An Alabama pastor is claiming he was fired from his post at his church because he invited black children to attend its Vacation Bible School, WTOK reports.

Pastor Jonathan Greer told the station he was unanimously voted out Sunday, and the deacon of Mt. Sterling Baptist Church in Butler told him he couldn’t invite black churchgoers.

“There was push-back about the types of children that we were bringing in,” Greer told the station. “And I was asked to not invite black children to the VBS.”

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A deacon from the church told WTOK that Greer’s firing was not because of race but because Greer didn’t work with the church’s deacons and didn’t visit members of the congregation.

“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 told the station.

Greer said he refused to go quietly and on Sunday gave his last sermon about racism.

“I wanted the church to know that this is not consistent with the gospel,” he told WTOK. “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.”

Watch the report, from WTOK, here:

