The theology of the average colored church is basing itself far too much upon Hell and Damnation-upon an attempt to scare people into being decent and threatening them with the terrors of death and punishment. We are still trained to believe a good deal that is simply childish in theology. The outward and visible punishment of every wrong deed that men do the repeated declaration that anything can be gotten by anyone at any time by prayer.

Against Racism: Unpublished Essays, Papers, Addresses, 1887-1961 (ed. Univ of Massachusetts Press, 1988) - ISBN: 9780870236242