Banning Interracial Couples?!

I was browsing the internet and stumbled across an article where in Kentucky a church banned an interracial couple from the church. The Gulnare Freewill Baptist church voted 9 to 6 for them to ban interracial couples from all church functions and service with the exception of funerals. Many are calling this a racial issue. Stella Harville and her fiance Ticha Chikuni is the couple that sparked the churches decision. Stella is a white female and Ticha is a black male that attended the church. They met each other at Georgetown College in Kentucky and are planning to get married in July of 2012.

The whole issue arose when Ticha and Stella performed a hymn infront of the congregation one Sunday morning. Ticha sung and Stella played the piano. Everything seemed fine until the Pastor of the church approached the couple after the service and told Ticha that is was best if he did not sing anymore. Stella's parents, who had been members for decades, were shocked by the situation. he Pastor expressed that if he had sang again then people in the church would begin to walk out of the church. Stella's mother, Cathy, wanted to know who would do such a thing because they consider the small congregation to be family. The pastor responded, "I for one!" He would not give the other names of the people that were disturbed by the interracial couple.

Cathy was so hurt by the situation because the family had been going there for years and was unaware of the racist intentions of the congregation. She complained that it was no love in the congregation and that her daughter and son-in-law were Christians. She said that there is no where in the bible that says people cannot marry outside their race. The issue was raised later in a meeting and in early December of this year, the church voted to ban interracial couples.

In my opinion this is a huge racial issue. Many people believe that racism has died or put on mute for awhile now. Racism is still alive but many just try and conceal it because it would make them an outcast. Although many people have moved pass the civil rights movement, the racial hate is still permanently marked. Back in the 40's Emmitt Till (African American) was killed for whistling at a white women. Now you have black and white couples. America has come along way but the connotation of racial feelings is lingering. Many people disagree with interracial dating but many are warm to the idea. Love is colorblind,

Question: Do you feel that this is a racial act and if so how would have reacted to the situation?