Quote:

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A small Pike County church has voted not to accept interracial couples as members or let them take part in some worship activities.

The issue came up at the Gulnare Freewill Baptist Church, said Dean Harville, a longtime member who serves as church secretary and clerk.

Attendance is usually around 40 people for a Sunday service at the church in the Johns Creek area, Harville said.

Harville said his daughter Stella Harville, who is pursuing a master's degree in optical engineering at a school in Indiana, brought her fiancé, Ticha Chikuni, to church in June and played the piano as he sang.



The couple performed I Surrender All, said Stella Harville, who is 24.

Chikuni, 29, who works at Georgetown College, is black. He is a native of Zimbabwe.

Dean Harville said Melvin Thompson, who had been pastor for many years, told him in August that his daughter and her fiancé couldn't sing at the church again.

Thompson stepped down as pastor in August, citing health issues, but he refused Harville's requests to drop the issue, Harville said.

In early November, Thompson proposed 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, according to a copy of the recommendation supplied by the Harvilles.

The proposal also said "parties of such marriages will not be received as members, nor will they be used in worship services" or other church functions, with the exception of funerals.

The recommendation "is not intended to judge the salvation of anyone, but is intended to promote greater unity among the church body and the community we serve," the copy supplied to the Herald-Leader read.

Members at a business meeting decided to put the matter before the whole church. Last Sunday, nine people voted for the proposal and six voted against it, Harville said.

There were more people in attendance, but some didn't want to take a stand, he said. More at http://www.kentucky.com/2011/11/30/1977453/small-pike-county-church-vo
tes.html]
There were over 40 people in attendance, according to reports, so that means over 20 people sat there and abstained.

It didn't last long, and was overturned, thankfully:

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A Kentucky church’s decision to ban interracial couples from becoming members or participating in certain worship activities has been voided by a local church conference. The Sandy Valley Conference of Baptist churches declared Gulnare Free Will Baptist Church’s proclamation null and void because it conflicted with the laws of the nation and state and the organization’s by-laws, one member told WMYT.

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But how long ago was that?

Then there's

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12/15/11 ... Debra Dodd, the former secretary at the Cumberland Presbyterian Church in Fayetteville, Tenn., was fired for what she says is racial discrimination.

Dodd said the all-white church first embraced her during her two years as secretary -- and then suddenly shunned and subsequently fired her on May 26 after they learned she had married a black man in April.

Dodd said the church initially "treated me like family," but that changed after three church leaders saw Dodd and her then-fiance, Michael Hampton, eating together at a Fayetteville restaurant.

"Then suddenly it went downhill. All of the sudden my clothes were not appropriate, I was not doing my job right. People stopped looking at me. They would turn their faces away from me. When my husband and a friend of his visited one week when I sang, there were comments about the 'colored boys in the back.'" More at http://www.al.com/living/index.ssf/2011/12/lawsuit_claims_racial_discr
imi.html]
IRemember that in November 2000, Alabama became the last state to overturn a law banning interracial marriage. Lest you think this is old news,

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03/12/2012 ... polling firm Public Policy Polling (PPP) revealed that 29 percent of likely GOP voters surveyed in Mississippi believe that interracial marriage should be illegal. Fifty-four percent said intermarriage should remain legal, and the rest responded that they weren't sure. The survey also found that 21 percent of likely GOP voters polled in Alabama believe that interracial marriage should be illegal.

Q24. Do you think that interracial marriage should be
legal or illegal?

Mississippi:

Legal............................................................... 54%
Illegal .............................................................. 29%
Not sure .......................................................... 17%

Alabama:

Legal............................................................... 67%
Illegal .............................................................. 21%
Not sure .......................................................... 12%
http://www.publicpolicypolling.com/pdf/2011/PPP_Release_SouthernSwing_
312.pdf

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That's one year ago, folks. And I'm pretty sure the people who were/are against interracial marriage are the same people who are now against same-sex marriage, and for pretty much the same ACTUAL reasons: Fear of the unknown and fear of change. Obviously in many cases you can toss in a soupcon of ignorance, and of course ignorance breeds fear breeds hate and away you go: ANY "reason" against it will do.

We're a fairly predictable species...