Bigger has several negative encounters with religion. In one instance, Bigger hears his mother singing a hymn when he sneaks into his flat to get his pistol to prepare for robbing Blum's delicatessen. His mother is singing the words: "Lord, I want to be a Christian, /In my heart, in my heart." Her hymns and prayers are wholly ineffective and do nothing to forestall his violence. Even toward the end of the novel, with her son facing a possible death sentence, Bigger's mother pleads with him to pray to God for repentance. Reverend Hammond also preaches to Bigger, yet he does not understand the words of Reverend Hammond and does not pray for repentance. Instead, Bigger does the opposite and rejects Christianity. When he later sees the fiery cross that the Ku Klux Klan displays, he tears the cross which Reverend Hammond had given him from his neck and throws it to the ground. In yet another instance, Bigger overhears the church choir singing and ponders whether he should become Christian. However, his contemplation of changing his heart into a humble heart causes him to reject the idea because it meant, "losing his hope of living in the world. And he would never do that."