Gulnare Free Will Baptist Church: Kentucky Congregation Overturns Ban On Interracial Couples

PIKEVILLE, Ky. -- An eastern Kentucky church under a firestorm of criticism since members voted to bar mixed-race couples from joining the congregation overturned that decision Sunday, saying it welcomes all believers.

Stacy Stepp, pastor of the Gulnare Free Will Baptist Church in Pike County, told The Associated Press that the vote by nine people last week was declared null and void after it was determined that new bylaws can't run contrary to local, state or national laws. He said the proposal was discriminatory, therefore it couldn't be adopted.

Stepp said about 30 people who attended church services voted on a new resolution that welcomes "believers into our fellowship regardless of race, creed or color."

The issue came up at the tiny all-white Appalachian church after the daughter of church secretary Dean Harville visited over the summer with her boyfriend, who is from Africa, and the two sang for the congregation.

Harville said he was approached in August by Melvin Thompson, the church member who crafted the resolution to bar mixed-race couples, and was told that his daughter and her boyfriend were no longer allowed to sing at the church.

Thompson has said he is not racist and called the matter an "internal affair."

Stepp said the Sandy Valley Conference of Free Will Baptists declared the vote on Thompson's resolution null and void during a meeting on Saturday.

He said he told church members on Sunday about the decision and proposed a resolution to promote "peace, love and harmony."

He said the resolution to welcome all believers passed with a unanimous vote.

Comments

[brooktarheel]

02:52 PM on 12/11/2011

@KnotMaFawlt: The Scriptures speak for themselves. That you choose to reject them because they condemn your behavior is on you. Your issue is with God, not me or any other Christian. You can revile and ridicule Christians all you want, but that still does not change the Word of God. In Leviticus 18:22, God says homosexuality is abomination. In chapter 20, verse 13, He says: "If a man also lie with mankind, as he lieth with a woman, both of them have committed an abomination: they shall surely be put to death; their blood shall be upon them." It doesn't get any plainer than that. My comment was in response to your erroneous contention that "Nothing in the Bible curses homosexuals to hell but 'Christians' discriminate against them everyday." You didn't bring up any of the other multitudes of sins which are addressed in the Bible. Therefore, I limited my comment to a few of the Scriptures that condemn homosexuality. Yes, God loves all of His children, but He hates the sin in us and will have nothing to do with us as long as he looks upon us and sees our sinful nature. If you insist upon continuing to live a life of sin, then you are also insisting on continuing your separation from God. Don't blame that on Christians. That is YOUR choice.

[Ernie Evil]

11:39 AM on 12/10/2011

For those that who say religion doesn't promote intolerance, look at yourself in the mirror and think of 5 things that you don't want your child to become. You'll get your answer.

[bryanzth]

08:56 AM on 12/10/2011

Good. Now let's see who was it that approved that ban on mixed race marriages, and ask them how much they love Jebus. I'm serious. Let them describe their love for Jesus and then have a seminar with readings from the Beatitudes, Parables, Letter of James and the Lord's Prayer up to but not including the doxology.

They need their noses dipped in the words of Jesus rather than the words of their minister or their warped culture. And they need to learn.

BZ.

[smartwater]

03:01 AM on 12/09/2011

I encourage all to learn about The Orthodox Church. Christians need to study the history of the Church and see that the Orthodox Church is the Church founded at the day of Pentecost. There are 300 Million+ Orthodox Christians still practicing the original Christian faith that Christ left to the Apostles, who then in turn ordained Priests and Bishops, which has kept the Apostolic faith intact, living to this very day. To all Christians out there, please study your faith and realize that this same Church founded almost 2000 years ago lives. This is Christ living Church, pre all the denominations...

[bryanzth]

09:21 AM on 12/10/2011

Well, I have Greek neighbors and we have been talking about our perceptions about the Catholic Church from 392 to 1054 and then afterwards as the Latin Churches kinda have gone crazy according to them.

Now, I tend to agree (Inquisition, Puritans, Counter Reformation, Crazy Sects, and Mega Churches), but I did still think there was a way to rescue the Western Church, through Vatican II, through Liberation Theology, and through a return to the Christian Works of Mercy rather than a constant fight over iotas (you get it?) of faith. But the Western Church has re-negged on Vatican II and the Social Gospel. I don't even know how Greeks or Russians might think of that aspect of the Western Church, or what you have read.

Gustavo Gutierrez has written about Liberation Theology
Paolo Freire writes about Pedagogy of the Oppressed
Leonardo Boff
and Jon Sobrino's no Salvation without the Poor
and Bishop John Shelby Spong's Why the Church Must Change or Die

But my take on all of this is not to argue faith, but rather what Jesus said we must do to create the Kingdom of Heaven on Earth. 

BZ.

[smartwater]

03:24 AM on 12/25/2011

My hope is that the Catholic Church comes back to Orthodoxy; however I doubt it can happen now. I mention The Orthodox Church, as many here in America are unfamiliar with Orthodoxy and I think it is important for them to know that the Church Christ left to his Apostles and to us, is a living Church. Matthew 16:18.

[F7]

12:57 AM on 12/09/2011

What?

There are laws preventing us from discriminating?

Da*n liberals, always ruinin' our fun!

[Darrell Knight]

02:52 PM on 12/08/2011

Interracial marriage is banned by God.
http://www.saveyourheritage.com/what_god_says_about_interracial_marriage.htm

[JoandeV]

04:45 PM on 12/08/2011

There is nothing of substance in that link.

[bryanzth]

09:24 AM on 12/10/2011

Silly Rabbit, racism is for spoiled kids.

BZ.

[Wolo Barkley]

11:54 AM on 12/08/2011

why is their denomination silent?!

[iknowscottyknows]

06:38 PM on 12/07/2011

Stories like this pop up now and again, always with a small group of under a dozen people.

But it gives the people who hate religion and the religious a chance to get their hate out again. So that's nice. And predictable.

[Dieter Zerressen]

12:22 AM on 12/10/2011

I don't need these kind of stories to hate religion; plenty of other opportunities abound.

[bryanzth]

09:26 AM on 12/10/2011

We can hate a movie, which is a fiction, or a book, same thing, why not a religion?

There are ways that groups of people banding together for good rather than evil would be okie dokie. But typically, a group centered on an authoritarian cadre are usually evil.

BZ.

[phal4875]

03:33 PM on 12/07/2011

First, these people ban interracial couples. Now, they welcome them. Was the ban based on some wacky translation of scripture? If so, what changed?

[Mi4Peace]

06:14 PM on 12/08/2011

Did they want 15 minutes of fame so they can get more to join their cult? Are they trying for a reality television show?

[MsKia]

11:50 AM on 12/06/2011

And the greatest commandment is to love. Yet it seems that is the toughest commandment to uphold.

[bryanzth]

09:27 AM on 12/10/2011

No kidding, you hit the nail on the head!

BZ.

[Tony Rochon]

07:05 AM on 12/06/2011

The members of the church overturned the ban? That's mighty white of them!

[Vincent Van Der Hyde]

01:16 AM on 12/06/2011

Why, of course he's not racist.
He just doesn't like persons of color.

[HextallDrums]

12:00 AM on 12/06/2011

Glad to see these people got some smarts!

[ChaCubed]

01:55 AM on 12/06/2011

The smarts they got are probably learning not to be so open about their prejudices and devising methods to drive out interracial couples by less-blatant methods.

But I could be wrong.

[phal4875]

03:34 PM on 12/07/2011

Can I borrow your microscope?

[speeddeeps]

11:54 PM on 12/05/2011

Interracial couples, come to the North, we are tolerant

[Vincent Van Der Hyde]

01:18 AM on 12/06/2011

Let's see now.
Oregon, for example, repealed its law against 'mixed marriages' in what year again?
(in reality, almost all marriages are mixed......one male and one female.....ain't that bad enough.)

[SpaceGirl2028]

11:28 AM on 12/06/2011

I'm not sure what you're trying to get at, here: Oregon repealed the anti-miscegenation law in 1951, the 22nd state to do so, some 16 years before Loving v. Virginia overturned remaining laws nationally.

[smcircle]

10:43 PM on 12/05/2011

I wonder if the church folk who voted against people joining their Church consulted with their God about how to vote...

[phal4875]

03:35 PM on 12/07/2011

They did. Shockingly, she turned out to be a black-Asian female.

[bryanzth]

09:29 AM on 12/10/2011

And she drinks, swears and dances... :)

BZ.