A Butler, Ala., pastor believes that his recent termination has a lot to do with race, WTOK reports. Former Mount Sterling Baptist Church Pastor Jonathan Greer, who was unanimously voted out of the church late Sunday, told the news station that the pushback came after a deacon told him he could not invite black children to the church's Vacation Bible School.
"There was pushback about where the types of children we were bringing in, and I was asked to not invite black children to VBS," Greer said.
A deacon at the church, Freddie Moore, denied that accusation, saying that Greer was terminated because he would not visit enough members of the congregation, paying visits only to a few. Moore also claimed that Greer would not work with deacons.
"This was a particular deacon that asked me, and ultimately, two deacons […] asked me not to invite black people," Greer countered.
Moore insisted that anyone, regardless of race, is welcome at the church. Greer said that that is what he was led to believe when he joined it, but during this latest incident, he was told several times that black people were not allowed.
"What they really mean is that someone can wander in off the street and they won't stop them, but they specifically asked me, explicitly, not to invite black people. I tried to communicate with them that that's not consistent with Christianity," Greer said.
The deacons wanted him to resign quietly from the church, Greer said, but he chose not to, and gave a service on Sunday about racism.
"I wanted the church to know that this is not consistent with the gospel. This is not consistent with God's word that we honor and give dignity to all people. That's what the Bible teaches us, and all people are worthy and in need of the gospel, and racism denies that to a certain amount of people," Greer told WTOK.
Read more at WTOK.