[Congressional Record Volume 170, Number 37 (Thursday, February 29, 2024)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E196-E197]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




              HONORING THE LIFE OF BISHOP CARLTON PEARSON

                                 ______
                                 

                             HON. RO KHANNA

                             of california

                    in the house of representatives

                      Thursday, February 29, 2024

  Mr. KHANNA. Mr. Speaker, today, we honor the selfless life of Bishop 
Carlton Pearson who passed away last November at the age of 70. Bishop 
Carlton Pearson was an evangelist, ministry leader, author, and award-
winning singer. He was raised in San Diego, California with five 
siblings. He is survived by them, his wife, and his two children.
  An expert in many crafts, his congregation often praised his diverse 
passions and the limitless communities impacted by his work. He 
preached what he called a gospel of inclusion. He saw all human life as 
an integral part of a broader community. He was welcomed in Synagogues, 
Islamic groups, Atheist and Agnostic organizations, and a variety of 
other spiritual communities. He felt a mandate to strive for peace 
through an emphasis on inclusion in spirituality and interfaith 
fellowship.
  I commend him again today and emphasize his teaching that we don't 
have to go along to get along. That we can mind many of the same things 
without necessarily having the same mind about everything. We honor the 
life of Bishop Carlton Pearson, the legacy he left won't be soon 
forgotten. I include in the Record this Rolling Stone Magazine memoriam 
about how he has inspired generations to come.

How Bishop Carlton Pearson Inspired a Generation of Singers and Gospel 
                                Artists

                           (By Meagan Jordan)

       Bishop Carlton Pearson, a renowned preacher, singer and 
     composer, known for his Live At Azusa albums, died on 
     November 19 after a battle with cancer in Tulsa, Oklahoma.
       His theology, known as the ``gospel of inclusion,'' 
     preached against homophobia and embraced the LGBTQ community, 
     but cost him his congregation and approval within the 
     evangelical community. However, his message of inclusion and 
     his denial of hell has become a model, and his impact in 
     gospel music continues to inspire new generations of artists.
       ``He has an album of hymns that people would sing in the 
     Black church for communion like `I Know it Was The Blood,' or 
     his version of `Precious Memories.' gospel artist and former 
     Destiny's Child member Michelle Williams tells Rolling Stone, 
     referring to Pearson's Live At Azusa 2: Precious Memories 
     album from 1997. ``He amplified those songs and made them 
     mainstream for church.''
       Pearson was born and raised in San Diego, California, where 
     his father and grandfather were preacher men in a storefront 
     ``heaven or hell'' Pentecostal church. After graduating high 
     school, he attended Oral Roberts University, an evangelical 
     Christian University, where Oral Roberts, a white preacher 
     who had the leading religious television broadcast in the 
     Seventies, was the school's founder. Roberts mentored Pearson 
     as he navigated the ministerial realm.
       Pearson left the school before graduating in 1977, starting 
     his own church, Higher Dimensions. With over 6,000 members, 
     it would make him one of the first Black mega church pastors, 
     bringing Black churches into a mainstream space in the 
     Nineties and 2000s.
       ``In the Seventies, here in the West, the church was on a 
     decline,'' says Larry Reid, a pastor, media personality and 
     friend to Pearson. ``You had evangelistic campaigns all over 
     the U.S., but it was fading away and Black people were not 
     leading it. We were the musicians and the singers. But 
     Carlton Pearson created a stage called Azusa and brought 
     Black Christians in and the white stations would play clips 
     from his platform.''
       Pearson's Azusa Conferences, which were inspired by the 
     1906 revival that took place on Azusa Street in Los Angeles, 
     were a hybrid of preaching and music. It gave preachers, like 
     Joyce Meyers, Michael Pitts, Bishop T.D. Jakes, and gospel 
     heavyweights, such as Donnie Mcclurkin, the Clark Sisters, 
     and the late Lashun Pace, agency and a platform to showcase 
     their talents and introduce them to a wider audience of 
     people. The conference, which was held at Pearson's old 
     university, Oral Roberts, would host thousands of guests. For 
     those who could not attend, they were taped and sold via VHS, 
     which gave way to many successful careers in television 
     ministry and gospel music.
       ``I had always known his music for many years before I 
     became an artist,'' says Ricky Dillard, a renowned gospel 
     artist and composer, known for his choirs and directorial 
     abilities. ``He had a choir with him and that was influential 
     to me. He was out here doing it at an A-1 level, so everyone 
     was a fan. If you're a gospel music lover, there's no way 
     that you could not have heard the music of Bishop Carlton 
     Pearson.''
       Pearson's album The Best of Azusa. . . Yet Holdin' On is a 
     staple in the Black community. On the 14-track album, 
     featuring songs from his Azusa conference days, he has 
     an oratory track called ``Mother Sherman Story,'' in which 
     he recounts a question an elderly mother from his home 
     church would ask him, even as dementia began to set in: 
     ``You yet holding on?''--The album's title.
       ``That meant many things,'' explains Williams. ``It meant 
     keep holding on to your faith and also meant keep holding on 
     to your morals and your standards.''
       In the late Nineties, Pearson--who not only studied his 
     bible but also studied its roots, foundations, and original 
     language of Hebrew--came to a realization that would shake 
     the foundation of his faith and his social standing within 
     the church.
       ``When my little girl was an infant, I was watching the 
     evening news and the Hutus and the Tutsis were returning to 
     Rwanda from Uganda,?'' Pearson recalled on an episode of This 
     American Life from December 2005. ``I'm watching these little 
     kids with swollen bellies, their skin is stretched. . . Their 
     hair is kind of red from malnutrition and they have flies on 
     the corner of their eyes and mouths.''
       Pearson thought of his baby, who is now 27 year-old Majeste 
     Pearson--a pop and gospel singer--and his big screen 
     television and the plate of food he was in the middle of 
     eating. Knowing the culture of the people on the screen and 
     assuming they were not all Christian, he said, ``God, I don't 
     know how you can call yourself a loving, sovereign God and 
     allow these people to suffer this way and just suck them 
     right into hell.'' Pearson heard a voice saying ``Can't you 
     see they're already there? That's hell. You keep creating 
     that for yourselves, I'm taking them into my presence.'' 
     Pearson had a realization: ``We do that to ourselves and to 
     each other,'' he recalled in the podcast episode.
       The next Sunday, he shared his revelation to his 
     congregation, urging them to stop

[[Page E197]]

     telling people that they weren't ``saved.'' Instead, he 
     wanted them to send a message that they were ``safe with 
     God.''
       But this new theology of inclusion and universalism marked 
     his downfall within the evangelical mainstream. Congregants 
     left the church. Preachers like T.D. Jakes spoke out against 
     him; Jakes told Charisma Magazine, a popular Christian 
     publication, that Pearson was wrong and had incorrectly 
     interpreted the Bible. Many churches and leaders turned their 
     backs on him. He lost his church, both its members and the 
     building. He was banned from hosting the Azusa conference at 
     the Oral Roberts institution and Roberts, his former mentor, 
     remained silent. At the time, Pearson was also running for 
     the Mayor of Tulsa, the city with the worst race riot in 1922 
     known as the Black Wall Street massacre. He lost.
       ``I told Carlton that if he told them he believed there was 
     no such thing as hell and damnation, he will reduce this 
     weapon of fear based religion, which is the foundation of 
     religious institutions money,'' said Bishop Yvette Flunder, a 
     friend of Pearson and a same gender loving preacher and 
     singer who sung with The Hawkins Family. ``His colleagues and 
     the College of Bishops that he was a part of put him on blast 
     and said he was a heretic and excommunicated him.''
       Charisma Magazine didn't let the issue rest. According to 
     Reid, they wrote about Pearson for two years, demonizing his 
     theology and teachings.
       ``He was deeply hurt and felt betrayed,'' his children 
     Majeste and Julian Pearson wrote in an email to Rolling 
     Stone. But Pearson stood by his beliefs. ``He internalized a 
     lot of it, resulting in him becoming physically sick. Around 
     that time, he had his first bout with cancer. We were nine 
     and 11 when we knew it was our last service.''
       While no longer popular in the mainstream church, Pearson's 
     ministry continued through his church New Dimensions, where 
     he preached against homophobia and embraced the LGBTQ 
     community as members. He challenged scriptures used to 
     demonize and oppress their existence. He also authored books 
     like The Gospel of Inclusion and God Is Not a Christian, Nor 
     a Jew, Muslim, Hindu. . . . : God Dwells with Us, in Us, 
     Around Us, as Us. He also was a minister to many in person.
       ``Bishop Pearson's ministry was a mirror for me,'' says 
     Dillard. Back in 2005, Dillard had met Pearson leaving an 
     event and felt inclined to give him a ride back to Atlanta.
       ``Something very powerful happened in our moment together. 
     I was seeking God in a different way and I had come up with 
     translations that I needed confirmation from. I felt low in 
     spirit that I was not meeting the standards of the Word of 
     God. Bishop said something to me that changed my life that 
     day. He said `As others have judged you, you have now taken 
     on their judgment and you are judging yourself.' It spoke to 
     my heart.''

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