So this is how far we've come in the year 2011...
A small Kentucky town has chosen to ban interracial couples from joining church services and even the congregation as a whole. The Gulnare Free Will Baptist Church, located in Pike County, Ky., made the vote in response to a long-time member whose daughter is engaged to a man from another country -- Zimbabwe -- attended service together and sang a song before the congregation.
By the end of the week, under public pressure from the media and outrage across the nation, the church made a decision to overturn the ban from within the organization in an effort to prove to the world that they are not "racists."
This is disgraceful. It's absolutely disgraceful that in this day and age, in this time, we are still banning interracial couples from participating in daily activities, and looking down upon acts like interracial marriage. Disgraceful that it takes national headlines and the public shame of being labeled "racists" across the country to overturn the decision. If the media hadn't caught wind and rolled with the story, no doubt the ban would still be in effect.
Is white really such a better color to be around than other colors? I went looking for cars the other day, and honestly I wouldn't buy a white car if my life depended on it. White cars are too bland-looking. I wanted it jet-black. I wanted it sleek and shiny. I'm drawn toward the darker hues, I like all the different colors.
That's really what makes human beings and our lives so unique and beautiful, it's all the different colors. Love has no boundaries. Nobody should tell another person that they aren't permitted to date outside their race, outside their religion, outside of whatever box we choose to categorize people in.
Love is up to each individual making that choice to love. When you really fall in love with somebody, you don't see their color. All you see is their heart, and all you see is their soul. I think most of us who have truly loved at one point in our lives understand.
But yet this Kentucky church has still made a public statement forbidding any interracial couples from joining the group. The church finally folded after massive public pressure, but it's the feelings and the motivation behind the actions that count. The tricky thing about feelings is that they brood within, and are not always visible to the naked eye until someone decides to take action. Feelings often stay hidden below the surface. Feelings don't just change overnight, and it takes more than just public outcry to change the way people feel.
What gave this church the right to play God? What gave them the right to determine how society should marry, and how people are and aren't allowed to be together? In this time in our country's history, when there are so many important issues we could be working to make progress on, so many other things that we could be doing to make the world a better place, we still sit around and worry about interracial marriage ruining the world?
Love should have no boundaries, just like friendship should have no boundaries. No children should be brought up and taught to categorize others by the color of their skin. Children should be taught to see the soul, the heart and the beauty -- who we all are as a people.
Small Kentucky church, what you have spoken out against is truly disgraceful. And now you're in the news, and people are talking about you, and I hope you see the right way. But until you can show that you have truly changed, keep whatever you're teaching to your congregation locked behind those church doors, because I don't want to be involved in a world like that. I want to live in a world that is learning to embrace everybody, a world that sees no color and sees no boundaries when it comes to the love between two people.