Sometimes I get the feeling that Spike Lee wasted his time making Jungle Fever.
The story in connection to the video:
LOUISVILLE, Ky. – A tiny Appalachian church in Pike County has voted to ban interracial couples from joining its flock, pitting members against each other in an argument over race.
Members at the Gulnare Free Will Baptist Church voted Sunday on the resolution, which says the church “does not condone interracial marriage.”
Member Melvin Thompson crafted the resolution but said Wednesday that he is not racist. The church secretary, Dean Harville, disagrees. The resolution followed a visit to the church by Harville’s daughter, who is white, and her African boyfriend.
“I am not racist. I will tell you that. I am not prejudiced against any race of people, have never in my lifetime spoke evil about a race,” said Thompson, the church’s former pastor who stepped down earlier this year. “That’s what this is being portrayed as, but it is not.”
He called the matter an “internal affair” of the church.
The National Association of Free Will Baptists in Antioch, Tenn., has no official position on interracial marriage, said its executive secretary, Keith Burden.
“It’s been a non-issue with us,” Burden said, adding that many interracial couples attend Free Will Baptist churches. He said the Pike County church acted on its own.
