Pastor Stan Weatherford, who is white, said: “This had never been done
before here, so it was setting a new precedent, and there are those who
reacted to it because of that.”
The pastor said he wanted to go ahead with the wedding but decided to carry it
out elsewhere as a compromise. He moved it to a mostly black church down the
road where he married the couple on July 21.
Casey Kitchens, 37, a member of the First Baptist Church of Crystal Springs,
said she and most of the congregation were “ashamed” at their
church’s refusal to marry a black couple, and that they had known nothing
about it.
She said: “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.”
Rev Jim Futral, executive director of the Mississippi Baptist Convention,
said: “It’s not reflective of the spirit of the Lord and Mississippi
Baptists. It’s just a step backward, it’s a sad thing.”
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