Have you heard of the Church of the Exceptional? It’s a nondenominational, interracial ministry devoted to ministering to the physically and mentally handicapped in the area around Rutherford County, North Carolina. In 1974, then-Governor Jimmy Carter and Dr. Norman Vincent Peale were invited to present a Guideposts award to the congregation, where thousands had assembled in a municipal center in Georgia. Before the speeches were delivered, the liturgy called for the lighting of the main altar candle.