Racist Southern Baptist Church Members Stop Wedding

PHOTO: Charles and Te'Andrea Wilson, a Jackson couple says the church where they planned to get married turned them away because they are black.
Photo Courtesy of WLBT/AP Photo
Are some Southern Baptists in Mississippi living back in the 1800's?  Apparently so.

Charles and Te'Andrea Wilson are now happily married no thanks to some of the congregants of the First Baptist Church in Crystal Springs, Mississippi.

The couple, attendees of the First Baptist Church for over a year, were told just two days before they were to be married that members of the church had persuaded Pastor Stan Weatherford to not marry them in the church that they attended.

Although not official members they were planning to join after the wedding in part because Te'Andrea Wilson's uncle is an employee of the church, and her father is a member.

What possible reason would a church turn away these soon to be members just days before they were to celebrate one of the happiest days of their lives? Was it because they were not compatible. No. Was it because they could not afford to rent the space? Absolutely not. I'll tell you why they were turned down, it was because they were African American. What? Yes, They were denied being married because of the color of their skin.

No, that can't be right. Yes it is...This couple had to relocate there wedding to a Methodist Church down the road because since the Church was founded in 1883 there has never been a black wedding.

Pastor Stan Weatherford feared that if conducted the wedding he would lose his job because many of the members did not want the Wilson's wedding to be first African American wedding held at the church.

Dear Pastor: Seriously? How can you lead if you don't have a voice? How can you walk if you don't have a spine? How can you see what's right if you are to busy listening to the voices of prejudice that you are apparently surrounded by. Take a stand. Pastors, leaders, parents and teachers are faced with many challenges that shape there lives. Apparently you have taken on the shape of a slimy amoeba. Yes amoeba's have no shape but I digress.

Here are a few recent statements from Charles Wilson.

"My 9-year-old was going to the church with us. How would you say to your 9-year-old daughter, 'We cannot get married here because guess what sweetie, we're black'?" said Charles Wilson in an interview with ABC's Jackson affiliate, WAPT-TV. When talking to USA Today Charles Wilson stated, "I feel like it was blatant racial discrimination."
 

When I woke up this morning I looked at my calendar and could have sworn it said 2012 and not 1812. What was wrong in the 1800's is still wrong today.  

Dear readers: I wanted to write about this last weekend when I learned what happened but figured that it was always best not to write an article in anger...Well, I waited all this time and guess what, I am still very, very angry. In fact, I am probably even angrier.

I am curious..what do you think? Please leave your comments below. 

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Comments

  1. Dear Barry:

    You ask, "How can [the pastor] see what's right if you are [too] busy listening to the voices of prejudice that you are apparently surrounded by[?]"

    Apparently, you haven't read the history of the "Southern" Baptist Church. It was founded in the early 1800s in support of slavery. The leading members of prominent Baptist churches were slave owners, and any pastor who didn't tow the 'official' line had to leave town.

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    Replies
    1. Thank you for pointing that out. Fortunately times have changed. In fact a sign of that change is when the Southern Baptist Convention elected it's first African American President, Fred Luter, who rebuilt his church after Hurricane Katrina to the largest worshipping congregation of Southern Baptists in Louisiana.

      It's a shame that some of the church's members in neighboring Mississippi still have pre civil war ideals.

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