Interracial Couple Banned From Kentucky Church

In a move to "promote greater unity" among its body and the Pike County community it serves, a small Kentucky church voted to ban interracial couples from membership and from participating in certain worship activities, Kentucky.com reports.

Though reminiscent of some Jim Crow-era mandate, the Gulnare Freewill Baptist Church actually made the decision earlier this month, following a visit from 24-year-old Stella Harville, daughter of the church's secretary and clerk, and her 29-year-old fiance, Ticha Chikuni, a native of Zimbabwe.

According to Harville's father, Dean Harville, Stella brought Chikuni to the church in June where they performed a song for the congregation.

Following the visit, former pastor Melvin Thompson told Harville that his daughter and her fiance could not sing at the church again. Thompson later proposed that the church go on record saying that while all people were welcome to attend public worship services there, the church did not condone interracial marriage.

His proposal, which was accepted by a 9-6 vote last week, also suggested that married interracial couples be prohibited from becoming members and used in worship activities, except for funerals.

"It's not the spirit of the community in any way, shape or form," said Randy Johnson, president of the Pike County Ministerial Association, according to Kentucky.com.

While Pike County and the surrounding community come to grips with the church's decision, researchers at Ohio State University and Cornell University say black-white marriages in the United States are soaring, increasing threefold, from 3 percent in 1980 to 10.7 percent in 2008.

Quick Poll

Are you surprised by the Gulnare Freewill Baptist Church's vote?

Yes. We've come a long way since Jim Crow days.

No. Racism is alive and well.

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CORRECTION: A previous version of this story implied that Melvin Thompson is the current pastor of Gulnare Freewill Baptist Church. The current pastor is Stacy Stepp.

Comments

[CBYOND]

04:00 PM on 02/27/2012

Turn the lights on!
Judge nothing before its time until the Lord come, who will bring to light the hiddened things of darkness

[Polloflife]

10:14 AM on 02/20/2012

We can learn so much about how to treat eachother just by reading the word of God, the Bible. Consider what it says at Acts 10:34, it talks about God not being partial, but every man who fears Him and works righteousness is acceptable to him. I look forward to the time spoken about at Revelation21:3,4.

[Dennis Hardison]

03:12 AM on 02/03/2012

I would say that it is their right to allow who they wish to worship with them, and it is my right to think them idiots.

[Cory Jack]

06:44 PM on 01/18/2012

"His proposal, which was accepted by a 9-6 vote last week, also suggested that married interracial couples be prohibited from becoming members and used in worship activities, except for funerals."

So according to this guy, then, the only good interracial couple is a dead interracial couple.

I'm not kidding, when I read that line I had to stop reading for a second, and I actually vomited.

ANYONE who goes to this church still is COMPLICIT and JUST as guilty as those who voted for the rule.

[cjunkbond]

11:31 PM on 01/04/2012

Wow didn't this church realize they could be denying membership to the parents of a future president of the USA. LOL, guess it just more of SSDD.

[ConcerendStudent]

12:48 PM on 12/08/2011

This saddens and frightens me for the future. It is easy to say that times have changed so much, however situations like this are a big reminder that things have not changed as much as they should or could. It is very difficult to understand why people are still so against marriage across races. The comeback that is usually presented is "God made different races." What some fail to understand is that race is simply a social construction created for the convenience and to the privilege of those who saw themselves and continue to see themselves as the "standard." As a very wise and wonderful woman once said, "God created one race, the human race, and humans created racism." (Jane Elliott) I still hope that one day things will be different and people will realize that we were all created different and to be different and it is those differences that make us wonderful and those differences should be embraced, not hated, despised, or discriminated against.

[Lisa Eve]

09:45 AM on 12/08/2011

How can the pastor and those members have a rationale for this if you consider what the entire foundation on which God, Christianity, love and fellowship is based upon?

[Deborah Brouhard]

09:21 PM on 12/07/2011

Wonder how many members are clamoring to say they are members and now, even if they rescind the ban, the damage is done. As people leave the church, watch as they try to 'convince" others (anybody) that they are good people who had a bad idea. Something like this in 2011 tells you that racism is in people's gut and you can't educate people away from it.

[Dennis Hardison]

03:15 AM on 02/03/2012

I see racism everyday. I am Caucasian and live in an African-American community, so it sickens me to see this sort of flagrant discrimination.

[mcnatejr]

07:05 PM on 12/07/2011

Who out there can tell us if this church qualifies for tax exempt status, even if restricts members based on race or association. If it gets tax exemptions, than does this mean our government is subsidizing racism. .....

[Payned]

05:10 PM on 12/07/2011

Oh, that's so awful... and if you knew what hardships and terrors come with being from Zimbabwe, you'd realize just how disheartening that had to be.

I am going to pray a little extra for a well-placed Kentucky tornado. As a member of an interracial comitted lesbian couple, they don't believe my prayers are worth anything anyhow.

[jerryengelbach]

01:39 PM on 12/07/2011

The church committee, not its membership, approved the ban by a vote of 9-6, which is not exactly a consensus. 40% of the vote was against the ban.

The pastor has nullified the ban, saying that the 40-member church would not approve it.

http://www.wlky.com/r/29919361/detail.html

Yes, there are racists in that church. But it's not quite as extreme an example of racism as some of us thought. It would be interesting to see if this outcome causes an internal conflict within the church.

[Fooly-Cooly]

04:21 PM on 12/12/2011

According to the post: "...But it's not quite as extreme an example of racism as some of us thought..."

According to the article: "His proposal, which was accepted by a 9-6 vote last week, also suggested that married interracial couples be prohibited from becoming members and used in worship activities, except for funerals."

According to common sense:

Yes, it IS an extreme example of racism. (They passed laws to discriminate against their own member - because she married a black man.)

[Bob Stubbs]

11:33 PM on 12/06/2011

Hard to understand that position from supposedly "Godly people".

[applejumper]

07:26 PM on 12/06/2011

Apparently, at the Gulnare FREEWILL Baptist Church, you don't get to have any of that "free will." I see we have not quite wrapped our minds around the fact that we should love our neighbors as our brothers.

[E Rose Moore]

02:31 PM on 12/06/2011

what kind of messed up...banned from even being MEMBERS of that Church? i feel like i can't be reading about my own country...this must be somewhere else...but nope. this is my country :'(
how sad. not even close to Biblically correct...and they did this to promote UNITY?!

[artistdavid]

09:42 PM on 12/04/2011

NO WONDER ... THIS IS KENFUCKY! HOME TO THE CHRISTIAN BIGOT CLUB. ALL CHRISTIANS ARE LYING, LOW LIFE BIGOTS. THEY ALL WILL BURN IN THEIR OWN HELL.SCREW THEM ALL. WHY WOULD ANYONE WITH A BRAIN GO TO A RACIST, BIGOTED SO CALLED CHURCH?

[Dennis Hardison]

03:18 AM on 02/03/2012

Wow, I actually feel the hate from that comment. They have the right to be stupid, man. And caps lock is not autopilot for cool.