I still would say that one of the hardest parts about living in Hartwell is the church. I’m not a big “going out” person so the fact there’s nothing to do here is whatever to me. It’s not detrimental to me. I don’t think my future husband is in Hartwell either, so that sucks a little bit too, but I still think the hardest part is church.
Not having the option and basically being forced to attend either a white church or a black church really sucks. Heaven is going to be mixed and it’s going to be all kinds of different people in Heaven so the fact that I don’t have there here in Hartwell makes it really tough.
I enjoy the church I do go to, but it’s not a mixed congregation so it makes it really hard for me. We’re in the South so we know it’s going to be separated and segregated in some kind of way. That just comes from the territory, that comes from the history of everything that has taken place here. However, church is supposed to be different.
Church is supposed to be the one place that all that stuff just doesn’t matter. Church is supposed to be the one place where your race doesn’t matter, or your sex doesn’t matter, or your socioeconomic status doesn’t matter. When you come to church, church is supposed to be the place where you forget that all that other stuff happens outside of church. It’s supposed to be time to forget that all that other stuff outside of church is going on.
Church should be the smallest glimpse of heavenly praise. It’s hard being here knowing that things are divided. And it’s not any one person’s fault, but it is a fault in history and in the present that we’ve maintained these differences in our churches.