https://www.yahoo.com/news/grievous-southern-baptist-convention-expels-204355749.htmlThe Southern Baptist Convention, the nation’s largest Protestant denomination, has kicked a rural Oklahoma church out of its membership after photos and videos of their pastor impersonating singer Ray Charles in blackface emerged on social media.
A spokesperson for the organization said the executive committee ruled that the Matoaka Baptist Church in Ochelata, Oklahoma, was “not in friendly cooperation” with the convention. The decision came after the church, led by the Rev. Sherman Jaquess, failed to “cooperate in resolving concerns regarding discriminatory behavior on the basis of ethnicity,” according to CNN.
Jaquess, a white man, was seen in a video dressed in a Jheri curl wig, black body paint (face, neck, hands), and red lips during a Valentine’s Day talent show in 2017.
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“We have people [who] are offended by a lot of things, but it’s hard to play Ray Charles if you don’t play a Black man; it wasn’t anything,” he said.
The clergyman was shocked at people being offended despite him looking nothing like the brown-skinned Charles, who wore his hair for most of his career in a military-styled crew cut.
During a sermon, he said, “I just want to publicly say I don’t have a racial bone in my body. I’m not racist at all.”
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The pastor has a history of dressing up as different races. Once, during a cowboys-and-Indians-themed event at the Falls Creek church camp, he appeared as an indigenous woman in brownface.
Lewis took to social media to congratulate the convention.
“Way to go @SouthernBapCon for kicking this racist out. Thank you supporters for keeping the pressure on,” he tweeted.
Jaquess also looks like what we would expect:
And, as the article points out, his blackface costume looks nothing like the actual Charles:
Best comment:
god commanded “let there be racism” and there was. Side note, jesus wept.
If only the commenter could have written "Yahweh" instead of "god", this would have been a Gnostic comment.
Other woke comments:
the devil is definitely running the show with evangelical christians
These people can't help themselves. It's almost like an addiction.
Of course he did not think it was a big deal, of course. This kind of disrespect and hatred towards black people has not stopped and is not going to stop. White people do whatever they want to black people, sometimes they have consequences and sometimes they don't. It's always the response. I did not think what I did was offensive, I did not have any bad intentions. Pure nonsense.
White people see nothing racist in demeaning people as a way to honor them. He demeans Ray Charles to honor him. These are the same people who support the idea among conservatives that slavery was good and beneficial to Black people.
Let's be honest here, including you white people. We have NEVER seen any black person in this country who looks like this. Why do yall keep this characature alive, it literally doesn't make any sense. It's ignorant, false, and racist.