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MS CHurch: Marriage is only for straight white couples.

I imagine by now many people have read about the heterosexual couple, both the same race (black) who could not get married in the church they attend because only white people can get married there.

yahoo news.

It's hard to imagine anything stupider. I know, there are millions of christians around the world, even millions of Baptists, who would find this unacceptable. Exceptions and outrages don't mean everyone in a state, or a religion, or a church, are the same way.

Still, what an embarrassment to Baptists and white people in Mississippi. The US has come a long way when it comes to racism, but still not nearly far enough.

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Permalink Reply by Pat on July 29, 2012 at 4:20pm

This incident has sooo many issues that it's hard to figure out where to start. The cowardly minister, the racist members who barred the wedding, the justifiable shock from the community. I have my doubts that this is entirely based on religion. Seems more like some old white bigots wanting to hang onto what little is left in their mind of the antebellum south. "Negroes being married our church?! Quick, Jasper. The brandy. I believe I have a touch of the vapors."

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Permalink Reply by Steph S. on July 29, 2012 at 9:44pm

I read this news story on CNN I think. Really sad news. They are bigots. I think it's an embarrassment - looks like racism is still alive and well.

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Permalink Reply by Loren Miller on July 30, 2012 at 6:21am

In this and other ways, Mississippi seems to insist on being an anachronism within the United States. For them, the Emancipation Proclamation and the 14th Amendment to the Constitution were never written, or for some reason, they don't apply to that state.

Granted, a church is a private organization and can conduct itself as it pleases. HOWEVER ... it does exist within a community, and it is reasonable that a community react, either positively or negatively, to the behavior of one of its elements. Even if a given town had a plurality or even a majority of people with such an attitude, there remains the larger community of the state, and then that of the United States.

What's that old hymn? "There's No Hiding Place Down Here!"

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Permalink Reply by Pat on July 30, 2012 at 6:33am

Here's a fun fact. When did Mississippi ratify the 13th Amendment which outlaws slavery? March of 1995. One hundred and thirty years after the rest of the nation.

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Permalink Reply by Loren Miller on July 30, 2012 at 6:38am

Holy Guacamole!!!!!

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Permalink Reply by Tammy S on July 30, 2012 at 8:30am

I heard a brief snippet about this today on CBS and all I could do was shake my head... I can't even pretend to be shocked by it because here in the south we are surrounded by this kind of bigoted stupidity everywhere we turn.