Comments on: Kentucky church bans interracial couples:

By: jere7my

jere7my — Sat, 03 Dec 2011 00:47:00 +0000

The National Association of Free Will Baptists has about 250,000 members. (That’s not counting non-member attendees, nor all the congregations that aren’t part of NAFWB.) The resolution was passed by a minority vote of one forty-person church, and was opposed by their pastor. I’m pretty sure you’ll find a similar ratio of bad apples to good in any barrel you care to start poking around in.

Per Wikipedia, the “autonomous power of the local church [is] highly valued” by Free Will Baptists, which to me suggests a strongly non-hierarchical power structure. Even so, the Free Will Baptist Executive Office has issued a statement condemning the resolution, and is working to get them to reverse it. I’m not sure what else they could do, or why any of this should turn AmonRiley against his or her church.

By: Nathan Hornby

Nathan Hornby — Fri, 02 Dec 2011 21:49:00 +0000

Legal marriage has nothing to do with the church; are you suggesting that two people are unable to marry if churches won’t let them?

By: Nathan Hornby

Nathan Hornby — Fri, 02 Dec 2011 21:48:00 +0000

Seems like you do get the joke.

Maybe you just don’t have a sense of humour?

By: Antinous / Moderator

Antinous / Moderator — Fri, 02 Dec 2011 20:37:00 +0000

The North and Midwest have rural hillbillies, too.

Rural California is full of hillbillies, too. Also a KKK stronghold.

By: agthorn

agthorn — Fri, 02 Dec 2011 17:50:00 +0000

The “free will” only refers to the decision to become a Christian (which distinguishes them from the Calvinist teachings of predestination). Everything else, you better do what you’re told!

By: Marc45

Marc45 — Fri, 02 Dec 2011 17:40:00 +0000

Why does any organization need to have an official policy regarding interracial couples? It’s like saying they need an official policy on wife beating or child pornography or any number of things that are clearly illegal.

By: Thad Boyd

Thad Boyd — Fri, 02 Dec 2011 17:25:00 +0000

Would be nice to see this get national coverage.

In particular, it would be nice to see the anti-interracial marriage crowd get a national platform to spout its talking points on why it’s opposed to interracial marriage.

Because at least a few people would be bound to notice they’d heard those exact same talking points in another debate recently.

By: firstbakingbook

firstbakingbook — Fri, 02 Dec 2011 17:05:00 +0000

Having grown up in a Baptist community, the only thing newsworthy to me here is that they issued a ban. Most Baptists aren’t stupid enough to draw attention to their racism this way. Instead they keep interracial couples away via hostility: keying their car, for example, if they don’t get the hint after the first few visits. I was blissfully unaware this was going on until I picked the wrong girlfriend, leading to endless lectures on God’s will, the mark of Cain, and other fairy tales.

By: Navin_Johnson

Navin_Johnson — Fri, 02 Dec 2011 16:59:00 +0000

Of course they do, yet these little “oopsies” events seem to happen more in The South than any where else. Also, thanks for proving the “Leave ~~Britney~~ The South alone” moment I was talking about earlier. Did I mention that I used to live about 3 hrs away from here in Tennessee?

Lets see:
Southern dialect. check.
Former slave state. check.
Red state. check
Fire and brimstone Baptist state. check.
Scots-Irish. check
Jim Crow. check
Country/Bluegrass. check
79% of Kentuckians consider themselves “Southern”. check

By: retepslluerb

retepslluerb — Fri, 02 Dec 2011 16:10:00 +0000

I don’t get the joke. (Apart from the fact, that he wasn’t anything-American.)

By: acidrain69

acidrain69 — Fri, 02 Dec 2011 16:03:00 +0000

Was that the goal? To force churches to acknowledge other viewpoints? I was under the impression that it was to provide justice. To give the same legal benefits to gay couples that straights enjoy. Church never had anything to do with it.

If churches want to go against accepted standard of fairness and justice, and undermine religion in the process, that is their own fault.

By: C

Fri, 02 Dec 2011 15:25:00 +0000

Southern Culturally? As a CURRENT Southerner I have to say no. Not entirely at least. Some parts of the state are and some are not. This happened in Pike County, which is at the eastern edge of the state near WV, and is about as “Southern” culturally as Ohio.

http://popvssoda.com/countystats/total-county.html

The North and Midwest have rural hillbillies, too.

By: C

Fri, 02 Dec 2011 15:10:00 +0000

Errr… I hate to burst your prejudiced knee-jerk “South = ignernt racists!” rant but: Kentucky is not in the South. Darn those racist rural Yankees!!

By: dammitbeth

dammitbeth — Fri, 02 Dec 2011 14:27:00 +0000

Sigh. I knew this would happen. Rural Kentucky isn’t exactly a diverse place. Until 30 years ago, and especially until the rise of the internet and thus shrinking of the world, a lot of people who lived there never saw a black person. They were brought up with people just like them, and anything different was dealt with incredibly slowly. The older generations are gradually fading, which has certainly enabled more and more progress (for example, the young woman from there who fell in love with an African man…and proudly brought him home).

All that said, it’s awesome that everyone lumps the rather large and diverse state of Kentucky with the mountainous, often-backward regions. I live in Lexington. We have an openly gay mayor. Obama won our well-populated city. There are regular parades and festivals celebrating many different cultures. Racism exists…but it exists everywhere, even if some people have a hard time admitting it (because it isn’t constantly thrown in their face in the media).

By: OtherMichael

OtherMichael — Fri, 02 Dec 2011 14:24:00 +0000

Nor should it have one. Anything not explicitly prohibited is allowed. they also do not have anything on the books about couples of Indonesian decent who eat cookies in bed. You can’t have a list of everything that is allowed, unless you only want to allow a small subset of all possibilities.

By: Guest

Guest — Fri, 02 Dec 2011 14:18:00 +0000

..and me too.

By: McGauth925

McGauth925 — Fri, 02 Dec 2011 14:10:00 +0000

Right. Because some people read between the lines of the New Testament, and just KNOW Jesus would’ve wanted this. It’s obviously the christian thing to do.

I like to think there’s a God. I finally learned, though, that I have all the justification I could ever need to disregard people’s opinions – because that’s all they are – as to how he/she/it manifests. There are just too many stupid and demented types, absolutely sure they have the inside scoop, ready to tell the rest of us how we should think and behave.

By: ecobore

ecobore — Fri, 02 Dec 2011 10:22:00 +0000

Is this even legal?

By: Phil Worthington

Phil Worthington — Fri, 02 Dec 2011 09:28:00 +0000

Sigh – why are they even an ‘interracal couple’ and not just a ‘couple’. America continues to confound and confuse.

By: Julian Fine

Julian Fine — Fri, 02 Dec 2011 09:15:00 +0000

Give me that old time religion.

By: John Harland

John Harland — Fri, 02 Dec 2011 09:12:00 +0000

From the church’s resolution banning interracial couples, this measure was brought in “to promote greater unity among the church body”.

I’m pretty sure the only unity it’ll bring is the unity the size of their congregation will converge towards.

By: Fnordius

Fnordius — Fri, 02 Dec 2011 08:12:00 +0000

I actually read that as equivalent to “we never had an official policy regarding drinking arsenic”. But once someone does start doing dumb stuff like that that then yes, I agree that they need to take a stand lest they be seen as tolerating it.

By: Fnordius

Fnordius — Fri, 02 Dec 2011 08:10:00 +0000

Now now, that doesn’t jibe with the tenet of trying to rescue the sinner. I personally find it is always laudable to try to give people a chance to turn back from a destructive path. Excommunication only hardens the resolve, something to do with the psychology of “if they persecute me then I must be right”.

By: UrbanUndead

UrbanUndead — Fri, 02 Dec 2011 06:47:00 +0000

Just stick ta datin yer kinfolk, traditional-like.

*plucks out first few chords of Deliverance theme on the ole banjo*

By: cjporkchop

cjporkchop — Fri, 02 Dec 2011 06:43:00 +0000

Silver lining: This is proof that the legalization of inter-racial marriage didn’t lead to the government forcing churches to perform inter-racial marriages or accept inter-racial couples are members.

Y’know, just in case anyone thinks legalizing gay marriage will lead to the government forcing churches to perform gay weddings, etc.

By: hoffmanbike

hoffmanbike — Fri, 02 Dec 2011 04:10:00 +0000

wait what, i live in western mass. most everyone i know is pretty evenly racist/sexist/bigoted. we hate everyone especially those asshats in eastern mass.

By: Mister44

Mister44 — Fri, 02 Dec 2011 04:00:00 +0000

Stay classy, Baptist Kentuckians.

By: SedanChair

SedanChair — Fri, 02 Dec 2011 03:41:00 +0000

So…when are you leaving? Seems like you have a few too many bad apples in the barrel, begging your pardon.

By: benher

benher — Fri, 02 Dec 2011 03:21:00 +0000

This reminds me of that documentary Red State!

By: hungryjoe

hungryjoe — Fri, 02 Dec 2011 03:17:00 +0000

To be fair, there probably won’t be a lot of interracial couples clamoring to join this particular church.