Church is the one place most would expect congregants to be welcoming and “Christ-like.” But apparently, some members of a Mississippi church never got that memo.
Charles and Te’Andrea Wilson planned to marry earlier this month at the First Baptist Church of Crystal Springs, but their plans were canceled at the last minute by the church. You see, Charles and Te’Andrea are black. Their church is white.
Hurt. Devastated. Crushed. Those are the feelings the African-American couple said they felt when they were forced to change the venue of what should have been the most memorable day of their lives — all because of race.
“Because of the fact that we were black, some of the members of the congregation had got upset and decided that no black couple would ever be married at that church,” Charles Wilson said in a televised interview. “All we wanted to do in the eyes of God was to be man and wife in a church that we thought we felt loved. What was wrong with that?”
Pastor Stan Weatherford buckled to pressure and asked the couple to change their venue on behalf of some congregants who didn’t want to see a black couple married there. As a consolation, he offered to perform the ceremony at a nearby church.
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| Pastor Stan Weatherford |
“This (a black wedding) was, had not, had never been done here before so it was setting a new (precedent) and there were those who reacted to that,” Weatherford said. “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,” he said. Hmmm… how “thoughtful” of him!
Once the news went national that a black couple was denied a wedding inside the white church, members reacted with surprise and offered apologies. But for Charles and Te’Andrea, it was a case of “too little, too late.”
“I had dreams of having my wedding the way I wanted it, and I also dreamed of having it at the church and unfortunately, it didn’t happen,” Te’Andrea Wilson said. Charles echoed his wife’s sentiments, saying if there was a time to “step up and be Christ-like,” it was BEFORE their wedding, not afterwards.
“Hindsight is 20/20,” Charles said. “If it was such a minority of people, why didn’t the majority stand up and say, ‘in God’s house we don’t do this?'”
Several things stand out to me regarding this storyFirst: The "Pastor" of this church really needs to give it up. He either caved to the demands of racists and/or is one himself. End of story.2nd: Was this couple members of this church? And then were denied the priviledge of being able to marry there?OR were they members of another church but simply wanted to hold their wedding at this particular church? And last but certainly NOT least: I am reminded that *Church* is STILL one of the most segregated places found in America. Sad. But true. 🙁