Christian Racism in the South: Church Turns Away Biracial Boy
The Northeast Mississippi Daily Journal reports on the Fellowship Baptist Church in Saltillo, Mississippi, which voted to deny all blacks membership and as a consequence turned away a biracial boy who had recently converted to Christianity:
On Aug. 6, during its scheduled Sunday night business meeting, Fellowship Baptist Church in Saltillo voted not to accept blacks within the church. More specifically, the congregation also voted Joe out and said he could not return.
That evening Fellowship Baptist did not just say goodbye to Joe and an entire race of humans. With that decision the church’s pastor, the Rev. John Stevens, resigned, and at least one other family decided not to return to the Baptist Missionary Alliance congregation that averages 30 people.
The church was “afraid Joe might come with his people and have blacks in the church,” Stevens said. “I could not go along with that. There would always be a wall between us, so I resigned that night.”
Cliff Hardy, an officer with the Tupelo Police Department, left the church, too. He and his family had been going to Fellowship Baptist for about a year and had been praying about becoming members there.
This isn’t a newly formed church meeting in people’s home or in a storefront; this is a 143-year-old church with a lot of history, even if it’s relatively small. John Stevens estimates that about 80 percent of the congregation is opposed to the presence of black people in their midst while worshipping their god and praising how Jesus died for their sins.
“People have got to realize we’re all God’s children,” Jason Kirk said. “It’s not God so loved the white people; it’s God so loved the world.”
Well, in theory that’s what Christian doctrine is supposed to be but I don’t think that’s what people in the Fellowship Baptist Church believe. It’s unreasonable to think that they consider racism, discrimination, and segregation to be sins, otherwise they would be knowingly engaging in a sin while praising Jesus for dying for their sins. I don’t suppose it’s impossible for people to adopt such contradictory positions, but it would be difficult. At any rate, this story helps make it clear that not only is racism not dead in America and especially the American South, but it’s not dead even in the context of Christianity and church attendance.
Christian Right & Christian Nationalism:
Comments
Fellowship Baptist Church has denied that he vote took place. The former pastor has made alligations that they did, but before judging the church as racist you might consider learning the church’s side of the story. If it is racist then they are wrong, but if they have been falsely accused then that is something else completely.
The denials were not a part of the original article. Notice how my quotes differ from the text that is now at the link. So they weren’t denying it before, but are denying it now. Isn’t that curious?