10 minutes with … Johnny Lee Clary

(RNS) Former Ku Klux Klan imperial wizard Johnny Lee Clary has put on a new robe, leaving behind his days with the racist organization and becoming ordained in the predominantly black Church of God in Christ. The 50-year-old Oklahoman, who has ministered with other church groups since the 1990s, has been a wrestler, car salesman […]

(RNS) Former Ku Klux Klan imperial wizard Johnny Lee Clary has put on a new robe, leaving behind his days with the racist organization and becoming ordained in the predominantly black Church of God in Christ.

The 50-year-old Oklahoman, who has ministered with other church groups since the 1990s, has been a wrestler, car salesman and country songwriter, but his focus now is on racial reconciliation. This interview has been edited for length and clarity.


Q: Why did you decide to be ordained in a predominantly black denomination?

A: Well, this came over a period of time, of course. When I first got saved 20 year ago and left the Ku Klux Klan, I had to renew my mind. I didn’t just leave the Klan one day and the next day say a prayer, and then get up and say I want to call up Michael Jackson and Cyndi Lauper and sing, “We are the World.” It was a slow process.

Q: How did your church at the time, Victory Christian Church in Tulsa, help you through this transition?

A: I walked into the church and I saw red, yellow, black, white and brown people. I was still prejudiced, still full of hate. I felt something say to me, “Sit down and shut up and listen to the pastor.”

Q: How did your COGIC ordination come about?

A: I’d been ordained in other organizations and been preaching the gospel now for nearly 20 years, but I met Bishop George McKinney, who’s one of theleaders of the Church of God in Christ back in the early `90s. Last year I thought: God has called me for racial reconciliation, and so I was praying and I felt the need to call Bishop McKinney (who) agreed to ordain me. He went before the board of the Church of God in Christ and he got it approved.

Q: What was the ordination ceremony like?

A: It was exciting because I knew that we were making history, and so did he, because the Church of God in Christ is almost all black and is the largest black denomination in America. This says a lot for them that they would put their trust in a man who was not just a Klansman but a leader of the Klan.

Q: How have you been received since then by COGIC members?

A: So far, so good. Bishop McKinney said he got a little bit of flak (from people) who said “How could you ordain a man who used to hate us?” Basically, Bishop McKinney stresses to people that now is the time for reconciliation.

Q: Do you expect to serve as a COGIC pastor?

A: Eventually. When the time is right, I will take a church.

Q: What will be your approach to integrating a congregation?

A: You can’t keep saying, “Well, the whites did this to me” or “The blacks did this to me” and expect reconciliation to take place. I have every right in the world to stand in for whites, and speak for whites, and say it is time for reconciliation. People can be bitter, but we have to look beyond all of that and say with God all things are possible.


Q: You advanced the cause of the Klan through the 1980s and then quit. What caused you to leave it behind?

A: It was a number of things. It was the girlfriend who turned out to be an FBI informant. I had all the leaders of white power movements come to Pulaski, Tenn. When all the leaders got there, they all broke out into a fight with each other.

Q: How would you describe the difference between the way the Klan views Christianity and the way you do?

A: The way I view Christianity is the way it’s supposed to be viewed in the Bible. In John 3:16, it says, “For God so loved the world.” It doesn’t say, “For God so loved white people.” The Klan’s brand of Christianity is God’s children are nothing but white people. They say only the white race will go to heaven, and these other people need to be slaughtered like animals.

Q: What do you think of their theology now?

A: I absolutely detest that. That kind of doctrine is of the devil.

Q: Do you have any idea how many white ministers there are in COGIC?

A: There’s a few. There’s not very many at all.

Q: Are you the only former Klansman?

A: Definitely. That’s a given there. We’ve made history there.

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