“He didn’t invite him. Sterling, we did not call Sterling. As members of Praises, Sterling came to us, asked our pastor, we took a vote on it,” said Muki, a church member.

Muki is also a member of the choir and was at the service Sterling attended. She says the church has hundreds of members and they decided as a group to let Sterling attend.

“We’re not forgetting what he said but as children of God we are forgiving,” she said.

Other parishioners had mixed feelings about having someone in their church who had made such openly racist comments.