Mississippi Church issues "apology" to... well we're not sure to whom, but they

[BandGuy]

did issue an "apology":

"Both the pastor and those involved in the wedding location being changed have expressed their regrets and sorrow for their actions. This wrong decision resulted in hurt and sadness for everyone," the church said in a statement read at the end of its Sunday (Aug. 5) worship service and posted on its website.

I don't think they are very genuine in their apology.  I think they are sorry they got a lot of bad press, and I don't see that the members who created the problem have truly repented, and the pastor who was a coward and allowed this evil has truly made a calculated move to insure that the controversy is kept to the minimum (probably figured it was easier to allow racism and apologize later than go against the racist power brokers in his church).

Their sincerity is further placed in question in my mind because of these statements:

The church did not issue the apology directly to the Wilsons, the church representative said.

"They're not members. They don't attend. It wouldn't be delivered to them because they weren't here," the representative said. "It was given to our congregation and read aloud ... and it was affirmed by the congregation that they agreed with that."

Translation:  We ran those black folks off, they're not members, and therefore, don't really deserve a real apology from our church.  They aren't coming back anyway.  We made darn sure of that.

http://www.bpnews.net/BPnews.asp?ID=38431

 

[truthdetector]

This church's desire (by at least some of the membership) not to allow black people to marry in their church is a COMMONLY held view in rural areas all over the south.  The smaller the church, the more prevalent this view is.

 

[BandGuy]

I have lived in the South all of my life and have been in several Churches, large, small, and everything in between, and have never seen this attitude displayed at any of them.

 

[truthdetector]

I have lived in the South all of my life and have been in several Churches, large, small, and everything in between, and have never seen this attitude displayed at any of them.

You were fortunate.  Were you in small rural areas?  The attitude isn't displayed.  It is very subtle.

I was out with a friend doing visitation once.  We were going house to house knocking on doors inviting people to a new church plant in the rural community.  We knocked on one door and an elderly black lady answered and I told her of the new work, etc. and invited her to service.

The next week I arrived at the church to meet for visitation again and the pastor was there to explain to me that I should not invite black people to church.  I was to just skip their homes.  We didn't visit anyone that night.  He spent the entire time telling me not to do so again.  That was the 1980s.

Another time in another state, I was serving as a pastor, and two elderly ladies walked in, one black and one white.  I greeted them.  I had been pastor only briefly.  A deacon came up to me within minutes and stated he had talked with all the deacons just then and they stated it would be okay to allow the black lady to stay???  She was there as to assist the older less healthy white lady.  (2000s)

I know of several other stories of lingering racism.

 

[jayne]

This church's desire (by at least some of the membership) not to allow black people to marry in their church is a COMMONLY held view in rural areas all over the south.  The smaller the church, the more prevalent this view is.

Gosh, that's an awfully blanket statement.  You don't get much more rural than the area I live in and you won't find smaller churches than the ones that polka-dot our parish (county).  I've seen that racist attitude in one church.

 

[truthdetector]

This church's desire (by at least some of the membership) not to allow black people to marry in their church is a COMMONLY held view in rural areas all over the south.  The smaller the church, the more prevalent this view is.

Gosh, that's an awfully blanket statement.  You don't get much more rural than the area I live in and you won't find smaller churches than the ones that polka-dot our parish (county).  I've seen that racist attitude in one church.

I didn't mean EVERY church in the rural south. BTW, how many African-Americans attend your church?

 

[Izdaari]

I am not in the South, rather in the NW corner of the continental US, and I'm Episcopalian, but the demographics of my church looks like a representative slice of the city and neighborhood it's in; i.e., mostly white but ethnically diverse, with some blacks, asians, hispanics and people from anywhere in the world.

The same ethnic diversity was also characteristic of my previous Assemblies of God church.

And as I personally am ethnically diverse (ancestors from 4 continents, who obviously were not into sock sorting), I like it that way.  8)

 

[BandGuy]

I have lived in the South all of my life and have been in several Churches, large, small, and everything in between, and have never seen this attitude displayed at any of them.

You were fortunate.  Were you in small rural areas?  The attitude isn't displayed.  It is very subtle.

I was out with a friend doing visitation once.  We were going house to house knocking on doors inviting people to a new church plant in the rural community.  We knocked on one door and an elderly black lady answered and I told her of the new work, etc. and invited her to service.

The next week I arrived at the church to meet for visitation again and the pastor was there to explain to me that I should not invite black people to church.  I was to just skip their homes.  We didn't visit anyone that night.  He spent the entire time telling me not to do so again.  That was the 1980s.

Another time in another state, I was serving as a pastor, and two elderly ladies walked in, one black and one white.  I greeted them.  I had been pastor only briefly.  A deacon came up to me within minutes and stated he had talked with all the deacons just then and they stated it would be okay to allow the black lady to stay???  She was there as to assist the older less healthy white lady.  (2000s)

I know of several other stories of lingering racism.

I have lived in large urban areas (Fort Worth), mid sized towns, Suburban areas, and so far back in the sticks that people who live in the sticks call where I live the sticks (smack dab in the middle of the Ouachita Mountains of Arkansas).  As I said before, I have been to all different sizes of Churches in all different types of towns.  I have no doubt that you have experienced these types of things and that racism still exists in the world (not just the South, BTW).  But to equate your 2 experiences with what is the commonly held opinion of Churches in the South is a bit much, IMO.  If it were, I am quite sure that I would have experienced it by now in at least one of them.  It would appear to me that you have an agenda to paint Southern Christians as racist no matter what the truth.  A bit ironic, IMO, considering your screen name.

 

[jayne]

I didn't mean EVERY church in the rural south. BTW, how many African-Americans attend your church?

My church is in town and trust me, the word "town" is relative.  We run about 100-150 in church on a good day and anywhere from 10 to 40 of those will be African American.  Many have been baptized in our church.

My mother's church is one of the smallest rural churches in our parish and while they currently have no African American membership, they have African American visitors from time to time.  The small rural church nearest to me has about 10% AA membership.

The largest of the rural churches in our parish had a terrible split about a decade ago.  Apparently the membership was not aware that there was a small core of people who would rather chew broken glass than to allow an African American person in their church.  They hired a new pastor who did not know of this core group's attitude until he brought a guest speaker in who was black.  No one was rude to him, but after the fact, the small core made life so miserable for the pastor that he left.  The overwhelming membership was so disgusted with the whole thing and their inability to convince the pastor to stay that they split and started their own church where attitudes like that aren't acceptable.  The new church is thriving.  I've heard through the grapevine that the small core of racists have repented of their attitude, but I haven't seen that with my own eyes.

But that's the only church I know of in our rural area where this racism is displayed and maintained.

And yes, there are many of these rural churches that either [1] 100% black, [2] 100% white, or [3] 100% Spanish speaking.  But, to me, this isn't because of racism, but of tradition and worship style preference.

 

[OZZY]

This church's desire (by at least some of the membership) not to allow black people to marry in their church is a COMMONLY held view in rural areas all over the south.  The smaller the church, the more prevalent this view is.

So you have visited all thses 'smaller' churches to back that statement? Or did you just pull it out of you derri

 

[truthdetector]

I'll guess I'll leave the discussion to all of you after this post.  I'm glad most of you have never seen any of what I have written.  I am not picking on southern Christians.  I've been a Christian 30 years.  My entire life has been spent in the rural south.  Every experience that I have written about is true and could write of many more instances that I am aware.  However, I'm sure it would be discounted.

 

[OZZY]

I'll guess I'll leave the discussion to all of you after this post.  I'm glad most of you have never seen any of what I have written.  I am not picking on southern Christians.  I've been a Christian 30 years.  My entire life has been spent in the rural south.  Every experience that I have written about is true and could write of many more instances that I am aware.  However, I'm sure it would be discounted.

So you have first hand knowledge of all small churches in the south? Or did you just make up that statement?

 

[BandGuy]

I'll guess I'll leave the discussion to all of you after this post.  I'm glad most of you have never seen any of what I have written.  I am not picking on southern Christians.  I've been a Christian 30 years.  My entire life has been spent in the rural south.  Every experience that I have written about is true and could write of many more instances that I am aware.  However, I'm sure it would be discounted.

Nobody discounted your experiences.  We did discount and even took offense to your characterization that it is typical of most or all Southern, rural Christians.