 Georgia, Georgia, Georgia, Georgia. Everyone, my name is Michael Avati and welcome to the third episode of All Eyes on Georgia, as we are counting down the end of the year and counting down to January 5th, when Georgia really gets to decide the fate of the Senate and the ability of our government to function. And I am absolutely thrilled to welcome Allison Mills Newman here today. She has got an incredible background. She's an original cast member for the groundbreaking TV show, Julia, which in terms of representation was really the first black professional represented on television. And she's also an accomplished author. She wrote a book called Francisco, it was published by Ishmael Reed's publishing company. Toni Morrison sung her praises. Maggie Three is a more recent book she's written and she's also directed, produced and written a number of films, including Virgin Again and The Tree Widow. And if that's not enough, she's also the CEO of Keep the Faith Ministries. And in that mission, she serves as chaplain at the Fulton County Jail, which encompasses Atlanta. Allison, thank you so much for making the time. I'm really curious about how you found that calling of working with prisoners in the Fulton County Jail. So I think the thing about callings is that callings really find you. It's not something that you're looking for. And it comes into your life and interrupts your life and redirects your life. So originally my idea when I was a little kid was I wanted to be an actress. I saw Mia Farrell on TV on Pain Place Long Before Your Time and it was just such a beautiful story. Television many, many years ago told lovely stories and much more palatable for young ears such as myself, 12 or 13 at that time. And I realized that what I had been doing when I was in the bathroom, like pretending to be another person or just looking in the mirror and making different faces and pretending to be an older lady or being in love or not being loved. Just all those scenarios that I would pretend when I was a little girl, I was able to put the two together and realize, oh, that's what I'm doing. That's what I'm doing. What these people are doing on television. And so my original desire wasn't based on being famous or being rich. I wasn't worldly savvy to know that that could come along with it. It was just a desire, a passion that I had, something that I thought I could do and that I wanted to do at a very young age. And so I told my parents and my father was very adamantly against it because his concept of actresses were to use his word that they were horrors, they slept to get their fame and fortune with different men. But my mother, when she was in college, had been an actress and won awards. And so she was very supportive. She told my dad that she would watch over me. She would take care of me. She convinced my father. I would hear them arguing at night over if I can or if I can. But my dad decided that he would give me a chance. And he actually came along and began to support me too. And that was really wonderful. So my mother found a workshop. This is really important for history. The name of the workshop was The Theatre of Being and it was run by Frank Savera. And I was 13 or 12 years old when it went. But my angel and Cadovic Cado, and there were just a lot of people that got breakthroughs, African Americans that got breakthroughs and became really successful. Nichelle Nichols from Star Trek, we were all in that class together. And they were adults and I was a kid. So that was really amazing, Michael, for me to grow up around such brilliance and such beauty and such a level of art and such value for Black people. And also at the time, it was a really pivotal time because it was during the time, for lack of a better word, the Black Revolution and Martin Luther King, Huey Newton, Black Panthers. It was all this pretty much what almost is going on today. But I think it was a little pure. It was a lot purer. It wasn't co-opted in the beginning, at least by outside political forces. I didn't really know there was racism. I mean, I knew it, but I didn't know how it worked. So because I didn't know how it worked, I didn't have any ideas of limitations. You know, I knew it existed. I would hear my parents talking about it, but I didn't know really how it applied to me. But to make a long story short, I began to learn and there weren't a lot of roles. The African-Americans that you see on television today, wow, it's amazing. Because all we had then really was Amos and Andy. But with the watch riots and the Black is Beautiful and Hollywood opened up. And thankfully, I was at the place where we had training and I was prepared miraculously because what was I preparing for? There really weren't those many roles, but we all believed and we had this crazy idea that would happen and you guess what it did. And there was a series of different, you know, every audition by the grace of God, I got. And I have to say thanks be to God that I was talented, you know, his talent. And I was trained really well and was exposed to amazing people. So long story short, I became very successful and I was a regular on Julia, which is a pioneering television, American television show, as well as an African-American television, it's pioneering. It's one of its kind breakthrough. I'm humbled to be a part of it. And I also became a regular on another television series with Leslie Uggums. And I guess starred on so many television shows and Hollywood has a system where they pick and choose who they're going to make it to a star. And I was a TV star, but Michael, I'd always wanted to be a movie star. I grew up watching those beautiful classic old movies, you know, with Betty Davis and Mel Oberon like Withering Heights was one of my favorite movies, you know, so I'm on I'm famous. I'm on the cover of magazines and I get a meeting at Universal Studios. I'm 19 years old. My agent tells me that they've written a movie for me just for me. And in fact, all the TV shows that I did were written just for me. It was an amazing, amazing time in my life. And so Michael, you know, they send the limousine. I go to Universal. Everyone's like, oh, and all, you know, it's like you're a god. You're like an idol. You're a celebrity. Madness is is very empty because they're owing and eyeing as I'm going to the hallway to get to the producing office, but inside I'm so dead and so empty and so lost. So anyway, get into the office with the gentleman. And I'm 19 years old and he's about 60 at the time. And he reminds me of my grandfather or something. And he says, oh, we're going to make him to a star. They they have their their image of what system they're going to fit you into. And they were going to fit me to this text symbol because they compared me to Dorothy Dandridge in Marilyn Monroe, but I had grown up wanting to be an actress, wanting to do beautiful movies, wanting to make the world a different place for all people and my people. I wanted to do beautiful films that uplifted mankind. Right. I had this idealistic, crazy idea that didn't fit in Hollywood. He goes in the bathroom. Michael, he comes out. He has taken off all his clothes. That world exists, son. It's real. Yeah, it's real. It took off all his clothes. This old, old man. And, you know, I'm 19. So I'm 69 now, but like 19. I never that was like the power. Everything I was I was devastated. And then I flashed back to my father who had told me. Originally, that he was leery of his daughter becoming look at it, right? Because actresses were whores were his words. I'm sorry to say, but that's what he said. And so in my youthful, I didn't mean it to be arrogance, but the way the perspective of Hollywood was that I was arrogant because I said to him, I'm an actress. I'm not a prostitute. And I don't know how I had the wisdom or the grace to say that at 19. But that's what I said. And he laughed at me and he said, you know, you want to be a star? You know, do this and that or whatever. And he said, you know, you'll never get anywhere. And I just left, you know, I just stormed out. They had sent a limousine. I caught a caught a taxi home and I was devastated. That was a real heartbreaking time in my life because I wanted to make movies. I wanted to be a movie star. At that point, I wanted to be famous. I wanted to go on and make amazing movies. You know, I wanted to win the Academy Award to be the first black actress to win the Academy. Amen. But you but you encounter this life-shattering experience. Went to my elders, my elders, whose names I don't want to mention, but they're very they were very famous and they were they had TV shows and they were black. And so I went to them for advice and their advice was, oh, Allison, just do it. Sex is recreational. Just do it. It's just a game. Just do system work. Wow. So it was interesting because it's not that I was so moral. I mean, in terms as it relates to the Bible, I operated in fornication, sex before marriage. But that concept of just sleeping with someone for a role was very I didn't understand. I couldn't wrap my mind around that. That was that was prostitution. And that's, you know, I believed I thought that sex and being intimate with someone in that way was because you love them. And that's what it was for in my own sense of righteousness that it had to do with love and caring about someone and not trading your body and your soul for success or for a role. But you do something that you love to do that you are qualified to do, you know, your qualifications and your gift should be enough to make room for you and to open the door and not to have to make like a pagan sacrifice to the gods of sex to continue in your career. So that didn't help me any much at 18 and 19. And it was the type of situation where I didn't feel comfortable to talk to my parents. I had moved out of my parents' home anyway. And Hollywood Hills called Nichols Canyon and my house was surrounded by bushes. And I was a member of the automobile club of America. So I called them to send someone to fix my car, even though it's famous site. I drove this like really humble little Volvo. I just wasn't into material things at the time, you know, like love. It was like a hippie kind of time. So in some ways, you know, I, I like the lowly, the lowly life, you know, I had the lowly life and the high life kind of mixed together. So this old black man, and I say this because it's very distinctive. He was very, very black. He was as black as, I don't know, as black and his eyes shined so bright. And he looked so happy and he looks so beautiful and he looks so contented. And he drove an old raggedy truck. And he looked happy even though I knew he wasn't famous, he didn't have wealth. Nobody knew his name. He was on the cover of magazines. How dare he be so happy? Like, how can he be so happy? He is none of the things that my mother's society, you know, all my agents and everyone says is going to make me happy. He has none of it. He has none of that. I can look at him and tell he's void of worldly gain and worldly prestige. And a lot of us actresses and actors, even though we can get on stage or behind cameras and be very bold, in real life, we can be actually literally very shy. And so I was shy and I, but I watched him with just awe. And then I finally got my nerve up after he fixed my car and he drove down the hill in his raggedy truck. And mathematically, by the time he got to the bushes and turned the corner, he should have still been there because he drove so slow. And I was young, 19. I ran down there. Poof, he was gone. And I heard a voice. And now that I'm so many years past, I know that it was God. I know it was Yahweh. I had been encountered with the Lord like Paul did on the road to Damascus. I heard the voice of God speak to me and call my name and say, Allison, there goes a real star. And I didn't understand intellectually, but I understood kind of emotionally and and spiritually, even though I didn't know I was understanding spiritually, I got it. And I started to weep, you know, like, I'm not a star. This old man and nobody knows his name is a star to this voice in the universe. He's the true. He's the true star. And so I ran in the house, Michael, and the house, the whole wall was a window like you could look out on the sky and the mountains. It was just beautiful, you know, in the Hollywood Hills. And I looked on the the window and I saw a vision of Mark of Marilyn Monroe and death and Dorothy Dantrich dying. And those were the actresses that was the box they put me in. Yeah. And so I understood, you know, I identified. I started screaming. I had a roommate at the time. She was a famous name is Cindy Williams. She went on to became a star of Laverne and Shirley. And I told I asked her, do you see she didn't see it? She didn't see it. And I didn't take drugs. I didn't smoke marijuana. I didn't do cocaine, even though I was surrounded by it. I remember going to a Hollywood party and the whole table was filled with cocaine. And I didn't even know what it was. And people were telling me to take some and it was I don't know. I didn't thank God I would have been on the cover of the front page and some newspaper somewhere old deed and died because I could have taken so much thinking that it was candy or just food. The ignorance and the irresponsibility that I was surrounded with in the midst of Hollywood when I look back was amazing. But the angels of the Lord were merciful to me. And, you know, I didn't do any of the cocaine, even though I didn't know what it was. But so I wasn't on drugs. It was a real vision from the Lord that I can say now. But I didn't know at the time that it was from the Lord. I didn't believe in God at the time. And so long story short, to try to. Reach up to where I am today. That began a journey of me leaving Hollywood. And seeking for a safe place, seeking for my purpose and my destiny and wandering there and I fell in love with his mercy and his grace, his kindness towards all human beings, all of his creation. And how we have so miserably disobeyed and turned against him and done our own thing and ruined so much of the earth, so much as corrupt the food, the water, the trees, the schools, churches, I mean, it's just endless how we in our flesh have continued to rebel against the Lord. But I came to a place of humility and gratitude for life and had lived enough, Michael, to realize that the riches of the earth and the fame of the earth that all the young people seek for it in Instagram to be noticed and the attention is not satisfying. And the true satisfaction is having the attention when knowing that you have the attention of the Creator and that being enough. The scripture did say, the eyes of the Lord are in every place beholding the good and the evil. So God sees us. You know, we're living out his movie every day. And that's what we should be concerned about. You know, living a life, writing a movie, playing the role, if I may say that, that pleases him, that glorifies him, loving him, his spirit, and loving one another, which we are very miserable at not doing. So out of that, I got a call. I did, I heard a call from me to preach the gospel, which was very interesting because women preachers are not accepted in churches, especially back then. I'm 69. So that was like when I was 27 and 30. And that was a rough road. But I did find avenues and opportunities and open doors that would allow me to minister to the gospel. And I did marry a man that became a pastor and a preacher. So I got to serve side by side with him. And I had five years for children, all of whom are grown, and my husband's gone on to be with the Lord. I was introduced to the South because one of my sons went to Morehouse. So I obeyed the Lord, and I came to Atlanta. And eventually I got involved in some of the churches. And through that, I was able to become a chaplain in the Fulton County jails in the prison system, which is really interesting because someone said to me, how are you going to go and preach? You've never been in jail. You've never been in prison. And on a certain level, I've lived in a secular way, I've lived a very privileged life. In a spiritual way, I've lived a very privileged life. And I say that because anybody that God opens your eyes to see that he's real, that's a privilege because a lot of people don't see it. They don't see that he's real. And it's privileged to have that awakening and to have an understanding. But I did let that intimidate me, Michael, and I went in. And I was loved. I loved them, and they loved me. And we're all in pain, and we're all hurting, and we're all broken in different ways. So universally, humanity can identify. And so I'm humbled to say that they receive me. I can identify with the brokenness because when I was in Hollywood, I lived the brokenness. People in the jails and in the prisons are suffered the same universal dilemma that I've been. Whether you're rich or poor, black or white, we all have to come to terms with what is life really all about and the choices that we make and what do we value? Do we value the deception? Or are we going to try to get to the maze to find the truth? And some of the people in the prisons are able to find the truth in prison. It's a true story about they call it jailhouse conversions. And they mock it as if it's not real and as if it's fake and phony. But I'm a witness that in the case where that's allowed for some people, some people that really, really happen and they genuinely are changed by being shut down by God for a minute to think about their behavior and their choices and consider the possibility of making better choices. At the same time, there are many people in their black of course and also of all nationalities. But the system is so wicked and unjust that there are many people in the prisons that are, they get lost. The judges, the lawyers, the attorney general, as everybody forgets about them, they have no money. It's like, if you can't pay, you stay. A lot of them are unjustly accused of crimes that they actually didn't commit. And then many of them may have committed a crime that was actually very minor and don't deserve to be in there for the time that they have been in there. And we see, in the news, so many people being released these days that have been in prison for 30 years for stealing a peanut butter. It's just such an evil, wicked system. So we have to stay awake. We have to stay alive. We have to stay compassionate and concerned and speak to the elite powers that be that have forgotten what it is to be human and have forgotten what it means to serve and be in power, to be in power, to make the world a better place and not for personal gain and not for greed, which is the days and the time we're living in. Living in a time of greed and boasting and self-promoting where so many of our leaders, spiritual Christian as well as political, have teamed up together to really create a deceptive environment where the lie is trying to appear as the truth. And so many people are believing the lies that, unfortunately, the media also feeds and society is believing. I'm really grateful to be safe because the Word of God is true. And I can somehow, through that, make a maze through all of that and see the false prophets. Like Jesus talked about the false prophets that would be so many in these last days. And he talked about knowing a true believer in God and his love by their fruits. You know someone who's truly a Christian or walking with the Lord by their fruit. And we live in a day and a time when they're they call the religious right, the religious right. But they're really the religious wrong. And they operate in illegalism exploiting the Bible, exploiting Jesus, exploiting their false sense of self, this sense of self-righteousness, this sense of really racial superiority wrapped up into their white wing, longness, religionist, false prophet, love of money and love of power, which is so contrary to their humility and the love and the compassion of King Jesus. So you really laid out a lot there. You've painted a picture of a corrupt system and a broken culture. And on top of this year of 2020, being a year of incredible suffering with the virus and the amount of isolation it's caused and disconnection it's caused. And there's this central tension of, as a believer, how much do you engage in this corrupt world? You're reminding me that there was a time when many Christians would not engage in politics. And that really shifted probably 70s or 80s. Yes. I just wonder how you kind of struggle with dipping your toe in that corrupt world to change it versus pulling back and remaining in a pure place. That seems to be just a central struggle. And then you've got Reverend Warnock deciding to put himself into the political world. I do think having been in Hollywood, I do think that it's so easy to start out with a humble heart and to maintain that as you succeed and you're shouted with acclamations and wealth and you're living in mansions and you're separated from the people. That was the amazing example of Christ. Though he was God, he humbled himself and born in a manger. He was not born in a mansion. And there is specific reasons, I believe, detailed reasons why these choices were made to teach us to show us that all the glitters isn't gold and that this lust for the pride of life to be known and to be famous and to have power can steal the original motivation and the original heartfelt desire to be a voice for those that are in need on the earth. And so my prayer is that politicians that start out with that type of desire in their heart that they're able to maintain it. And I think it's really difficult because they're already bought. It takes to be a senator, it's like you get paid $175,000 or something like that, $200,000 maybe, right? It costs millions. Yeah. It costs millions to run for office. So where are you going to get this money? Like, where are you? Like, you start out poor, but they say, OK, they picked you. Like, they picked me, right? To be a movie star. So how are you going to, like, how are you going to wave through all of that and not become a slave, even though you have all these good intentions originally, but how are you going to maintain your integrity and your original purpose and goal to make a change and support all people and not buy into the global elite and the powers that be that don't care? That's really difficult because you owe them. You owe them. I wish them well, and I hope that they're able to stay. I hope that they're able to stay within the world of living that simple life and caring about simple everyday people, all people as well, but a simple life. The people that are in prison, the racism. I do want to say that as an African-American, it really is traumatic. It's traumatic. I remember, Michael, when I was famous and I drove home, my parents moved into a, at the time, they call it an all-white neighborhood. They were the first white people. It used to be a big deal back in the 60s, right? And I remember I was in my little Volvo and I drove to my parents' house to visit them. I think I was 19. A lot of very pitiful things happened to me when I was 19. And I remember getting out of the car and all of a sudden, there were two policemen behind me. And I imagine, I'm a 19-year-old female. Two policemen, one has a gun, points it to the back of my head and pulls a trigger. Imagine. And he says, what are you doing in this neighborhood? And my parents had taught like all African-American parents taught us to be humble. I was, stay cool. And so I said, as homely and meekly and quietly as I could, the gun is cocked at the back of my head. My parents live here. And they didn't believe me at first. They thought it was crazy. But then one of the policemen recognized me from television and recognized that I was a famous actress. And so it made sense that possibly I wasn't lying in. It's possible that my parents might be able to afford to live in this neighborhood because I was a TV star. And they pulled, they retrieved their gun. Do you know, Michael, that I got myself together and went in the house? Do you know I never told my parents? Do you know I never told anyone? Do you know I never spoke about it for like maybe 30 years? Nobody would believe you. The amazing and the beautiful thing, everything pretty much is the same and almost worse. But the amazing thing today is that we have cell phones. Back then, you could see, are we not paranoid? This is real life. I remember my husband. He was a tall, very tall black guy, like a gentle giant. But that tallness could be intimidating. And I remember he ran a red light, Michael. And he was such a nice soul, grew up in Berkeley. So he had that kind of like love to everybody, mentality and spirit in this experience as a young boy. And grew up around white people, Asians, black people, Mexicans, everybody in that Berkeley, San Francisco kind of environment. So he loved people as people. And police, so he read a red light. OK, so we understand that. And we pulled over to the side. And usually, if you run a red light, you just, they give you a ticket, you know, and you go and you deal with it. They pulled a gun on him. They threatened to kill him right there, me sitting beside him. I mean, by the grace of God. By the grace of God. Alison. And I remember after he passed away, I was driving. I had a church in the inner city in Los Angeles. And my husband, before he passed away, he bought me an old BMW, black, I don't know, magnificent woman or something like that. So I had this BMW, I'm driving through what society would call the black ghetto or whatever. And please stop me, Michael. I pull over. I haven't done anything. I pull over the guy that the police looks, you know, I rolled on the window. He looks at the window and he says, I smell marijuana. It's a classic line. I was like, oh, my God, you know, and he said, you know, pop the trunk. So I popped the trunk and suddenly he changed. He pulled it, put the truck down. He came back pleasantly and gave me my ID back and, you know, let me go. So the Lord heard my prayer. But I have four black sons and I can tell you that when they're little babies, they're cute to everybody. But when they become teenagers, a transformation takes place. And you just know that you have to pray and raise your sons to be very strategic when they become teenagers and start driving cars so they can survive, you know? But when my teenage sons did start driving cars in California, in Los Angeles, before they walked out the door, my husband and I would pray and ask God to protect them literally from the police. Dear father, in the name of Jesus, please protect my son from the police. Bring him home, say. Imagine. And so I wanna share that to say that a lot of people of color, specifically black men, are in prison simply because of the fear of black men. Right, right. The fear of black people. I've, you're really leading me to ask you. You've indicated there's a strain of Christianity you call it the Christian wrong, the Christian right, that's wrapped up with white supremacy. And I'm wondering when you encounter someone of that ilk, how you engage them, how is, from Christian to Christian, how does that conversation work? You know what I mean? That's a mystery in a mind field to me when I think about it. I don't know how those two versions of Christianity come together or could possibly. That's a great deep wide open question because there's many layers in my humble estimation. There's an acknowledgement. You have to acknowledge that you are racist. You have to acknowledge that you've lived your life deceived and that takes a lot, a lot of people don't have that ability. And then I do think it's a generational curse. I do think this spirit of racism follows. It follows and you grow up in it innocently, you're taught it in the Christian environment and it's just part of the seed that's planted in you. And so it takes a real awakening, a real breakthrough, a real humility to see it and to accept it because in some of my conversations with some of my wife friends is sensitive like you're attacking them. And we're not, I'm not trying to attack anyone by telling you the reality of what we live as a people. I am for changing some of these laws that put people in jail and put people in prison for minor so-called crimes. I don't think people that sell drugs should be in jail. I don't think women that have been in domestic abuse situations should be in jail. One of the instances that I experienced in prison was a woman who was a teacher and one of her students' parents came up to the school and got an argument with her and I guess it got volatile and loud. And the principal called the police and the principal took the two women to jail for arguing and they were black. Now two white people can argue they're not going to jail but the policeman put the teacher in jail, she lost her job, she lost her home. She was still in jail for a couple of years for this incident. This is oppression, this is oppression. So you try to share this with some white people. They feel defensive and they take it personal but I would try to encourage white people don't take it personal. Look at it as a spiritual warfare as good versus evil and that racism is a spirit that you can denounce and deny and reject and denounce and you don't have to accept it. When that little voice comes and says oh you're better than him or he shouldn't have that job or he's not good enough or he's less than you when that little voice comes, that little spiritual evil voice comes you have the power to acknowledge it and to deny it and you have the power to stand up for righteousness and stand up for love which was very beautiful when George Floyd died for me to see so many beautiful white people young white people who were free of that defensive protective, that's not me, wall. That wall was gone, that was so gorgeous to see and they embraced our pain as human pain without defense. Do you have faith that an unequal and unjust like a massive structure like a justice system, do you have faith that can be reformed in this life on this earth or is this just the wicked world that we live in? I don't think it's really gonna be as you did the world according to the word of God is going to get wickeder and wickeder, more and more violent, the Bible talks about how in the days of Noah, so will it be sweet? We stand for goodness and that we make those changes and those imprints where we can. God is there to help them no matter how oppressive society is and no matter how difficult society tries to make it be that you can make it, that God can work it out and people that are in politics, teachers, I would hope that wherever a Christian is placed in whatever environment, whatever arena that within that arena that they would let their light shine and be light and make a change aside with love. I think the religious wrong, they really exploit things that are true Christianity that deceive people to buy and to voting for them because they have this pretense of presenting themselves as Christian, but it's really legalism and it's really self-righteousness which Jesus, Yeshua hated. He called them hypocrites, vipers. And so we want to hold religious right or wrong accountable and speak to their hearts, speak to them. If they really believe in Jesus, I would like to hope and believe that they can be transformed, they can be touched too, but it's kind of hard because they seem really stuck on their power and really stuck on their whiteness and really stuck on their divisiveness and dividing people. Right. It's like a mental. In the name of Jesus. Yes. In the name of Jesus. Somehow, somehow. But everyone do, everyone change one. And so I do believe that. I have to have faith. I have faith. I know God has used me to change lives. I know my life has been changed by people that poured into my life and spoke to me and helped me. So if we can all just one by one core into each other, love and encouragement and help one another and come out of being defensive, let the walls come down and open up our hearts and listen to one another. I think that's one of the beautiful things that where God teaches me is listening. And I'm always so grateful when white people listen. But I do want to say that growing up in Hollywood and that's the confusion. Growing up in Hollywood, I had a lot of white friends who really listened. That artistic, that creative energy and that insight that artists have opened us up. Yeah. Listen to other people. Understand other people's feelings and their cultures and where they're coming from. That love of creativity. Like you look at a person and you see their blue eyes and their blonde hair is beautiful. You look at a person and you see their slanted eyes and that's so beautiful. So artistic. You look at a black man shining in his blackness and it's gorgeous because you see it through the eyes of creation and through the eyes of creativity. So I think white people that have grown up in that type of environment are free of the defensiveness and they can listen. But the Republican wrong are, they grow up in a mindset of their right and everyone else's wrong and no one else is worthy. It's like they look down. It's like, you know. It's heavy judgment. Yeah. Yeah. You know, it's like, oh, you're poor because you deserve to be poor. You know, because you're stupid and you're ignorant. And I'm wealthy because I'm old. My husband, my husband had a degree from Stanford University, Michael. Imagine. Highly educated. He went and applied for a job. He had to take a test and he had that kind of genius mind. He was really good at tests. I have a creative mind. I do not do well at tests. But he aced that test. He scored the highest test. The highest on that test. And the employers didn't know he was black, right? They had the audacity. This is the arrogance of white supremacy, that sickness, that disease, that demon. It's a demon. That people don't have to embrace. That you can acknowledge it and denounce it. Demon can be exercised. Yes, yes. It is not a permanence. It's not permanent. So they told him, I just want to finish this story. They said to him, to his face, a grown black man. They said, you don't look intelligent enough to have gone into Stanford. Just to say that out loud. How did you get into Stanford? That shows you the blindness of his racism. Yeah. And then they didn't believe that he took the test. They accused him of cheating on the test. Like, how could he score that high on the test when he's black? So that's inbred. That's generational. That's like a curse. That's a curse to think that way. Right. And I think people that have been raised or think that way, I hope that somehow they can see that it's a curse and not want to live out of life's current and repent and see that we're all beautiful, we're all brilliant in our different ways and we're all created by God and we all have different gifts and talents to bring to the table. And we don't have to be jealous and we don't have to hold other people back. There's enough for everybody. There's enough room for everybody. There's enough prosperity for everyone. Do you consider voting like an act of love? Voting is very challenging for me. My identity is in Christ, period. However, I have relatives that died. My uncle's house was bombed in Mississippi because he was helping people vote in the 60s. So I recognize the value and importance in them. Many people, white people and black people in the 60s died for me to be able to vote. So I'll just say it's very, very challenging. But I did vote. You asked me in the email if I voted and I did vote. This particular Senate vote situation is not as challenging as some other situations have been. There's a lot that I don't agree with O'Sauce and one art as it relates to the word of God, but I see their motivation in their heart and the motivation of their heart is love. I don't see the motivation of Purdue and the other lady, the lady is more about power and maintaining the Republican power or not. I don't see the heart to really help people and strengthen people and build people. So I based my vote based on what I hear, what I hope I'm hearing and I hope, like I said, that they stay true, they stay true to the mission, which is why in that environment. It's not necessarily a laundry list of policy positions, but you really try to take the measure of their heart and vote accordingly. That's what I did in this case, yeah, in this case. I take a case by case. I take the political arena in this presentation to me case by case, you know, and I listened to the heart. I tried to look at their past, although I understand people can change. I'm a big believer in people changing and they may have made choices and voted for things in the past that were abominable, but maybe they've learned and they were caught up. So it's challenging. It's challenging. Yes. It's challenging. But ultimately you come down on the need to engage. Yeah, and I think it's about the people. It's about helping people. You know, all the things that the Republicans try to exploit with the same-sex marriage and the abortion. Those are the two big ones. That's a personal individual in my case because I believe in the word of God's sin that we take before the Lord ourselves. And so, you know, I deal with that and I deal with that area and I approach that area. I don't think that area is an area that politicians should use to exploit, to get a vote, a vote. Although I do think it's important, but they're not sincere. It is not genuine. Right. Because they're homosexuals too. And they're, you know, like you read in the paper, you read, you know, someone was caught with a, you know, a man was caught with a man and they voted against same-sex or they voted for it. I mean, it's just madness. It's chaotic madness, it's insanity. And so- There's some judgment and hypocrisy at root there. Yeah, it's such an evil game. So politics is challenging. I try to, I really try to keep my heart out of it because I think it really taints. If you get really into it in the way that some people are, that they'll kill you based on who you voted for. Yeah. Who you didn't vote for. Politics certainly does not nourish the soul. It is a slog in the drain and it's- And it's a world of compromise. And so as a preacher, as a person called your God, I'm called, I can't compromise the word of God. You know, I can't compromise. But politicians, you have to compromise or at least that's what they say. And so- You're really, really, you're really reminding me right now of the controversy of Warnock having from the pulpit saying you can't serve two masters and Leffler using that to attack him saying he's anti-police, saying he's anti-military. That idea of, you know, if you only serve one master then how can you even- Well, first of all, that's a lie because all the preachers in Georgia, we all work with the police, you know. I'm not talking about Warnock, but Warnock, what he says makes sense. He wants to reform the police. He wants the police to do right. He wants, like all of us, you don't want white supremacists and people that go into the police on purpose to kill black people. Right, right. And be a policeman. You want people that have sound minds and understand and operate with caution but also with love for everybody in art races and looking down on the poor people of all color or whatever the madness that goes on with the police where they protect each other. They lie with each other. You know, I work with police. I'm a chaplain. I go into the prisons, you know, I deal with police and there are a lot of good police. But obviously there are a lot of bad police. So I think there's balance. And I think Purdue and the other lady, they incite imbalance. They incite this extreme image of one that isn't true because there's no preacher in Georgia that is not working with the police side by side and trying to make Atlanta a safer place for everyone. And for a policeman should be held accountable just like a teacher should be held accountable or a preacher or someone that takes vibes, you know. If you're whatever arena that you're in and they base their politics on fear and scaring people to death of each other. Those politics of fear have been working, you know, really well in the last few years. And I hope we've turned a corner and those tactics won't work anymore or at least not as well as they have. Also, they seem to work pretty much with it, with the base that supports the Republicans. And it's not new. They've been doing this since the beginning of America even before, but even when I was a kid, just the fear just the fear of black people or the fear of foreigners, the fear of poor people, you know, just this spirit of fear which Purdue and the lady should understand the scripture says, forgotten has not given us the spirit of fear but power, love and a sound mind and the fact that they put their Christianity on the side to breed and to plant seeds of fear versus planting seeds of love. You know them by their fruits, that's religious wrong. That's not really just right. Allison, that's a really nice place to leave us. You've really gone deep here and helped us move beyond the day-to-day horse race of politics. So thank you very much. Well, thank you so much for having me. I am so grateful, the opportunity to just talk about these days and times that we're living in and the chaos of it all. But I do want to tell everyone that may be listening, too, that don't be afraid and don't walk in fear. Walk in love, walk in grace. Keep love alive, keep faith alive. Georgia, Georgia, Georgia, Georgia.