Elvis has left the building.

The Rev. Al Green

Last Sunday I went to the Full Gospel Tabernacle, Memphis, Tennessee. Al Green built (well I guessed paid for someone else to build) this church in 1976. He made religion the focus of his life, but conveniently built a recording studio at the back of the church building. I'm a fan of Al Green and had heard the two and a half hour Sunday service was a must.
So with some nervous excitement and slight concern of being revealed as an atheist I entered the Church. The building itself doesn't hold any expensive statues or paintings, but has a genuine community feel. The majority of the congregation were African Americans, the number of "visitors" hovered around 20. There were some fellow Brits in attendance. But it was fairly empty.
I thought I'd spotted Al Green when I saw a pastor dressed in a white suit (actually all the pastors wore white, apart from the one white pastor, he was too pasty looking for white) he looked a little like Apollo Creed and had a certain style about him only a soul singer of the 70's could possess. But I was wrong.
The very, very old Bishop Green took to the stand and the whole congregation prayed he'd make it to the altar without taking a tumble and breaking a hip. This was Al Green's 95 year old father. I'd like to say he looked younger, but in fact he looked older. He held the mic far too close to his mouth and in a thick Southern accent started preaching. I have no idea what he said. I thought everyone else could understand him, but when one of his commands was met with silence, a pastor took the mic and explained Bishop Green wanted the left side of the church to stand.
I was concerned he may faint, I a healthy 30 year old have trouble standing for so long without feeling light headed, but he soldiered on. Finally there was some music, it was nothing like the music I've heard in Church before. It was electric and shook the whole building. I imagine Bishop Green didn't hear a thing.
Eventually (after much whispering between the "visitors") it was revealed Al was in London, yes that's right I was in Memphis while Al Green was touring Britain. We were asked to pray for Al while "bombs are falling on London".
The congregation welcomed a local celebrity on stage, a man who preaches via the television. I found it creepy when he kept telling us how much money he has, "I was given a cheque for 7,000 just the other day, I never have to work again", "I'm payed to pray to the Lord". Not once did he mention the money going to a good cause, so I was left to assume it wasn't.
Bishop Green asked if anyone would like to share their stories, yes at this point I could understand him. A lady stood up, obviously emotional she began to thank the Lord for her family. By the time she'd finished I had no idea why she was grateful I would have disowned them.
"I want to thank the Lord for getting my daughter out of prison, she been there one year". "She say to me, why Mama, why so long" I was thinking maybe grand theft auto?
"Mama maybe so I can teach the Lord's words in here". Or maybe your still a danger to society.
Admittedly this woman's daughter could have been wrongly convicted, but then she started to tell us about her son.
"It wasn't him with the drugs, but the people he was with" Um, I grew impatient as her wails grew louder. "We be praying for him and the Lord listened, because now he's out on parole". Thankfully she became too tearful to go on and the service was wrapped up by more incomprehensible words from Bishop Green.