Millie Landis: “I believe that there are too many people throwing out God because they’re throwing out religion.”

San Diego Reader: How long do you spend writing your sermon?

Pastor Millie Landis: To tell the truth, I just live this. I don’t actually prepare for them but just talk from my heart…. We all talk from our hearts [at the Fraternal Spiritualist Church] and we have about five ministers. We talk from our heart when we give readings from the platform. You’ll have a sermon of 20 minutes at most, where you’re talking from your heart, quoting from the Bible if you choose, and talking lovingly if you’re talking biblically. It’s a wonderful way to live, too; you don’t have to be a goody-two-shoes about things. I can get up there and cry, or I can get up there and laugh. All I do is talk from my heart.

SDR: What is your favorite subject on which to preach?

PL: I guess I like talking about the tremendous plan that God has arranged for us on this earth plane. The idea that you can be tattered and torn and still be carrying God around in your heart or your system.

SDR: What is your main concern as member of the clergy?

PL: I believe that there are too many people throwing out God because they’re throwing out religion. In so doing, they throw out the Bible. The Bible is absolutely the greatest book ever written; if you need to be scared, it can scare you; if you need to be loving, it’s extremely loving. People who are throwing out the Bible, haven’t read it with their love feelings but have read it negatively or not at all…. Instead of enjoying life which is so phenomenal, they’re staring at the negatives and making themselves miserable, and they want to blame it on something so they blame it on religion and the Bible.

SDR: Where do you go when you die?

PL: I believe we have only one life but many segments to that one life — one set of stairs but many steps. But no matter the segment, it is still you. You were living before you came here, in that one life, and you’ll be living in it when you leave here. I wholeheartedly believe in the teachings of Jesus Christ. He says that you have a body of flesh and then you have a body of light. Right now, we’re in the body of flesh and we’ll be in a body of light. We were in a body of light, with no flesh, and then we come into the body of flesh, and then we’ll be set free. That doesn’t mean your life is done. We’re just in one room in the mansion. Jesus Christ says there are many rooms in the mansion…. If you go out into nature, you’ll see that like attracts like. The blue birds together, the yellow birds together, the fish in the school, and the wolves in the pack. Right now we’re given free choice. The Bible asks, “What is man?” He’s lower than the angels yet he’s given free choice. You can go hang with a pack of hoods if you want or you can hang with loving people, but when you leave here you will be with the exact likeness of yourself. Like attracts like. That’s the basic of all this….