Okay here is the question that I'm going to tackle this week. I've decided to just go ahead and answer this one instead of waiting for your comments. I would still love to see your comments on the topic. I three questions that are basically the same. I'll use this one to address the issue.
"Ed, I recently had a frustrating conversation with someone in my small group. I believe that interracial relationships, intimate that is, not friends, is wrong. I always heard that the Bible taught it was wrong but I can't find the answer. I would appreciate any thoughts or answers."
Well there are a few commands in the Old Testament in Exodus and Deuteronomy that tell the nation of Israel to not marry people of other nations. The purpose of these commands was not to stop marriage of people who were different races, it was so the nation of Israel would not marry people who didn't worship the true God. There are plenty of places where God welcomes other races in the Old and New Testament. He welcomes those who were willing to follow Him and worship Him and allowed these people to become a part of his family. This idea is continued in the New Testament for Christians in 2 Corinthians 6:14 about not getting married to an unbeliever. God's concern is about spiritual compatibility. If two single people are believers there is no biblical reason to keep them from getting married.
There is nothing unbiblical about interracial relationships. Disapproving of a relationship based on someone's race is sinful. It has no place in the life of a maturing Christ follower.
Monday, October 8, 2007
Q and A about Race
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7 comments:
Very good comment. I've known someone who was ostracized by other Christians for having a bi-racial marriage in Coweta.
Can you give Biblical support for your statement that disapproving of inter-racial dating is sinful?
As far as Biblical Support if by that you mean a single verse that says "disapproving of a relationship on the basis of race is a sin" - no I can't do that. But James 2 tells us that we should not show favoritism among people - that when we do it makes us judges with evil movites. No admittedly the example James uses is about money. But I think we would be "straingin gnats" to say that any other favoritism we show to people or against people as long as it isn't based on race - is okay with God. God's dream is that in His community race would not be a divding factor any more than economic status would be. It's clear in Acts 2 when the spirit came to form the new church that He moved across racial barriers and the word of God was spoken in all languages. It's clear in the book of Revelation that God's saved will be from every tribe.
I understand your point - that God does not want us to hate other races, but I think your statement, "Disapproving of a relationship based on someone's race is sinful" is stretching it. I do not believe a person would be committing a sin if he said he would only date a member of his own race. I do not believe scriptural support can be found for that. Studies have shown that biracial children struggle with identity formation, leading to lack of self-esteem, social isolation, and stress (Source).
Interracial relationship studies done in China show that divorce rates are higher for interracial couples (Source).
Since God hates divorce, I see no reason why desiring to marry only a member of one's own race would be contrary to Christian teaching.
I should have done a better job of indicating that I was talking about disapproving of interracial relationships as a general rule. The question was whether or not the Bible taught that it was wrong. I would not say that the Bible teaches that it's a sin for you personally to choose to not marry a person of another race. It would be different if you taught your children it was wrong for them. You could certainly show them the studies but to say that it's wrong or to counsel friends that it's wrong is a different story. God's main criteria for marrriage is that the two people should share the same faith or else the person will lead them from their God.
Ok, I see what you mean.
Well I'm black and looking for white boyfriend on http://www.interracialfriends.com. I have mixed feelings about it.
On one side I think anyone should be able to date whomever they like, but on the other side I think that eventually when everyone mixes it will destroy our individual ethnic identities.
In other words, imagine if everyone on earth were mixed and there were no more defined whites, blacks, asians etc. Wouldn't that be sad and boring? All culture would be destroyed and everyone would think, look and talk the same.
So, like I said. On one side I think inter-racial love is nice, cause I'm doing it, but on the other side, in the long term, it may be destroying our uniqueness as different races and ethnic groups
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