Now, let’s begin with the first two people on earth, and that was Adam and Eve. And when they had sinned; God told them, “All these things you may have, but there’s one thing that you mustn’t touch.” And that was the—the forbidden tree. And of course, everybody has their ideas of what it was, and I have mine. But anyhow they sinned. And when they sinned, it brought death. And then God came down to talk to Adam in the cool of the evening. And they found out that Adam and Eve was back in the bushes somewhere hid. Now, they thought now, before they had met God, that they’d be able to stand in His Presence because they’d made themselves a fig leaf apron and put around them. See, man in the very beginning now, is trying to make hisself a covering. And the word “covering” means…“Religion” means “covering.” And man was trying to make hisself a way of escape from the wrath and the Presence of God by his own hand. That’s his nature.

Why I Am a Holy-Roller, 1953-08-30, Chicago, IL, §26