Kentucky church votes to ban interracial couples from services

A couple traveling home to Pike County, Kentucky, for the holiday weekend, got a cold reception at the family church after announcing their engagement, WKYT news reports.

When Stella Harville, who grew up going to Gulnare Freewill Baptist Church, introduced the congregation to her fiance, Ticha Chikuni, a former pastor and current member of the church proposed a rule that interracial marriages will not be permitted in church services and other functions. Church members voted in favor of the rule on Sunday.

"It's just a travesty. Especially of Christianity, that this church would just think this way," says Harville, "people who have this backward way of thinking, they should know that their racist actions should not and will not be tolerated."

WKYT says that the church pastor did not want to comment on camera and that the church member who proposed the recommendation did not answer phone calls.

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D. Beeksma

One of the growing crowd of American "nones" herself, Deborah is a prolific writer who finds religion, spirituality and the impact of belief (and non-belief) on culture inspiring, fascinating and at times, disturbing. She hosts the God Discussion show and handles the site's technical work. Her education and background is in business, ecommerce and law.

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