'I'm Spiritual. I'm Religious. I'm a Good Christian.'

Your mom was Methodist.

She was.

So how did you end up as a Baptist as a child?

My mother told me once that she and my father agreed that I would not be brought up Jewish in Chicago. She had me going to a Methodist church. When we went back to Arkansas, she told me when I was four and a half years old, "You'll have to choose the one you want to go."

I remember the Methodist church in Chicago had these beautiful stained glass windows. So I saw a church in Arkansas that had those beautiful stained glass windows and it was right across the street from this barber shop that had a miniature barber's chair complete with the razor strap and everything.

So I picked that church. It was the Immanuel Baptist church. And so that was my church. I picked that church when I was not quite 5.

Did you go to that on your own or did your Mom go with you?

Mostly I went on my own. My mother went a couple of times to the Emmanuel Baptist church. When we moved over to the North Valentine street and after a couple of years she got tired of driving me to Emmanuel Baptist which is on the other side of town. So we went to a local Baptist church which was called

.

What was that like as a little boy to be going to Baptist church there on your own? Do you have any memories of that?

Sure, I was always nagging my parents to come. I think my mother and stepfather came once or twice. That was it. Other kids had their parents there.

What was your argument to them?

That I wanted them to come!

Continued on page 2: »