# Kentucky church bans interracial couple **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [December 1, 2011, 4:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/kentucky-church-bans-interracial-couple/604671 "2011-12-01T04:39:40Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![joebuck20](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/74df32/32.png) [@joebuck20](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/joebuck20)\ **Post date:** [December 1, 2011, 4:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/kentucky-church-bans-interracial-couple/604671/1 "2011-12-01T04:39:40Z")
Here’s the story: [http://gawker.com/5863878/horrible-hicks-ban-interracial-couples-from-church?autoplay](http://gawker.com/5863878/horrible-hicks-ban-interracial-couples-from-church?autoplay) and [http://www.wkyt.com/wymtnews/headlines/Pike\_County\_church\_bans\_interracial\_couples\_from\_membership\_134713418.html](http://www.wkyt.com/wymtnews/headlines/Pike_County_church_bans_interracial_couples_from_membership_134713418.html) > [@](#): > > A woman says she cannot attend the Pike County church she grew up in because her fiance is from Africa. > > The Gulnare Freewill Baptist church members voted not to allow interracial couples to place membership or be used in worship services or church functions… > > Harville met Ticha Chikuni at Georgetown College. They fell in love and are recently engaged. However, she says the news was not well received when she came home to Pike County and attended the Gulnare Freewill Baptist Church. > > On Sunday, church members voted 9-6 to not condone interracial marriage. Guess they’re not that big into “Freewill.” Oh, and here’s their statement: > [@](#): > > “The Gulnare Freewill Baptist Church does not condone interracial marriage. Parties of such marriages will not be received as members, nor will they be used in worship services and other church functions, with the exception being funerals. > All are welcome to our public worship services. This 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 dumbassery, it burns. ---
**Author:** ![Simplicio](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c37758/32.png) [@Simplicio](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Simplicio)\ **Post date:** [December 1, 2011, 4:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/kentucky-church-bans-interracial-couple/604671/2 "2011-12-01T04:53:03Z")
Thats some old-school racism. I feel like we should put the congregation in a museum or something. ---
**Author:** ![wonky](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wonky/32/393_2.png) [@wonky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wonky)\ **Post date:** [December 1, 2011, 5:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/kentucky-church-bans-interracial-couple/604671/3 "2011-12-01T05:02:13Z")
I’m just shocked my former in-laws aren’t from that county. ---
**Author:** ![curlcoat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/ea5d25/32.png) [@curlcoat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/curlcoat)\ **Post date:** [December 1, 2011, 5:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/kentucky-church-bans-interracial-couple/604671/4 "2011-12-01T05:12:21Z")
I’m having trouble with this part - “but is intended to promote greater unity among the church body and the community we serve.” How does exclusion promote unity? ---
**Author:** ![Miller](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/miller/32/481_2.png) [@Miller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Miller)\ **Post date:** [December 1, 2011, 5:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/kentucky-church-bans-interracial-couple/604671/5 "2011-12-01T05:13:33Z")
> [@curlcoat](#): > > I’m having trouble with this part - “but is intended to promote greater unity among the church body and the community we serve.” How does exclusion promote unity? I’m pretty sure there’s an inbreeding joke in there somewhere, but I’m too lazy to dig for it. ---
**Author:** ![Larry\_Mudd](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/f14d63/32.png) [@Larry\_Mudd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Larry_Mudd)\ **Post date:** [December 1, 2011, 5:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/kentucky-church-bans-interracial-couple/604671/6 "2011-12-01T05:36:30Z")
> [@curlcoat](#): > > How does exclusion promote unity? What could possibly be more unifying than a Them by which to define Us? It’s all very well to look forward to the lamb lying down with the lion in a New Jerusalem, but when you’re talking about people _here and now_ with genes that code for varying levels of melanin and substantially different hair getting cozy, that’s just plain crazy talk. ---
**Author:** ![drachillix](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/48db29/32.png) [@drachillix](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/drachillix)\ **Post date:** [December 1, 2011, 6:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/kentucky-church-bans-interracial-couple/604671/7 "2011-12-01T06:06:41Z")
> [@joebuck20](#): > > The dumbassery, it burns. In other news, Kentucky voted 7,458,286-321 to ban baptist churches that dont endorse interracial marriage. ---
**Author:** ![DoctorJ](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/doctorj/32/2904_2.png) [@DoctorJ](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DoctorJ)\ **Post date:** [December 1, 2011, 6:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/kentucky-church-bans-interracial-couple/604671/8 "2011-12-01T06:12:52Z")
This happened several counties away from me, but it was our local TV station that reported it first (along with the Lexington Herald-Leader), so it has been all over my Facebook feed. This is how I look at it–this was unusual and outrageous enough that it made the news. I’m not sure that would have been true even 20 years ago. And from reading the story it seems they weren’t able to get anybody on record defending this bushwa, so at least there’s a sense of shame in there somewhere. So in its own weird way this story represents progress. This attitude may still be around, and it might even occasionally surface in tiny backwoods churches dumb enough to put their racist policies in writing, but a generation ago this might have been within the range of socially acceptable beliefs here in EKY and now it definitely isn’t. ---
**Author:** ![Enlightening\_Meditation](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/ecc23a/32.png) [@Enlightening\_Meditation](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Enlightening_Meditation)\ **Post date:** [December 1, 2011, 6:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/kentucky-church-bans-interracial-couple/604671/9 "2011-12-01T06:22:33Z")
According to online map searches, Gulnare is a community located in a rural area between Pikeville, KY and Inez, KY. From the perspective of someone who has visited Pike County, the news of this ‘church’ is not surprising. In far Eastern KY and other parts of rural Appalachia, there are pockets of relatively isolated populations where time moves slowly and some prevailing beliefs are shockingly backward. ---
**Author:** ![DoctorJ](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/doctorj/32/2904_2.png) [@DoctorJ](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DoctorJ)\ **Post date:** [December 1, 2011, 6:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/kentucky-church-bans-interracial-couple/604671/10 "2011-12-01T06:25:57Z")
[Here is the _Herald-Leader_ story.](http://www.kentucky.com/2011/11/29/1977453/small-pike-county-church-votes.html) I love this: > [@](#): > > Thompson, who owns a hardware store, told the Herald-Leader on Tuesday that the proposal has been taken out of context, but declined further comment. This happens a lot and it drives me batshit. You can’t just say you were taken out of context and leave it there. You have to actually explain what the context was that gave your words a whole different meaning. ---
**Author:** ![FriarTed](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/friarted/32/1052_2.png) [@FriarTed](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FriarTed)\ **Post date:** [December 1, 2011, 6:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/kentucky-church-bans-interracial-couple/604671/11 "2011-12-01T06:27:49Z")
Aren’t you glad tho that the congregations which believe this way just come out & declare it so that people will know to avoid them? Tho I am surprised this woman did not know what the prevailing sentiment was. ---
**Author:** ![Grumman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/43a26b/32.png) [@Grumman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Grumman)\ **Post date:** [December 1, 2011, 7:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/kentucky-church-bans-interracial-couple/604671/12 "2011-12-01T07:22:26Z")
> [@DoctorJ](#): > > This happens a lot and it drives me batshit. You can’t just say you were taken out of context and leave it there. You have to actually explain what the context was that gave your words a whole different meaning. By “out of context” he means it wasn’t supposed to reach the ears of brown people. ---
**Author:** ![Giles](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/giles/32/60_2.png) [@Giles](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Giles)\ **Post date:** [December 1, 2011, 8:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/kentucky-church-bans-interracial-couple/604671/13 "2011-12-01T08:03:30Z")
> [@Enlightening\_Meditation](#): > > According to online map searches, Gulnare is a community located in a rural area between Pikeville, KY and Inez, KY. From the perspective of someone who has visited Pike County, the news of this ‘church’ is not surprising. In far Eastern KY and other parts of rural Appalachia, there are pockets of relatively isolated populations where time moves slowly and some prevailing beliefs are shockingly backward. According to Wikipedia, the African-American population of Pike County is less than 0.5% – there isn’t much opportunity for miscegenation there. ---
**Author:** ![Princhester](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/3e96dc/32.png) [@Princhester](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Princhester)\ **Post date:** [December 1, 2011, 10:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/kentucky-church-bans-interracial-couple/604671/14 "2011-12-01T10:06:23Z")
When I first read about this on Fark, it sounded slightly significant. Then I read this line: > [@](#): > > On Sunday, church members voted 9-6 to not condone interracial marriage. 9 to 6? 9 to frickin’ 6?!? This story is based on the fact there are 9 outwardly racist people in Kentucky. I’m not saying this is good, but really, nine people? It’s not exactly a landslide decision by a megachurch, is it? ---
**Author:** ![Alessan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alessan/32/465_2.png) [@Alessan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alessan)\ **Post date:** [December 1, 2011, 10:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/kentucky-church-bans-interracial-couple/604671/15 "2011-12-01T10:46:12Z")
My guess is that they meant board members. ---
**Author:** ![Farmer\_Jane](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/bbe5ce/32.png) [@Farmer\_Jane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Farmer_Jane)\ **Post date:** [December 1, 2011, 10:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/kentucky-church-bans-interracial-couple/604671/16 "2011-12-01T10:49:22Z")
What the hell? I typically support non profit status for religious institutions, but this makes me rethink that. It looks like they now have a female pastor but still won’t allow interracial marriages. ---
**Author:** ![Mr.Moto](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/9de0a6/32.png) [@Mr.Moto](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr.Moto)\ **Post date:** [December 1, 2011, 11:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/kentucky-church-bans-interracial-couple/604671/17 "2011-12-01T11:17:39Z")
> [@CitizenPained](#): > > What the hell? > > I typically support non profit status for religious institutions, but this makes me rethink that. > > It looks like they now have a female pastor but still won’t allow interracial marriages. Just remember that another Baptist church employed a clergyman named Martin Luther King Jr. ---
**Author:** ![Farmer\_Jane](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/bbe5ce/32.png) [@Farmer\_Jane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Farmer_Jane)\ **Post date:** [December 1, 2011, 11:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/kentucky-church-bans-interracial-couple/604671/18 "2011-12-01T11:22:34Z")
Yes, it would make sense that a black church had a black pastor. ---
**Author:** ![Biggirl](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/biggirl/32/3294_2.png) [@Biggirl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Biggirl)\ **Post date:** [December 1, 2011, 12:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/kentucky-church-bans-interracial-couple/604671/19 "2011-12-01T12:59:08Z")
> [@Mr.Moto](#): > > Just remember that another Baptist church employed a clergyman named Martin Luther King Jr. So anything any baptist church does from here on out is A O.K.! ---
**Author:** ![hajario](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hajario/32/171_2.png) [@hajario](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hajario)\ **Post date:** [December 1, 2011, 1:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/kentucky-church-bans-interracial-couple/604671/20 "2011-12-01T13:05:30Z")
You have to admire their fair mindedness for making and exception for funerals. That must have been the thing that got the centrists to vote for the measure. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/kentucky-church-bans-interracial-couple/604671.md?page=2)