I usually sleep through them, sorry.
"Church moves to reverse racial ban; Black-white pairs are barred from Ky. congregation" December 03, 2011|By Dylan Lovan, Associated Press
LOUISVILLE, Ky. - When Stella Harville brought her black boyfriend to her family’s all-white church in rural Kentucky, she thought nothing of it. She and Ticha Chikuni worshiped there whenever they were in town, and he even sang before the congregation during one service.
Then in August, a member of Gulnare Free Will Baptist Church told Harville’s father that Chikuni could not sing there anymore. And last Sunday, in a moment that seems from another time, church members voted 9-6 to bar mixed-race couples from joining the congregation.
That's because it is, but my agenda-pushing paper focuses on it nonetheless.
The policy has drawn a firestorm of criticism in just a few days and sent church leaders scrambling to overturn it, which could happen as soon as tomorrow. The executive secretary of the church’s national organization said he has been inundated with angry phone calls and had an inch-high stack of e-mails printed out on his desk.
“We are not a group of racist people,’’ said Keith Burden of the National Association of Free Will Baptists. “We have been labeled that obviously because of the actions of nine people.’’
I must admit that is certainly the impression my newspaper gives me of you people down there.
The resolution approved by the Gulnare church says it does not condone interracial marriage and “parties of such marriages will not be received as members, nor will they be used in worship services and other church functions, with the exception being funerals.’’
Voting on the resolution was not announced in church and ballots were cast after the service, attended by about 35 to 40 people. It was not clear why so few people voted.
The church member and former pastor who pushed for the vote, Melvin Thompson, would not say why he did it.
“I am not racist. I will tell you that. I am not prejudiced against any race of people, have never in my lifetime spoke evil’’ about a race, Thompson said earlier this week in a brief interview. “That’s what this is being portrayed as, but it is not.’’
I was just wondering what you would call it.
Thompson stepped down as pastor earlier this year for health reasons, according to Harville’s father, Dean Harville. He said it was Thompson who told him that Chikuni could not sing at the church, a small, one-story red brick building with few windows and a white steeple.
After giving interviews earlier this week, the pastor, Stacy Stepp, and several other church members did not return calls yesterday. One of the members said they were shocked. Stepp said he voted against the measure and would work to overturn it.
The national group distanced itself from the resolution in a statement Thursday, saying it “neither condemns nor disallows’’ interracial marriage.
It said the church was working to reverse its policy and added, “We encourage the church to follow through with this action.’’
Harville, who is engaged to Chikuni, said that she felt betrayed by the church.
I'm Catholic, but I know exactly how you feel.
“Whether they keep the vote or overturn it, it’s going to be hard for me go back there,’’ she said.
Gulnare is a small town in Eastern Kentucky. The county celebrates its Appalachian heritage in the spring with the Hillbilly Days Festival in Pikeville, the county seat, and the Apple Blossom Festival in Elkhorn City, according to a tourism website.
Harville is working on her master’s degree in optical engineering at an Indiana college. She met Chikuni, who is from Zimbabwe, at Georgetown College in central Kentucky.
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"Church reverses vote on mixed-race couples" December 05, 2011
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 yesterday, saying it welcomes all believers....
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