Church Cancels Wedding Because Couple Is Black

Charles and Te'Andrea Wilson made arrangements to get married at First Baptist Church of Crystal Springs, MO. They are not members of the church, but have attended worship services there regularly. Everything was going well for their wedding plans until the day before their wedding. On that day, they were contacted by Pastor Stan Weatherford, who informed them that church members were upset that black people were getting married at their church. As a result, the wedding could not take place at First Baptist Church:

Weatherford performed the July 21 ceremony at another church. "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," said Weatherford.

WLBT reported that church officials now say they welcome any race. They plan to hold internal meetings on how to move forward...

Wilson told the newspaper that he understands Weatherford was caught in a difficult position and he still likes the pastor, but he also thinks the pastor should have stood up to the members who didn't want the couple to marry in the church.

This is the type of thing that kills a church. The church says it welcomes people of all races. And yet a small group of members (I've read 5-6) had the power to force the pastor to relocate the wedding. I'm glad that the church plans to devise plans for moving forward, but they should have been courageous and had those discussions before they succumbed to racism and became a national spectacle.

The church leadership should have stood up against the racist members. The church leadership should have respected the relationship that it has with the Wilsons. The church leadership should have honored the commitment that it made with the Wilsons to allow them to get married there. But it did none of this. And now First Baptist Church has to figure out how to salvage its reputation. All because they wanted to avoid "controversy".