The Christian Century

As I pulled into the parking lot of John Hagee’s Cornerstone Church in San Antonio, I noticed that the person parking next to me was dressed in a purple African-print tunic. The crowd that streamed into the church seemed as racially and ethnically diverse as San Antonio, with a mix of blacks, whites and Latinos. The presence of Africans from newer immigrant communities was especially noticeable. When I reached a seat in the balcony, I observed that the woman next to me was resplendent in a flowing black robe with embroidered poinsettia leaves offset by silver sequins. She wore a tall silver head wrap and had a habit of completing any speaker’s quoted Bible verses in her African-inflected English.