For Charles and Te’Andrea Wilson, it was the church that had
cold feet.
The Mississippi couple, scheduled to marry at the First
Baptist Church of Crystal Springs, was informed the day before their wedding
that they’d need to relocate their nuptials due to complaints from church
members.
Imagine the devastation felt by bride-to-be Te’Andrea
Wilson, who’d attended the church for over a year. For Te’Andrea, the church
was an important part of her family, as her father also attended church
services and her uncle worked a custodian there.
Gawker reports the predominantly white
church doesn’t expressly prohibit church members based on color, but you could
have fooled us. Pastor Stan Weatherford felt it necessary inform the engaged
couple of the congregation’s unfavorable reaction to their wedding, saying, “I
didn’t want to have a controversy within the church, and I didn’t want a
controversy to affect the wedding of Charles and Te’Andrea. I wanted to make
sure their wedding day was a special day.”
While Weatherford went on to perform the marriage ceremony
at another church, he admitted it’s not what Christ would have done.
Apparently this is a case of a few bad apples spoiling the
whole bunch. Only five or six church members have come forward admitting
personal involvement in the campaign to have the Wilson wedding relocated.
Church member Casey Kitchens told the Clarion Ledger, “This is a small, small group of
people who made a terrible decision. I’m just ashamed right now that my church
would do that. I can’t fathom why. How unfair. How unjust. It’s just wrong.”
Groom Charles Wilson told the newspaper that despite the
fact that he understood Pastor Weatherford’s difficult position, he believed
the pastor should have stood up to opposing church members, adding, “I blame
the First Baptist Church of Crystal Springs, I blame those members who knew and
call themselves Christians and didn’t stand up.”
I couldn’t agree more, Mr. Wilson.
What on earth was The First Baptist Church of Crystal
Springs thinking?
I'm white (as far as I know) and live a half world away in the "Land of Aus" downunder, and I'm as mad as hell about this, also.
ReplyDeleteBut I would guess that a gay couple would get the same treatment at that church, also ?
Made welcome, so long as they do not stand out ?
Long may racism, sexism, and ageism, homophobia etc etc be relegated soon to the dustbin of history as this "Dawning of the Age of Aquarius" progresses in Peace and Love !
And all of my best wishes to the happy couple as they enter connubial bliss as equal partners - for that is the way of a loving future, individually and collectively....