Praise the Lord and get past the indictment

By Timothy Pratt (contact)

Monday, Oct. 3, 2005 | 10:14 a.m.

On Sunday morning, as hundreds filed into the Second Baptist Church in West Las Vegas, a voice improvised on the chorus of an old spiritual.

"This may be the last time you hear the preacher preach," a man sang out. "This may be the last time you shake the preacher's hand."

Later, at the end of a two-hour-plus service, Rev. Willie Davis left the Bible metaphors behind for the first time and told the people in the packed pews that his day in court will be Oct. 7. He assured the congregation he is innocent.

It was the pastor's first sermon after a federal grand jury Tuesday charged him, his wife, Emma, and the Rev. McTheron Jones, the associate minister, with lining their own pockets with $330,000 in federal grant money.

According to the indictment, the Justice Department money was supposed to pay for running a halfway house for former convicts. The halfway house never opened.

Sunday morning the doors at "the Miracle on Madison Avenue" -- as the church calls itself on its Web site -- opened to hundreds who must have heard about the federal charges. Perhaps they wanted to hear Davis say something about it sooner rather than later.

But Davis instead gave a rousing sermon on the theme of "the heavenly inheritance," taken from 1 Peter, 1:3-7.

He quoted from the line that says the inheritance Jesus left them all is "incorruptible."

"That means there's nothing junky about it," he preached.

Sparkling dresses and hats at improbable angles and in shapes one might only see on Sundays swayed in the pews.

"What Jesus did was not phony," Davis added.

Toward his sermon's end, he said, "Whatever happens on this side of life -- my inheritance is sure.

"Have you ever been in a situation where things looked like they would be at their worst -- and God showed up?"

The church rocked with applause.

Later, outside the church, some looked past the news of the day and stuck with the Word. Others said the two couldn't be separated.

Lasalle Posey, who wore a name tag identifying him as a member of the church's hospitality committee, said he took the message from the sermon that "God will be with you, and is with him (Davis) in his trials."

But, he added, "The whole thing bothers me." Posey said Davis should not have been in the pulpit Sunday.

"I don't like him preaching today. It's like DeLay -- he stepped down. Until this clears up, he (Davis) should step down."

The point, Posey said, was the example the preacher sets.

"If you want people to do good, you should do good."

Others, like Elbert Jones, were "just hoping it's untrue."

"I'm not judgmental, " he added, before waving off the subject and the reporter asking about it.

Booker T. Collins, a burly man with a strong handshake, who said he has been a member of the congregation at Second Baptist for 40 years, said no one in the congregation could judge Davis.

"I don't know if he did it," Collins said. "I know who knows -- God knows. But he (Davis) may suffer here on Earth."

At the same time, he said, "I think the pastor is human just like we are. Whoever been born done wrong."

Adele Graham, tall, stately and slow-moving on a cane, said she wasn't surprised by the news on everyone's mind.

"It's been rumored for quite some time," she said. "I pay no attention to the rumors or the indictment.

"I couldn't care about whether he's guilty or not -- that's his life and he has to lead it."

Besides, she said, "God's in control, and He'll take care of it all."

Associate Minister Chester Richardson, who couldn't be in church Sunday, said that viewpoint was likely to prevail at the church in the coming weeks and months, a sign of what he called "the Baptist culture."

"Until a judge slams a gavel and says he's guilty, they'll go to hear him preach," Richardson said.

"People don't come to hear about the pastor's problems, they come to hear the word of God."

Timothy Pratt can be reached at (702) 259-8828 or timothy@lasvegassun.com.