SBC Expels Church After Pastor Wears ‘Blackface’ For Ray Charles Impression Six Years Ago
The Southern Baptist Convention has disfellowshipped a church that has been in good in the denomination for 140 years after the pastor wore blackface at a church event and dressed up as a Native American woman for another.
The Executive committee voted on Tuesday to kick out Matoaka Baptist Church of Ochelata, marking them as deemed not in friendly cooperation with the convention” after it came to light that pastor Sherman Jaquess dressed up as Ray Charles for a 2017 church Valentine’s Day event, singing a duet, which saw the crowd clap, laugh and loudly cheer.
The Executive Committee has been curiously selective about who they do and don’t kick out. Case in point, they have done nothing with First Baptist Church in Orlando, the 14,000-member megachurch that Knowingly Baptizes Homosexual Man Living in a Gay Marriage and Allows Unrepentant ‘Gay-Married’ Homosexual to Baptize His Friends. The same goes for their reluctance and sadness from SBC leadership about excising Rick Warren’s church, which took years to remove despite them having women pastors on staff. But for this church, the decision seems swift and sure.
Jaquess has been steamed about the decision to oust him and has been wholly unapologetic, saying:
“Their decision is repugnant. They made a decision and recommendation on something they don’t know anything about….It wasn’t derogatory, wasn’t racial in any way, and we’re not racist at all. I don’t have a racist bone in my body. I have a lot of racial friends….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. It was honoring to Ray Charles, we sang the song as best as we could.”
According to the AP “(Jaquess) said the denomination reached out a few months ago about how they would send a packet “where I would have to prove I wasn’t a racist.” Jaquess said he never received anything until Friday when notice of the pending vote and his lack of cooperation arrived. He said he called but couldn’t reach anyone.
His church, he said, may appeal the ouster to the SBC’s full annual meeting next year, as is its right.
Now, “I don’t know if I want to be a part of a denomination that would make a judgment about you without even talking to you,” said Jaquess, who said he committed his life to ministry in Southern Baptist churches. “The only thing I see that they do well is cash my check.”
If only Jaquess had knowingy baptized unrepentant homosexuals or allowed unrepentant homosexuals to baptize others instead of this: then he’d still be fine and sitting pretty.
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His blackface act might qualify him to be Prime Minister of Canada.
Pure politically correct, woke idiocy.
I hate to sound like … “them,” but if it isn’t/wasn’t racial, why wear a different shade of skin?
I’m assuming you missed the part about “…dressed up like Ray Charles…”
The entire issue could’ve been avoided If they hadn’t performed worldly/secular music at a church event.
That was my thought. Why is a church mimicking the world, and frankly, being worldly should make this church a shoe-in for the continued membership in the SBC. I’m confused?
HaHa – excellent point!
If they had Pastrix this might not have happened