Black wedding banned by [a] Baptist church [in Mississippi]

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They had set the date and printed and mailed out all the invitations, but the day before wedding bells were to ring for Charles and Te’Andrea Wilson, they say they got some bad news from the pastor.
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“The church congregation had decided no black could be married at that church, and that if he went on to marry her, then they would vote him out the church,” said Charles Wilson.
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The Wilsons were trying to get married at the predominantly white First Baptist Church of Crystal Springs – a church they attend regularly, but are not members of.
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myfoxal.com/story/19125864/black-wedding-banned-by-baptist-church
Charles Wilson has received mixed reaction since the WLBT story about his wedding controversy aired.
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“I’ve had some to tell me that it’s not a big deal, that we shouldn’t have pushed it, that we’ll open up a can of worms, that we should just really let it die down. But the other side of it is, those wonderful folks that have came to me and said I’m so happy that someone spoke up about it, come to our church.”
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“Those who did it was wrong and those who knew they were wrong should have said something. We have yet to hear from anybody, besides Reverend Stan, from the church to say they’re sorry,” says Wilson.
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wlbt.com/story/19134946/city-of-crystal-springs-reacts-to-black-couples-wedding-banned-from-baptist-church
 
Reading this makes me sad. Do these people know the harm they are doing to christs church everywhere?😦
 
Here’s another article in the Jackson Clarion Ledger

In that article, we learn:

Insiders say five or six members went to the Rev. Stan Weatherford after seeing the couple’s wedding rehearsal the Thursday night before their Saturday wedding.

The church pastor said he was surprised by the reaction of some church members.

“I didn’t want to have a controversy within the church, and I didn’t want a controversy to affect the wedding of Charles and Te’Andrea. I wanted to make sure their wedding day was a special day,” Weatherford told WLBT-Channel 3.

So it sounds like a really small number of people within that congregation stirred up the controversy.

The Associated Baptist Press (their version of CNA) says:
Pastor Stan Weatherford said he was caught by surprise by what he called a small minority opposed to a black wedding. He said he was prepared to go ahead and do the ceremony at First Baptist like he had agreed to do but instead moved it to a different church because he didn’t want the couple’s wedding day to be marred by controversy.

The Wilsons are not members of the church but reportedly attend regularly. The Southern Baptist Convention-affiliated church founded in 1883 is predominantly white, but says it is open to all races. Church leaders are reportedly holding internal meetings to discuss how to move forward should the issue come up again.

What I find ironic is that the Southern Baptist Convention recently just elected their first Black President, Frank Luter, Jr.
 
_Abyssinia said:
Reverend Stan needs to read his Bible
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Well, I’m inclined to give him the benefit of the doubt. If I were getting married, I certainly wouldn’t want it disrupted by anyone demonstrating outside or causing a disturbance inside the church. I’m not saying that those objecting would have done either of those things! Just that I’d avoid the remotest possibility.
 
Grrr, this angers me.

This pastor is called to stand up for God’s Word regardless of ‘controversy’. Instead, he’s let a few mislead folks of his congregation cause division with wrong ideas.

If it blows this whole church wide open, he is to uphold God’s true and right Word, and let the dissenters go. I am ashamed, of Baptists that still believe this way, and of southerners that do as well. Ugh.
 
Hesychios said:
I am surprised by this in 2012
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This is sad. We live in a world where being surprised is an every day norm. Within the Christian faith, division has produced division upon division. The Pastor had a teaching opportunity and missed it. Hopefully, in the end, the correct teaching will still occur. I would simply ask the minority, where in the bible does it say persons of different races can not marry each other? Also wonder if this church has premarital counseling? And, were the minority invited to the wedding? Maybe they felt excluded and were mad?
 
TC2 said:
Grrr, this angers me.

This pastor is called to stand up for God’s Word regardless of ‘controversy’. Instead, he’s let a few mislead folks of his congregation cause division with wrong ideas.

If it blows this whole church wide open, he is to uphold God’s true and right Word, and let the dissenters go. I am ashamed, of Baptists that still believe this way, and of southerners that do as well. Ugh.
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I’m not defending him, but having once been a pastor myself in Baptist churches AND seeing first hand how other pastors are treated, there are factors he is probably weighing.
Is he married? If he is, does his wife work? Is his income as a pastor the only income the family has? Does he live in a fishbowl…er, parsonage? Is it a big city he’s in or a small town?
Can he afford to lose his job (as a pastor), lose his home, take a job at a local Walmart making half of what he makes now? If the wife is forced to work to provide income, do they have daycare for small children? What about school? Will they be able to keep their kids in a Chrisitan school (if they are in such a school), or be forced to send the kids to public school where they will be exposed to drugs and God knows what else.
Again, not saying its right, it isn’t. But I’ve seen this a thousand times. Never experienced it myself thank God. But I have seen it.
For many pastors in small rural churches, the line between a decent existance as a pastor and living in poverty, many times rests in appeasing a few bigoted idiots clutching a Bible in your church.
Then the question has to be…is that job WORTH saving?
 
JustaServant said:
I’m not defending him, but having once been a pastor myself in Baptist churches AND seeing first hand how other pastors are treated, there are factors he is probably weighing.
Is he married? If he is, does his wife work? Is his income as a pastor the only income the family has? Does he live in a fishbowl…er, parsonage? Is it a big city he’s in or a small town?
Can he afford to lose his job (as a pastor), lose his home, take a job at a local Walmart making half of what he makes now? If the wife is forced to work to provide income, do they have daycare for small children? What about school? Will they be able to keep their kids in a Chrisitan school (if they are in such a school), or be forced to send the kids to public school where they will be exposed to drugs and God knows what else.
Again, not saying its right, it isn’t. But I’ve seen this a thousand times. Never experienced it myself thank God. But I have seen it.
For many pastors in small rural churches, the line between a decent existance as a pastor and living in poverty, many times rests in appeasing a few bigoted idiots clutching a Bible in your church.
Then the question has to be…is that job WORTH saving?
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All your points are good and all are some of the reasons why priests should not be married.
Ideally, the minister should walk but he was broadsided at the last minute and was trying to help the couple too.The opposition announced its objections at the rehersal which is usually a day or two before the ceremony.
It is apparent that the congregation is in control and not the minister. How is one to preach love and tolerance when the people you are bringing the Word to can fire you?
What is the criteria of becoming a Baptist? You just come to the church and say so? Shouldn’t a newcomer be given a list of things required to be a Baptist asking, among, other things, that you are commanded to welcome all into the Church and bigotry will not be tolerated?
 
Sadly the Southern Baptist Convention could not even acknowledge that American Slavery was wrong until 1984!
 
I saw this yesterday along with an interview of the couple. It makes me sick to think that people who call themselves Christian can act this way. They should be ashamed of themselves. If I was still Baptist I’d leave this church in a heartbeat.
 
aicirt;9579918It is apparent that the congregation is in control and not the minister. said:
as Catholics we can forget that in others churchs the congregation is in charge.it goes back to sola scriptura.a Deacon at my parish told about a pastor at a baptist church who had put up number ,i believe 70,two foot tall cross’s on a saturday morning to represent the number of babies killed a local abortion mill every week in front of the church.that night he received phone call from the church council telling him to take them down,or he would not have a job sunday morning.he took them down.before we cast stones,i wonder how many Catholic members of this forum would be sending emails monday morning to their Bishop if they had listened to a sermon sunday morning on contraception.
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coachkfan1 said:
Sadly the Southern Baptist Convention could not even acknowledge that American Slavery was wrong until 1984!
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Didn’t the SBC break away from the Baptist over slavery. The SBC supported it.

And this causes me to wonder why blacks are drawn to religions that didn’t want them in the first place including the above, Islam, and Mormon. Those which helped them when they were slaves were the Quakers and Methodists.

Of course, Catholics segregated their churches in the South too. And I was shocked to learn that we were not very encouraging when it came to males desiring to become priests.
 
khuldar said:
Reading this makes me sad. Do these people know the harm they are doing to christs church everywhere?😦
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well baptist churches aren’t “Christ’s” Church, they are man made (and this is just another case proving the Catholic Claim)
 
aicirt said:
And this causes me to wonder why blacks are drawn to religions that didn’t want them in the first place including the above, Islam, and Mormon. Those which helped them when they were slaves were the Quakers and Methodists.
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I grew up in a Baptist Church in Brooklyn. I have no idea which convention it was a part of because that issue wasn’t relevant to my life. I moved on to a non-denominational church when I was about 21.

However, my congregation was 100% black, so all I saw were black people every time I went to Church. I didn’t know anything about Baptists not wanting black people.

Bu the way, black people experience racism in all sorts of environments. It’s something you learn to deal with.

As a black Catholic in a traditional Latin mass community, I am in a minority because most NYC Christians are Protestant. This means sometimes I hear things said by well-meaning people that just make me raise my eyebrows.

As long as it is not as overt as what happened in that church, you smile to yourself, shake your head and move on. Not every comment is worth a verbal argument.

As a side question, Islam does not want black people?
 
This just goes to say their is scandal everywhere, and that scandal isn’t a mark of whether one Church is the right Church, but we do know the real Church will prevail against the gates of Hell.

Roman Catholic Church for 2000+
 
Not surprised by this. I’ve heard Mississippi still has segregated high school proms all in the name of “tradition”. Glad I don’t live there
 
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