A small church in Pike County, Kentucky has voted to ban interracial couples from most church activities “to promote greater unity among the church body.”
Melvin Thompson, former pastor of Gulnare Freewill Baptist church, proposed the ban after Stella Harville brought her fiance, Ticha Chikuni, to services in June. Harville, who goes by the name Suzie, played the piano while Chikuni sang.
Before stepping down as pastor in August, Thompson told Harville that her fiance could not sing at the church again. Harville is white and Chikuni, a native of Zimbabwe, is black.
Last Sunday, church members voted 9-6 in favor of Thompson’s proposed ban. Others attending the church business meeting declined to take a stand on the issue.
Seriously, Pike County is one of those mountain counties here in Kentucky (it's on the Virginia border) that I won't voluntarily enter because I would significantly change the demographics if I did, and people would notice. And they would do something about it. In North Carolina I didn't ever say to myself "Hey, I don't want to visit this county. It wouldn't be safe for me." Kentucky? Yeah. And I'm a big six-foot black guy.
This kind of idiocy still happens, folks. Post-racial America? Isn't. Not in this state, anyway. Not in a state that has never elected an African-American to a major state office or to Congress. Not in a state that gave McCain a 16-point victory in 2008.
You think they're going to stop at throwing these two out of the church there (which by the way, what a totally Christian thing to do, right?) Not me.
Harville and Chikuni plan to marry in July, but they won’t be tying the knot in Pike County.
Not surprised at all. And yes, if you're still surprised by this awesome display of man's inhumanity to man, then no offense, but you're probably A) white or B) not in Kentucky.
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