Council for permission to use their church as an emergency homeless shelter.

In a decision that Moss said in March was fueled by racism, the council rejected the request.

Their decision had nothing to do with race, council members said, adding that they were more concerned about drifters wandering through residential neighborhoods.

Moss now smiles at mention of the proposed shelter. After all, he said, there are more important battles for his church to fight.

"All I'm going to say is that if someone comes to me and needs somewhere to stay in this cold weather, this church is commanded to help them," Moss said.

Moss would like to see more people reach out to others in need more often - regardless of city ordinances and man-made laws.

And the black community, Moss added, has always derived great power from its churches.

"The church has always been important to the African-American community because we've had no other alternatives," he said.

"It has been the only thing that black people have truly controlled."

And though people still guide the church, Moss wonders these days if the church and its teachings still guide them.

"There has always been a powerful triangle in the black community that is made up of church, school and home," Moss said.

"But now, like many other communities, we are struggling with babies raising babies, poverty and violence. Those things have broken the ties that once strengthened the African-American community and set it apart from all others."

If the African-American community wants to overcome its troubles, the gaps between young and old must be narrowed, Moss said.

"We've got to teach our children history - our history," Moss said. "They're suffering from an identity crisis that I believe started with desegregation and integration.

"The problem is that they never knew segregation. So they've missed out on a lot of the rich culture and tradition that was once such a large part of the black community.

"When I was growing up, we had the civil rights movement. That was our cause," Moss said.

"Our kids are frustrated, and they're expressing that in vulgarity, sex and violence. They don't have the same positive channels we had, and they need to find them."