world would like to have for dinner. We burn and waste more fuel and more energy, we waste more things in our society in the name of freedom and democracy than any nation of the face of the Earth. In fact, we in the United States only make up 13% of the total population of the world and we consume more than 65% of it's resources. We're an affluent society. But has it solved our problem? Has it put us back together again? Has it told us who we are? Do we know how to relate to each other with all of our affluent? Do we have the power to be what we ought to be? Of the 37, or rather of the 52 thousand Americans who committed suicide last year the average income among those 53 thousand Americans was $37,500 a year. Now a person ought to be able to squeeze by on 37 thou, he might have to miss a couple meals, you know, tighten his belt a little, but he ought to squeeze by. Yet, 52 thousand Americans said in spite of the fact that they lived in the top 2% tax of income bracket of most Americans, it was not enough to give them a reason for living. It's kinda funny you know, in the late 60s and early 70s we ran into this rich kid you know. He was tying and gagging the president of his college. Ransacking the files, took over the administration building. Remember your brothers and sisters when that yeah. And they were into that man and when they arrested this kid man, he had Carte Blanche, American Express, and Dyna Club cards in his pocket. He had charge cards to the major department stores in town, he was driving his first T-Bird when the average poor kid was trying to get his first bicycle. Now what was his problem? These kids who were leaving home, cutting out on their parents, going to live in Greenwich Village and Sunset Strip and other places; they want no part of their life of their parents, they were coping out, leaving home, running away, tripping out on drugs, they had money. They came from wealthy homes, what was their problem? Because they discovered that economics doesn't do it. And they discovered that all of that wealthy accumulation that their parents had made was not really for them. Of course, you see, parents were tricky, parents wanted have all those things and they told their kids that we built all this for you. We moved out here and built this fine house and big lawn and swimming pool and summer cottage all for you. And the kid was saying, I never wanted it. It was you I wanted and you were so busy building that, you gave me no time. I don't want your money. Money hasn't put us together, hasn't solved our problem. So the second thing we came up with was education. We said that all we had to do is produce a more informed society and that would solve our problem. We are the most educated society in the whole history of man. Information in our country doubles now every six years, by 1980 is will double every three years. Last semesters text book is already obsolete this semester because of the fantastic increase in knowledge, 90% of all the scientists who ever lived are alive right now and the average student who graduates from high school knows more about the physical laws of the universe than the greatest scientist knew 25 years ago. We are informed, but with all of our information why can't we destroy poverty? Why can't we wipe out racism? With all of our information why can't we eliminate war? Why can't we bring people together? Keep in mind that the people who make decisions to drop bombs on people are educated. The people who have created a situation which allow half the world to go to bed hungry every night are educated. The people in this country who decide that it is alright to spent $90 billion on weapons and missiles, but who do away with programs like Head Start and other programs who help poor people who wipe that out, those are educated people who say that missiles are better than eduction, that bombs are better than food, that weapons are better than the right to people to eat, educated people make that decision. I'm sorry it doesn't solve the problem. And so we came up with a third solution. The third solution was religion. We said if we could simply give people something to believe, a song to sing, a flag to wave, a creed to believe, that would solve our problem. So we came up with good old Americanized religion. We said, I'm for God, country, motherhood, the girl back home and apple pie. We put God's name on our money, in God we trust, we stuck his name in the solute to the flag, one nation under God, we even put bumper stickers on our car saying, support God and country, as they go together and some people even went so far as to assume that the vision that John say was the American dream and we got it all mixed up. And so we all hustle, you see, and in this bicentennial year people are gonna be running around, you know, God bless America and all the rest and trying to create a civil religion which will not rescue us because it hasn't rescued us in 200 years. We got churches on every street corner, we got more than 65 major denominations and religions in American society, we are religious. Most people go to some church or synagogue once a week, we're religious, but has it brought us together? The same men who sit down in church on Sunday morning go back to their boards of directors and their executive offices and make decisions that oppress people. The same people who stand up in church and sing we are one in the spirit, we are one in the Lord, put up their for sale signs and move out the neighborhood when different people move in. Same folks. Religion hasn't solved our problem, hasn't done a thing for America. So you see it brings us back to the front door of Jesus again who says, "I am the way, truth, life, no man comes to the father but by me." You say, wait a minute Tom, you got me confused. You just stood up there and said that religion hasn't done anything for America and you keep laying this Jesus thing on us. Now make up your mind, either religion is an answer or it isn't. Or you see there is a difference between Jesus and religion. Religion is that which a person feels to be of ultimate value in taking action in the light of it. So you could be a communist, a Hindu, Methodist, Baptist, Predestinarian, agnostic, or atheist and be religious. Whatever is of ultimate reality or ultimate value to you and the action you take in light of it, that becomes your religion. I wouldn't cross the street to get you interested in religion, but I would walk around the world to get you interested in Jesus and what he is about, because Jesus is not a religion, Jesus is a person and he is the only person who ever broke through into the human scene who was both the truth about God and the truth about man. If you want to know what God is like, you have to check Jesus out and if you want to know what man is suppose to be like, you have to check Jesus out. See a great number of people then take you into the bag, but what about other religions. Surely there must be other religions superior Christianity, that's true. There probably other religions superior to the Christian religion. And if you laid Christianity down next to Zoroastrious, Zoroastrianism down to Confucianism, down next to Buddhism, down next to Hinduism, down next to Mohammedanism, I'm almost positive that maybe one of those religions will be superior. But if we set the religions aside and put the personalities involved next to each other so that we lay Jesus down next to Mohammed and Mohammed down next to Confucius and Confucius down next to Zoroastria, there aint no comparison because I can take you to the grave yards of them other dudes. (audience laughing and applauding) So what we're talking about is not a religion, we're talking about a person who is prepared to become the alternative. And so Jesus says to a society that has lost it's way, doesn't know who it is, doesn't know how to relate, and is powerless, Jesus says, come on to me all you that labor and are heavy laden and I will give you rest. Now, when I first heard that I use to say, well man, I can't see the Christian thing because you see my impression of being Christian was that Christians were people who carried around in their pockets a bunch of rules and regulations. Don't do this, stay away from that, don't touch that, don't go near that and for Gods.