What sort of difficulties would happen when people of different cultures try to come together to worship? Tiny little things such as… — Michael Emerson Copy Share Image
I'm truly glad there are so many options on television that are for grown and thinking people. — Michael Emerson Copy Share Image
I see it happen in uniracial congregations all the time. But people - when they're in mixed company, we speak differently. — Michael Emerson Copy Share Image
To a large extent, people's interest in the character is the mystery of the character. — Michael Emerson Copy Share Image
I think people respond to villains because people in general are more villainous than heroic. — Michael Emerson Copy Share Image
It's one of the things we find in these congregations is that they are much more likely to be sort of up-beat… — Michael Emerson Copy Share Image
I think it's pretty dynamic. There's a lot of energy there and life, and you'll have women dressed in their traditional African… — Michael Emerson Copy Share Image
Preaching styles and people being slain in the spirit and things like that. Now it doesn't happen in all black churches, and… — Michael Emerson Copy Share Image
I have to conclude, oh, the best people are all somebody other than my own race. So that's difficult. How do we… — Michael Emerson Copy Share Image
I think whites are used to being in power, so when whites think we ought to have integrated churches they think, "People… — Michael Emerson Copy Share Image
There's a lot of terminology, like "washes whiter than snow," and these things which when they're said in a uniracial congregation, they… — Michael Emerson Copy Share Image
It worries me a little bit the reach and power of TV. More people saw me in The Practice than will ever… — Michael Emerson Copy Share Image
They could never go back to being a uniracial congregation again. It brings excitement. It brings life. It allows them to be… — Michael Emerson Copy Share Image
So one of the profound things we found when studying these congregations, the mixed ones, is just how much overlap and interracial… — Michael Emerson Copy Share Image
I mean, so if I've talked to whites in City of Refuge, sometimes they'll wonder, "Why do we do things a certain… — Michael Emerson Copy Share Image
Once in a while you get people that maybe because of economic reasons, or have a social network, they get attracted. But… — Michael Emerson Copy Share Image
One of the things we find when we talk to people that attend these congregations, they all have social cost to it.… — Michael Emerson Copy Share Image
So these are the kind of things that now when people are trying to move towards multiracial congregations that they're stressing. They're… — Michael Emerson Copy Share Image
So we didn't get the denominations and the separate congregations really till about into Civil War time. What's happened then, of course,… — Michael Emerson Copy Share Image
I certainly think so, and I argue so, and I give talks on that. Are there risks by putting people together? Absolutely.… — Michael Emerson Copy Share Image
Scripture is vast, and people can pick and choose what they emphasize, and so for hundreds of years verses that said that… — Michael Emerson Copy Share Image
Maybe there's even anger. But if they make it through that they come to a new agreement, and they start creating a… — Michael Emerson Copy Share Image
Downsides, yeah, and when there are more downsides when churches first start - they go through stages of transforming to becoming multiracial.… — Michael Emerson Copy Share Image
And again, this connection that you get: I meet Joe at church. Joe's connected to a whole network of people I don't… — Michael Emerson Copy Share Image
We've had people say, "Now when I go to work, I don't feel uncomfortable talking to people of different races, and I… — Michael Emerson Copy Share Image
There are three things, and it depends on the group that we're talking about, but there's history, there's culture, and then there's… — Michael Emerson Copy Share Image
You find the most in not any particular denomination specifically. It's the style of worship. So if we have what we call… — Michael Emerson Copy Share Image
We studied a mosque, and this is when we were at Notre Dame, and in this mosque they had people from a… — Michael Emerson Copy Share Image
It may be changing, but still it's the one place, that total control of an institution, that African Americans have. So sometimes, you know,… — Michael Emerson Copy Share
Call-and-response style, yes, exactly. So whenever different groups get together then there has to be this long period of negotiation. How will we worship?… — Michael Emerson Copy Share
I think people respond to villains because people in general are more villainous than heroic. — Michael Emerson Copy Share
So you find a lot of these sixth Americans congregate in these interracial congregations. They hang out together at work, at school, wherever. — Michael Emerson Copy Share
There are roles that are terrifying because they're large or you may feel that they're out of your line, but I'm never terrified once… — Michael Emerson Copy Share
We do not have an American culture. We have a white American culture and a black American culture. So when those two groups try… — Michael Emerson Copy Share
I think of myself as a problem-solver. I want to go in and help the director and the writer to get the best they… — Michael Emerson Copy Share
But what we found in the study is that churches are ten times less diverse than the neighborhoods they sit in. So there's something… — Michael Emerson Copy Share
And different traditions stress different - so then there's that. I talked to an African American who says before she goes into an interracial… — Michael Emerson Copy Share
I think it's easier, I really do, because of not having that similar history, so that's why I think two-thirds of these mixed congregations… — Michael Emerson Copy Share
There are three things, and it depends on the group that we're talking about, but there's history, there's culture, and then there's social networks.… — Michael Emerson Copy Share
I ask the clergy why don't I see myself represented in leadership? And I'm told, and this happens quite a bit, "We don't think… — Michael Emerson Copy Share
I was a magazine illustrator for many years before I became an actor, and I used to think, 'Oh, God, all those wasted years!'… — Michael Emerson Copy Share
We go where our family goes. We go where our friends are, and because our social networks are so segregated by race, we end… — Michael Emerson Copy Share
This is this thing I harp on: Sometimes acting can be a self-defeating psychological enterprise if we feel like we're desperate, if we feel… — Michael Emerson Copy Share
