Post-Racial Update: Mississippi Church Refuses Black Couple’s Wedding Because Of Race
Remember when president Obama “evolved” recently, and publicly expressed his new support for same-sex marriage? Remember the ruckus his new position created with church folk? Yes, the same Christians who saw this as an attack on the sacred institution of marriage? The same Christians who will argue with anyone until the rapture, that marriage was ordained by God, to be strictly between a man and a woman? Well, according to one particular Baptist church in Mississippi.
Said sacred and holy institution should be upheld. That is of course, providing that you are a heterosexual couple not cursed with the unfortunate sin of being black. This particular church has been in existence since 1883, and has never allowed a single wedding ceremony of an African-American couple. And from the looks of it, they don’t intend to break tradition.
CRYSTAL SPRINGS, MS (WLBT) – It was to be their big day, but a Jackson couple says the church where they were planning to wed turned them away because of their race.
Now, the couple wants answers, and the church’s pastor is questioning the mindset of some of members of his congregation who caused the problem in the first place.
They had set the date and printed and mailed out all the invitations, but the day before wedding bells were to ring for Charles and Te’Andrea Wilson, they say they got some bad news from the pastor.
“The church congregation had decided no black could be married at that church, and that if he went on to marry her, then they would vote him out the church,” said Charles Wilson.
The Wilsons were trying to get married at the predominantly white First Baptist Church of Crystal Springs — a church they attend regularly, but are not members of.
“He had people in the sanctuary that were pitching a fit about us being a black couple,” said Te’Andrea Wilson. “I didn’t like it at all, because I wasn’t brought up to be racist. I was brought up to love and care for everybody.”
The church’s pastor, Dr. Stan Weatherford, says he was taken by surprise by what he calls a small minority against the black marriage at the church.
“This had never been done before here, so it was setting a new precedent, and there are those who reacted to that because of that,” said Weatherford. (source)
Check out the video:
Now a couple of things strike me as odd; no, not the fact that there are racist church-goers in the state of Mississippi; nope, never that. However, I’m having a hard time believing that the Pastor was “surprised” by the churches reaction like he said. Now I don’t expect Pastor Dr. Stan Weatherford to admit to having any knowledge of at least one racist congregation member, even though he’s aware that there’s plenty of surveillance tape in heaven. However, it’s even harder for me to believe that even if the Wilson’s attended the church semi-regularly, that in all their visits, they never caught a glimpse of the “whites only” communion sign, after having to sit in the back pews.
As far as irony, this comes on the heels the nation’s largest Protestant denomination, the Southern Baptist Conference electing its first African-American president. In June they elected Rev. Fred Luther Jr. to lead the flock, who upon receiving the keys to leadership said, “If we stop appointing African-Americans, Asians, Hispanics to leadership positions after this, we’ve failed.” Luther also added, “… I promise you I’m going to do all that I can to make sure this is not just a one-and-done deal.” Well, it looks like you have your work cut out for you reverend. Because from where I’m sitting, given the actions of the good folks at the First Baptist Church of Crystal Springs, it’s obvious that they didn’t get the memo that unlike the days of old, Jesus is post-racial now.
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