It’s a sad day to be a racist Oklahoma church pastor who likes to wear blackface.
According to this article in The Tenneseeian, The Southern Baptist Convention booted Matoaka Baptist Church – a small rural congregation located outside Bartlesville – from its ranks for “discriminatory behavior.”
The move comes approximately six months after photos the church’s head pastor, Sherman Jacques, wearing blackface made the rounds on the internet.
Remember those? They were part of sketches where he “impersonated” Ray Charles:
He also dressed in drag as a Native American princess:
Just like he was back in April when the photos first made news, Pastor Jaques was unapologetic and defiant when confronted with the news that he and his church are somehow too racist to be affiliated with the Southern Baptist church.
Here’s what he said in an interview with The Tenneseean:
"Their decision is repugnant. They made a decision and recommendation on something they don’t know anything about."
Yep, that’s right. It’s the convention’s decision to boot the racist church from their ranks after 150 years that’s repugnant – not the dude who dresses up in blackface to perform raucous racist stereotype sketches for his church congregation, or the fact his congregation kept him onboard after the photos and sketches became news. They’re actually the victims here.
Jaques would further elaborate that he, in fact, is the least racial person he knows:
“It was a comedic thing, it wasn’t a racial thing," Jaquess said in an interview. “I don’t have a racial bone in my body. I’m the least racial person that I know.”
Based on what we know about the racist leanings of rural Oklahoma, I guess there is a chance that Jacques could legitimately be the least racial person he knows. Birds of racist feathers do flock together, but more than likely, he just doesn’t know a lot of people.
Anyway, now that the Matoaka Baptist Church has been canceled by the Southern Baptists, I guess that means they’re officially free agents in the church market.
It will be interesting to see where they go from here. Do they force their women into jean dresses and try to join the Pentecostals or do they go the non-denominational route where they can wear black face in ignorant racist peace?
I guess we’ll continue to monitor the story and let you know.
Stay with The Lost Ogle. We’ll keep you advised.
