Former KKK wizard found a new path

[seekingthetruth]

This is a great example of loving someone who sees himself as an enemy.
I love how God brought them together to teach us all how to fight hatred with love. Both wonderful men are with JESUS now, but even though I read this years ago, it still touches my heart.
I included a link if anyone wants to watch what Johnny Lee Clary shared. Also, I included what he shared about his friendship with Wade Watts.

Johnny Lee Clary understands the natural tendency for doubt that some people bring to his claim of a conversion from hatred for all humans not white to absolute love for all humanity red and yellow, black and white demanded in the doctrine Christianity.
Given the podium for a few minutes, Clary the past Grand Imperial Wizard of the White Knights of the Ku Klux Klan will chip away at the doubts of even the most skeptical listener.
He casts out fear not with tedious theological assertions his explanation for a life that has swung from the polar extremes of behavior are practical enough to sustain a decade-long career as a Christian motivational speaker.
“I was taught racism as a child,” said Clary during an interview Friday at The Bulletin. “I remember the first black person I ever saw. I was 5 with my dad going into a grocery store and he (the black man) was coming out.”
“I said: ‘Look, there’s a chocolate-covered man,’ and Dad said ‘No, that’s no chocolate man that is a … the n-word.’”
The observation was followed by a brief tirade of racism and bigotry that sowed the first seeds in the young mind that grew and blossomed into full-grown hate, but not without some nurturing.
His grandfather was a more vocal racist even than his father.
At 11 years old, Clary would witness his father’s suicide. He witnessed and confronted his mother’s alcoholism and infidelity to his father. When his father died, she immediately sent him to live with a sister in East Los Angeles.
“I didn’t have the love a boy should have for his Mom,” said Clary.

At 12 and 13 years, young Clary learned brutality, racial division and hate on the streets of Los Angeles. Street gangs were divided along race and ethnic lines, and Clary grew to despise nearly all non-whites. Clary said he was alone, failing in school and living with a sister he believed was interested in him for no reason other than the U.S. war veteran survivor check he received each month.
Clary said he found a salve for those feelings of loss, betrayal and failure in the Ku Klux Klan organization headed by David Duke, then a clan leader in the national spotlight making appearances on Los Angeles television stations. One of those broadcasts contained a telephone number to contact Duke. Clary did, and soon was corresponding by mail. Then a KKK recruiter appeared at the door asking to interview young Clary for his opinion on the races and racism.
“No one had ever asked for my opinion about anything,” said Clary.
He soon was steeped in KKK doctrine of white supremacy, challenging teachers at school regarding the accuracy of history on the Nazi holocaust against Jews in World War II and fomenting hate toward his black classmates.

He returned to Oklahoma, where he found a family with the KKK near McAlester and quickly rose through the ranks as a recruiter and on to the level of Grand Imperial Wizard.
Clary said his conversion began slowly with an appearance on a radio talk show hosted by KOMA radio in Oklahoma City.
Appearing on the show with Clary was a local black pastor, the late Rev. Wade Watts, who would engage Clary in ways he hadn’t prepared for.
Watts was an uncle to former U.S. Rep. J.C. Watts of Oklahoma.
Entering the studio, Watts immediately told Clary he loved him and reached to shake hands.
The two were shaking hands before Clary realized that such interaction with a black person was forbidden by KKK rules.
“I don’t know what I expected. I was looking for some big Black Panther-type with a big Afro giving the black power sign,” said Clary. “I remember thinking: How can I get to the person?”
Outside the radio station, Clary was greeted by a group of supporters from Watts’ congregation.
Watts fetched an infant from a woman in the crowd and held the baby up for Clary to see.
“I could see this baby was half black and half white,” said Clary.
‘”How can you fault this baby for being what she is?”‘ Clary recalled were Watts’ words.
“I wasn’t ready for that,” said Clary. “Then the baby smiled at me.” He said he felt affection for the infant and wanted to touch her. That was Watts’ adopted daughter, Tia.

Following the talk show, it was concluded by Clary and his Klansmen that Watts had made Clary and the Klan look foolish.
Clary said he engineered a cross-burning near Watts’ home, then dumped trash and dead animals on Watts’ lawn and made threatening telephone calls to the Watts home.
Finally, the Klan set fire to the building where Watts worshipped with his congregation.
Watts greeted every threat with kindness, said Clary.
A short time after the broadcast, Clary and a gang of KKK members found Watts and friends having a chicken dinner at a local restaurant and challenged his right to be there. Clary told Watts that whatever he did to the chicken, he would do to him.
“He picked up the chicken and kissed it,” Clary said. Not only were the people around the incident amused, but his own Klan followers laughed out loud.

Along the way, Clary said he embarked on a career as a professional wrestler with the character name “Johnny Angel.” At the time, the KKK was blending with neo-Nazi groups and Skinheads that the FBI believed was a more serious threat to national security than the old Klan. The feds disclosed that Johnny Angel was in real life a KKK leader, effectively ending his career.
All he had left was the Klan and a girlfriend, who later turned out to be an FBI undercover agent who discovered the identities of several “secret” Klan members who were in turn disclosed publicly.
“These were a lot of police officers,” said Clary. “People were losing their jobs for being in the Klan.”

Meanwhile, the association with radical neo-Nazi groups was making other Klan members uncomfortable. The FBI was becoming more and more aggressive making weapons cases against Klan members. It became apparent to Clary the FBI would see him in prison if something didn’t change.
Clary repented, for the wrong reason, and resigned from the Klan. Then, those he had recruited turned on their former leader, saying a true Klansman wouldn’t abandon the organization because of the threat of imprisonment.
“They called me a stoolie and coward. I said, ‘OK, you go to prison for the Klan,’” said Clary. And for the first time in a long time, Clary was truly alone and without friends or family, again.
He turned to alcohol and was once prepared to take his own life.

Instead he prayed, opened a Bible and began seriously to read the scriptures. “I had a Bible; everyone in the Klan had a Bible,” said Clary. “We didn’t read them.
“I read that Jesus died for all people,” said Clary, emphasizing the word “all.” He began attending church and became a serious student of God’s word. During his first worship days at the Oral Roberts University Mabee Center, he was recognized by members as the Klan leader. The church was wary of the new member. Gradually, he was accepted as a believer.
As Clary’s faith increased, he called Watts to ask forgiveness. Watts invited Clary to witness for his church.
The greeting in the building he once tried to burn down was a cool one.
He began the sermon attempting to explain himself and his conversion, but the skepticism of his listeners became more obvious.
“I gave up and just preached Jesus,” said Clary, and that awakened the “Amen” corner, he said.
During the altar call, a teenage mulatto girl answered his invitation. She was the infant girl Watts had held in arms outside the radio station.
‘”I want to know the Jesus you know,’” Clary recalled she said. Clary said he has since adopted Tia as a goddaughter.
Clary agrees that not everyone will come to a reckoning with hatred through a religious experience such as his. Clary urges those people to look at the outcome of separation and fear.
“Men hate what they fear,” said Clary. Unity and reconciliation are concepts that people should examine for a secular if not a religious response to hate.
“Let little children play together and see what happens,” said Clary. “They don’t hate.
“Love is a learned response,” said Clary. “I learned it in the Gospels.”

h**p://www1.cbn.com/cbnnews/us/2014/October/Ex-KKK-Wizard-Turned-Christian-Evangelist-Dies

People across the world are remembering evangelist Rev. Johnny Lee Clary, a former imperial wizard of the Klu Klux Klan who experienced a radical conversion to Christianity.
Clary, 55, died of a heart attack Oct. 21.
CBN spoke to the evangelist in 2011 about his journey to becoming a Christian after years of hating blacks and other minority groups.
He said he felt compelled to give his life to the Lord after reading Luke 15, the story of the prodigal son.
"I finally got on my knees and said, 'God, my life is screwed up. God, I'm in a mess. I need Your help," he recalled. "I felt like a new person, brand new creation. I felt like I had had a weight lifted off my shoulders."
In becoming a Christian, Clary learned how to love and live in unity with all people. He became the first Caucasian elder in the Church of God in Christ, a predominantly African-American denomination.
Clary is survived by his wife, Melissa (Edwards) Clary of Baton Rouge, his brother Larry of Colorado, brother Terry, sister Sandy and a daughter Savannah all from Oklahoma.
He passed away in his home in Baton Rouge, Louisiana.


A Man Who Defined Forgiveness: Rev. Wade Watts

When hurt by someone all of us find it hard to forgive, forget and move forward. The thought of making a positive change in the life of the person who has hurt you would be the farthest from our minds. The story of Reverend Wade Watts is one that shows us the power of forgiveness and how the results of forgiveness cannot only change your attacker but the entire world. Below is the account given from the person who was transformed from his attacker to his best friend.
Wade was very prominent in community affairs, shaping the destiny of Oklahoma from 1968 to 1984 serving as both the Oklahoma State President of the N.A.A.C.P and Executive Director.

During his many years of community service he was appointed to the Civil Rights Commission under President Lyndon B. Johnson where he served five years. He served four years on the Oklahoma Crime Commission, five years as Chaplain at the Okla. State Penitentiary and Human Rights Commission. Throughout his career, he received numerous awards and commendations. He retired as Labor Inspector from the Oklahoma State Labor Commission in 1982. Although retired from an 8-5 job, he never gave up his desire for active public service. He continued to Pastor the Jerusalem Baptist Church in McAlester, Ok. until his health failed him.

Rev. Watts was a close friend of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., and in 1965 participated with Dr. King in the march for freedom, justice, and equality in Selma, Alabama.
As a civil rights leader, Reverend Watts had his share of trouble with the Ku Klux Klan. The Klan marched around his house and burned a cross on his lawn. The Klan burned one of his churches down and tried to burn another one a few years later. Wade had taken the Klan on in court and won by getting an injunction against the Klan that stopped them from burning a 45 foot cross on the outskirts of McAlester. Wade was surrounded by the Klan in a roadside diner where he was told by the Imperial Wizard at that time “whatever you do to the chicken on your plate, the Klan will do to you.’
Wade looked at the KKK members standing about him wearing their signature K.K.K. t-shirts and calmly picked up the chicken and kissed it! Needless to say, the men did not keep their promise. Even members of the KKK broke out in laughter over Wade’s response to their threats. On another occasion, he went into a cafe in Ada, Oklahoma with his friend, Oklahoma State Senator Gene Stipe, where he was stopped at the door by the waitress. She proceeded to tell them they did not serve Negroes there! Wade told the woman, “Ma’am, I don’t eat Negroes anyway, just give me some ham and some eggs!”

Wade told Senator Stipe that he had one wish…..to meet face to face with the leader of the Ku Klux Klan. He got his wish in the form of a nationwide radio debate with the Imperial Wizard. It was the meeting that ultimately, and over some time, would change the heart of Johnny Lee Clary, Imperial Wizard of the KKK. Wade and Johnny became best friends and Johnny is even Godfather of Wade’s daughter, Tia.

Rev. Wade Watts passed away, Dec. 13th, 1998. The night he passed away, two of his daughters heard him talking as he laid in bed. They heard Wade say “Thank You, Sir!” They asked him, ” Dad, who are you talking to?”, since they were the only ones in the room with him. Wade replied, ” I am talking to Jesus. He said He is coming to take me home.” The nurse came into the room, and asked Wade what he would like for breakfast in the morning. Wade replied, “It don’t matter, hon. I’m not going to be here for breakfast because Jesus told me He is coming for me.” That night, Wade died in his sleep.

Rev. Watts was like a father to me. I am grateful for all the years I had with him, and for all the wisdom and knowledge he passed on to me. He told me that he was passing me his mantle. I do not feel worthy to take it up; however, if he thought that much of me to invest all those years of time and wisdom into me, then I owe it to the memory of him to fight racism and continue his works. Wade and I always called one another “Old Partner”. I will miss him for the rest of my life, and will never forget him.
–Johnny Lee Clary

[teresa]

I found that very encouraging to read.

[seekingthetruth]

Wade Watts could do what he did because he walked in the Spirit. The fruit of the Spirit was evident in his life. He read God's word, believed it, and then walked in it.

[faithfyl]

Does the KKK identify as any kind of religious group?

[Moogy]

Does the KKK identify as any kind of religious group?

They seem to claim to be Christian. But I never could figure out how they thought burning crosses was Christian. Or lynchings. Or hoods. Or hatred. Etc.

[B.H.]

Wasn't Don Black who owns StormFront raised Church of Christ?