Southern Baptists expel church as pastor defends blackface and Native caricatures

FILE - Delegates hold up their ballots at the Southern Baptist Convention in New Orleans on June 13, 2023. On Tuesday, Sept. 19, 2023, Southern Baptist leaders ousted an Oklahoma church whose pastor defended his blackface performance at one church event and his impersonation of a Native American woman at another. (Scott Clause/The Daily Advertiser via AP)

The Southern Baptist Convention has ousted an Oklahoma church whose pastor defended his blackface performance at one church event and his impersonation of a Native American woman at another.

The Executive Committee of the nation's largest Protestant denomination voted Tuesday that Matoaka Baptist Church of Ochelata "be deemed not in friendly cooperation with the convention" — the official terminology for an expulsion.