American priest that banned black housekeeper from his property blames his 'racist dog'

A Tennessee priest has banned a black housekeeper from his property and then placed the blame squarely with his “racist dog”.

The housekeeper in question, LaShundra Allen, said:

I was just supposed to clean the church and I was supposed to go to the pastor’s house and clean as well. They were just like, ‘Well, I’m not really sure how to say this,’ kind of like in a joking way, ‘But Father Jacek doesn’t want black people cleaning the house because his dog is racist.

The extraordinary story, with echoes of the 1980s drama White Dog and a classic episode of Curb Your Enthusiasm, saw the housekeeper informed by the priest’s secretary: “I’m sorry, we are not trying to be rude, but the dog doesn’t like black people.”

In a truly remarkable statement, Rev. Jacek Kowal, a pastor at the Catholic Church of the Incarnation has insisted he is not racist, explaining: “I wholeheartedly believe all forms of discrimination… are sinful and wrong” but that his German Shepherd did once have a “bad experience with a stranger who happened to be African American.”

He concluded:

As a disciple of Jesus Christ, I wholeheartedly believe all forms of discrimination based upon race or ethnicity are sinful and wrong. As a pastor, I have ministered to, employed and worked with numerous African Americans. Their claim that I didn’t want an African American to clean my rectory is simply not true.

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