The congregation at Crescent Hill Presbyterian Church was just settling in for its Sunday evening worship service when the mythical wall separating church and state lost yet another brick.

“I was there,” said Harold Mott, a deacon at the church. “It was one minute to six. Our services start at six. Our pastor, Dr. Cecil Williamson, was in the prayer room with two church officers, as is our custom.

“I walked out of the choir room and a black gentleman was standing there. I said, ‘Can I help you, sir?’ He said he wanted to see Dr. Williamson, that he had business with him. I told him, ‘Sir, this is a house of worship. If you have spiritual needs, you will be honored and welcome. If you have a legal agenda, I must ask you to leave. We are preparing to worship the Lord.'”

Mott later learned that the man was there to serve Williamson, the former Dallas County Republican Party chairman, with a subpoena to appear before the five-member panel hearing LaTosha Brown’s challenge of the June 25 Democratic runoff.

Mott said that the man did not resist when asked to leave the sanctuary. But he leaves no doubt about his opinion of the entire matter.

“I think it is a disgrace that they would interrupt a service of the Lord,” declared Mott. “That is holy.”

At least 150 Selma residents have found themselves on the receiving end of similar subpoenas in the past several days. More could be subpoenaed in the coming days. The subpoenas have frightened some and angered others.

They have left still others questioning long held beliefs about the right to cast a secret ballot that go back to civics lessons learned in grammar school.

Mott told of one elderly member of his congregation who received a subpoena.

“This is an 83-year-old woman,” Mott said, barely able to control the emotion in his voice. “She was in tears. She thought she was going to be led away in handcuffs. They are attacking people who are most vulnerable. That’s wrong.”

Shannon Laramore voiced similar concerns about the subpoena she received.

“This is America,” Laramore said, “and the right to vote is supposed to be sacrosanct. There’s a lot of fear connected with this whole affair. I’m a 78-year-old woman who doesn’t get out of the house that much anymore. Are they going to arrest me if I don’t go to the courthouse? It makes me afraid, but it makes me angry, as well.

“It feels like I’m being infringed upon, like I’m being intimidated into not voting again next time – and I don’t like it.”

Former Republican National Committeewoman Jean Sullivan said she isn’t the least bit intimidated by the wave of subpoenas. She’s outraged. Referring to reports that some subpoenas were stuffed in mailboxes or left on doorsteps, Sullivan fumed, “They’ve turned loose these idiots. They’re not even trained how to deliver a subpoena.”

Edna C. Story, mother of District 67 Republican candidate Mark Story, was subpoenaed to testify Tuesday. She said she voted for her son in the June 4 primary and then crossed over to vote for LaTosha Brown in the June 25 primary.

“They asked me where I voted and how I voted and if I crossed over, and I told them,” Mrs. Story said. “I did not like it. I thought that was personal.”

Asked why she revealed that information if she felt it was private, she answered, “I was on the stand. I was under oath. I felt like I had to.”

Brannon Walden, operations director of the Alabama Democratic Party in Montgomery, said he sympathized with those voters who have been subpoenaed and compelled to publicly reveal how they voted.

“I don’t blame them,” Walden said. “I would be mad, too, if somebody asked me how I voted. People need to know it’s LaTosha Brown and her attorneys who are issuing these subpoenas. It’s not the Democratic Party.”