Although it may seem like it, this isn’t a news story from the past. In a case of pure irony, the Gulnare Freewill Baptist Church in Pike County, KY, passed a proposal to ban interracial marriages in their congregation.

Reverend Melvin Thompson, a former pastor of the church, first submitted the idea to a church committee, which then passed the proposal with a vote of nine to six. Funny enough, the current head pastor Stacey Stepp was one who opposed the proposition.

The proposal, which does not exclude interracial couples from public worship, states, “That the Gulnare Freewill Baptist Church does not condone interracial marriage. Parties of such marriages will not be received as members, nor will they be used in worship services and other church functions, with the exception being funerals.”

Former congregant Ticha Chikuni spoke publicly about the proposal and said the committee met after he attended a service with his new fiancé, Stella, who has been a member of the church all her life. “For someone who’s been going to that church all her life, she was expecting support,” he said. “But, everyone fell off the bandwagon and passed really harsh judgment on her, on us and the family, too.”

In a statement on Wednesday, pastor Stepp said the denomination’s regional conference will seek to rectify the problem over the weekend.

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