As a preacher... I must admit that I have gone through those moments when I was greatly disappointed with the church and what it has done in this period of social change.

I should have been reminded that disappointment produces despair and despair produces bitterness, and that the one thing certain about bitterness is its blindness.

When I was in love, I fell so hard. I was really, really, really in love. The way it made me feel was priceless. And in a blink of an eye, my whole life changed. Everything that I knew was different. I never thought I'd feel that pain in my life.

In the midst of blatant injustices inflicted upon the Negro, I have watched white churches stand on the sideline and merely mouth pious irrelevancies and sanctimonious trivialities. In the midst of a mighty struggle to rid our nation of racial and economic injustice, I have heard so many ministers say, "Those are social issues with which the Gospel has no real concern," and I have watched so many churches commit themselves to a completely other-worldly religion which made a strange distinction between body and soul, the sacred and the secular.

In deep disappointment I have wept over the laxity of the church. But be assured that my tears have been tears of love. There can be no deep disappointment where there is not deep love.

I am bewildered at the length to which people will go to portray me so negatively.