lucky severson reports. >> reporter: if something seems odd or unusual about these worshippers, maybe it's the diversity, all the different colors and nationalities of their faces. this is the wilcrest baptist church in houston, and pastor rodney woo couldn't be more proud of the cultural and racial mix of his congregation. >> i think my main passion is to get people ready for heaven. i think a lot of our people are going to go into culture shock when they get to heaven and they get to sit next to somebody that they didn't maybe sit with while they were here on earth. so we're trying to get them acclimated a little bit. >> reporter: assuming pastor woo is right, there are a lot of congregations that need to get acclimated. a recent study found that only 7% of churches in the u.s. are integrated. thisisomes as no surprise to ohio state sociology professor korie edwards, author of the book, "the elusive dream." >> we're segregated in housing. even the job market is segregated, and we end up going to churches with people who look like us. >> sometimes, you know, you'll hear the statement

lucky severson reports. >> it's time to break the silence. it's time to draw a line saying "this far and no farther." >> reporter: this is the bryant temple african methodist episcopal church in south central los angeles. the music will move you, but this is not a celebration. it's a service dedicated to bringing an end to the needless deaths of all the boys who will never become men. >> our young people have been dying in the streets day and night where we have hidden our light under a bushel. >> reporter: how many kids have been killed, say, in the last year? >> about a hundred. >> reporter: pastor eugene williams managed to survive his inner-city childhood, but the odds are worse today. he says it's partly because too many african-american churches have lost their way. >> and so we've gone from a period of ministers like dr cecil murray and dr. j. alfred smith, who taught that it was important to love your neighbor as yourself, to a place where ministers believed that it was important that the community love them. >> reporter: so that's wh

for "religion & eths neweekly," i'm lucky severson in soh central los angeles. >> pr: on our lendar awe mentioned earlier, muims are observing rhamad and hindus are celebrating ganesh chatuhi, which commemorates the birthday ofhe popular deity, rd ganesha. believermark the t-day festival by offering prars and delicacies to the god wi the head of an elephant. the final day of celebratio a statue olord ganesha is taken in a and procession and immersein a body of water. >> potter: the hebrew moh of elul has begun for the worls jews. a time of introspection a stock-taking, it leads to he holiest time ofear in the jewish cendar, including rosh hahanah and yom kippur. these holidays, plujewish tradition and biblal history, are at the hrt of an teractive museum in brooklyn new york. education direor rabbi nissen brenenson gave us a tour the jewish children's museum. >> you approach the museum, the first thing you see ia giant photmosaic, and as you get cser you realize that it's made of thousands and thoands of smaller photographs of children of alages, of all races. then that contains a spial