Paying the Price For Compassion

CARLTON PEARSON was among the most famous black ministers in American history, right behind folks like Martin Luther King and Jesse Jackson. At one time he was the main minister at one of the biggest chruches in Tulsa, preaching to hundreds of thousands on television, and thousands in person every Sunday. His church, concealing no spiritual immodesty, was called the "Higher Dimension Evangelical Church, Incorporated". Or something like that. Although I'm not sure, I am led to believe that his congregation was heavily black, but did not exclude caucasian-Americans, of which there were quite a few. Some modicum of racial integration, in mid to late twentieth century Tulsa, Oklahoma. Quite a feat. At least, so I am told. Unlike MLK and J. Jackson, Carlton Pearson never really delved seriously into heavy duty partisan politics and political-social activism, but rather, remained safely ensconced within the friendly confines of hellfire and brimstone funadamental Christian screaming fervor. Pearson, a handsome charismatic man with all the personality-babe personna , began his rise to fame and fortune under the wing of the famous Oral Roberts. At one point Roberts admonished Pearson to "stay close to me, I need you as my black ministerial representative"..Or something like that. Roberts made funadmentalist Pentecostal style evangelical Christianity popular by emphasizing the positive aspects of it, such that they are, and deemphasizing the negative. Faith healing, for instiance, was paramount. Eternal damnation and suffering in the flaming pits of hell for non believers and unrepentant sinners, not quite so much. Carlton Pearson was too ambitious, vain, and energetic to remain forever in the shadow of the great Oral Roberts, or anyone else. He wanted more than to be a token black presence in somebdy else's ministry and limelight. His ego demanded a bigger stage. As he grew in age and maturity, Pearson paid attnteion to the world, and became horrified at the sheer degree and extent of human suffering on planet Earth. Wars, faminine; starving childern especially caught his attention and broke his compassionate heart. He couldn't help but consider, owing to his nature and profession, that many of the suffering millions were indeed not Christians, and therefore, according to the sacred, irrefutable doctrine of his beloved evangelical chruch, unsaved, and therefore destined to spend an eternity in the flaming pits of hell, suffering. This troubled him, more and more. Ultimately he could not reconcile it, and could not ignore it, and had to do something about it. What he did was discard the notion of "hell". He totally wrote it out of his personal religious doctrine. Then in what ight have been an act of either extreme bravery or extreme stupidity, or maybe both, take our pick, he had the audacity to annaounce his new belief system, which he called "the Gospel of Inclusion", to God, his church, and the world. God and the world were, for all apperances, good to go with the new plan, His church, however, was a problem. A big problem. How dare he even question the existence of hell, and how double dare he emphasize "inclusion" of sinners snd non bielevers as worthwhile humans? Carlton Pearson was excommunicated as a heretic. Kicked out of and banned and condemned by his own church, for havng the guts, the love, and the intelligence to try to rid the faith of that horrible, idiotic, evil, insane, power wielding, imaginary device; hell. To believe in hell in the first place is pure evil, diabolic, insane. The Reverend Pearson's treatment for trying to vanquish it reveals the true nature of his former church, dramatically and accurately.