GALLATIN, Tenn. (BNC) — Preacher Hugh Fulford recalled today the merger of two congregations in Clarksville, Tenn., one black, the other white, in 1968. He worked with the latter congregation. No news was published about the merger at the time of its occurrence. But it serves to dispel the accusation of widespread racism among Christians.

Hugh ended his recollections with an application for today.

It is time to put the past in the past! It is time to move forward, as most of us in churches of Christ are doing. It is time to stop playing the race card at the drop of the hat! It is time to drop the tiresome mantra, “11 o’clock on Sunday morning is the most segregated hour of the week in America!” It is time to remember that integration is a two-way street! It is time to get on with the mission of preaching the gospel of Christ without fear and favor to a lost and dying world composed of many nationalities and ethnicities, and to do so in the most culturally relevant setting possible!

Hugh published his “piece of history” in his weekly “Hugh’s News and Views,” which he sends by email. His articles are also posted on The Fellowship Room, a Forthright/GoSpeak ministry site. So far, 182 of his emails are posted there.

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