Interracial Marriage

Thanks for filling in the details Joseph.

 

"Race" is not a term referring to the color of skin, as is so often claimed. It refers to ancestry and blood relations. A dark Caucasian can be darker than a pale Mongol, but he is still more closely related to other Caucasians.

Calling it "skin color" sets up a straw man.

 

There is nothing biblically wrong with interracial marriage but it would behoove us to understand God’s purpose for the races.

Here is a take on the races that has either escaped you or you were not aware of. In Genesis 11:1 the bible clearly says and the earth was of one language and one speech. Meaning that everyone understood exactly what everyone was saying.

At this point in the history of man there is only one race therefore there is only one language and there is only one dictionary for word meanings. But when man determined that he would build his own “gate to Heaven” God said in 11:6 that nothing would be restrained from them which they have imagined. Talk about synergy (the combined action and power in numbers). Basically God said that if man could imagine it he could bring it to pass because of the combined abilities of man and his ability to communicate his ideas.

When God confounded the languages he also broke up the gene pool of humanity in that recessive and dominant genes were redistributed within the human ranks as a result of the confounding of the languages.

Hence not only did the languages prevent man from communicating ideas this act also led ultimately to new races that were formed over time due to relocation. The bottom line is that God used language, geography (the continents) and race to prevent the one world government, and the one world church from coming into existence to soon.

Virtually every major war that has been fought has been fought to unite the world under one leader. In the last seven decades we have seen the breaking down of all of God’s barriers by technology and nothing now prevents the establishment of a one world government or a one world religion except, “He that lets” 2 Thess 2:7

Just my thoughts on why there are races.

 

Like Gib I am also a half-breed. Yankee father, Hillbilly mother.

And I gotta tell you, the south ain't got nothin on the north when it comes to racism. It gets blamed for a lot that Northerner's just don't recognize in themselves.

Case in point. I was raised just outside Detroit. When I was in the first grade(1970) when the integration of schools was just beginning, the first black child began attending kindergarten at our school. I had been so sheltered from reality that I wondered what foriegn country that child came from. Black children in my experience didn't live where I lived.

On the subject of interracial marriage: it isn't a sin. However, I advise my children againt interracial relationships because of the cultural environment in which we live (now in the south). Things are changing though. Perhaps my grandchildren will be able to make such decisions free from racial barriers.

 

I've never experienced any sort of discrimination because I was mixed, but it also might have to do with where I've lived. Of course my parents did, not because my father was in the military, but because of where they lived, or people they'd run into. I grew up to respect both cultures, and my father made it a point that I knew I was mixed and there's absolutely nothing wrong with that. I think I got teased over my Italian last name more than my race.

Since all four of my mother's brothers married white women, so I have 12 cousins that are mixed as well. We all grew up really close, much like siblings. Only one of my cousins felt left out during her adolescense because she was too black for the white kids and too white for the black kids. There wasn't a mix of races where they lived in VA. They moved to Kenya and experienced it there as well. Many Kenyans view black Americans as not "pure" black, so it goes both ways. It wasn't until they moved to San Diego, CA did she feel comfortable because it's much more diverse.

I think it's an assumption that all mixed kids experience some sort of discrimination. I have cousins who feel they're too dark, and some who think they look too white. I think that's something we all deal with when there's a mixture of genes from different ethnicities.

I love my heritage, never had a problem with it. I think, depending on the couple there are obstacles that they will have to face. My father married another black woman, race wasn't an issue for them, but it was for certain members of her family.

I married a white man, who didn't have very many black friends. He knew of black folks because of shows like "The Cosby Show" and "Family Matters," though his parents weren't fond of people of different ethnicities. His best friend was black and thought nothing negative of it. He ended up marrying a mixed girl and his sister a Filipino guy. A lot of their family wasn't happy at all, mainly over his sister. After 4 years, I think they've come around, at least most of them.

I think the general consensus is there's nothing Biblically wrong about interracial marriage.

 

John of Japan said:

What I will say, though, is that marriages between two people of radically different cultures such as Japan and America (never mind the race issue) can be extremely difficult.

The supposed difficulty of an interracial marriage no more a universal problem than racism itself is. Around here, interracial couples are so commonplace that they hardly merit any attention.

 

If you got a white guy and a black girl from the same culture and they married there would be no problem. But even if you get a white guy and a white girl from two separate and diverse cultures then you get problems.

But then, any equation into which you throw a woman becomes signaficantly more complicated. raise: :tongue3:

It is not about whether or not complications will come, just how many.

 

thjplgvp said:

There is nothing biblically wrong with interracial marriage but it would behoove us to understand God’s purpose for the races.

God's purpose for the races is to reconcile and unite them in Christ:

 

I was also just thinking about another problem that arises or will arise eventually when marrying an alien resident or anyone from a different race if their families are thousands of miles away.

My grandmother from my mom’s side is down in Florida and in the hospital and my grandfather from my dad’s side is in KY and pretty ill. It is such a blessing that my parents can both just pick up and drive down to them and be with them at any given time. Unfortunately, my wife from England has all of her family either in England or Australia and her folks and Nan (grandmother) are also getting pretty old. I am only a enlisted guy and we do not have the resources to just pick up, take off, and drive to England; a big ocean is in the way for starters. And flying can get pretty expensive. We have not been able to get to England in nearly 10 years and my wife is extremely close to her family.

And what if once I retire my wife wants to move to England for good? And what if she wants to have my kids go there as well? Many tough decisions would have to be made and none of it would happen if my wife was from the states. But God obviously brought us together for a reason and many great things have occurred that would not have ever happened if I married someone else in the states.

The bottom line is marrying anyone else from a different race, culture, or country can be very tough and make the marriage that much harder to work out. Again sorry for babbling on, but I just can’t seem to articulate everything I am trying to say here.

 

right-o

yep. down in Virginia, them white folks were just naturally courteous. invited you to sit down if you had to wait for someone when you are in an office.
not up here in Buffalo, though.
At least, not where my wife and I had been.
them whites take one look at our skin (well done, and not rare like theirs), and proceed to conduct business with you standing up there in front of their desks with two vacant chairs right in front of you, and no invitation to sit.
my wife walked into this shop where she was applying for a job as seamstress and they had two white receptionists and not one even looked in her direction to bother to ask what --- she's standing there for, while every white woman customer who walked in got the sweetest smile.

As for the OP, I agree.
Ain't no Bible restrictions, but I have yet to hear of a white "Christian" woman who marries a brown skinned Asian, and him welcomed wholeheartedly by her family.
Maybe there are some, haven't heard of them yet, though.:wavey:

 

Our culture and church has many interracial couples. No one really thinks anything about it.

 

I would have great difficulty determining whether or not I'm in an interracial marriage you see I'm a heinz 57 myself. :smilewinkgrin: I am made up of so many different cultural and racial traditions that my blood certainly isnt blue, more like a rainbow:thumbs: .

Bro Tony

 

Brother Scott,

Without hijacking the thread I would offer this question to your response. "God's purpose for the races is to reconcile and unite them in Christ:" Why then did God allow the races in the first place? I am simply saying that the races were part of God's plan to delay the end times. Do you think that God created the races or created man? If God created man (and he did) then he also knew that when he confounded the languages that race would result and contribute to keeping man from bringing their cognitive imaginations together. Unless all men are on the same page there can be no one world government or one world church. Hence today we have organizations called United nations and World council of Churches but without technology this would not be.

To the OP I apologize if you would like I will start another thread on the Purpose of Race or someone else can start it.

thjplgvp

 

Wow! I might get in trouble, but I really don't think Baptists should marry Methodists. Oh, oh, y'all were talking about skin color. :tongue3:

IMO, skin color has nothing to do with whether a man and woman should. or could, get married to someone that doesn't have the same color. The difference, as has be mentioned once, is the unequally yoked. If both are saved (and I really do prefer that my saved Baptist sons marry saved Baptist women), God's grace is sufficient for the marriage. I've seen mixed marriages of beliefs cause lots more problems than skin colors.

Where I'm located, which is on the Southern/Northern line (people around here were on either side during the civil war), I've seen it welcomed when a "white" woman has married a darker skinned European (is it okay to say that he was from Iraq?), and both are saved! I know of many "mixed" marriages; mixed when it came to skin colors and country origins. And all have been accepted when both are on the same side with the Lord.

I don't think that accepting interracial marriages will lead to everyone becoming one "color" and usher in a one world church/government. Even when accepted, there are still lots of cultural differences that will make for separation.

 

I heard many preachers when I was young teaching that the sons of Ham were inferior and blacks were the sons of Ham. (Actually, languages support the latter part of this, with a few exceptions, but that's another story.) Therefore, to intermarry between any of the three was a disgrace. (I'm stating this as what I heard, not what I believe, btw.)

For what it's worth, my family's as Irish as they come, and my wife is from Puerto Rico, and we call our son our little spic-mick. We've had to teach him not to say that at school, though, as someone might get offended and he would get in trouble. (And it's usually someone who has nothing to do with either.)

People have no sense of humor.

 

Of course, many of you already know my husband is black. I have no problems with interracial marriages, and as many have already mentioned, there is nothing prohibiting it in the Bible. To be honest, my husband and I have never had any problems from anyone other than a few people in an IFB church. I think age has a lot to do with one's perception of interracial marriage. The older a person is, the more likely they are to find problems with it. We have never experienced any social or cultural stigmas, nor have our children. We have experienced some racist, or just plain ignorant comments, but they have been few and far between, and like I said from only a handful of people. When I was first married I had a few well meaning people in the IFB church my parents attended warn me of the difficulties I would face being married to a black man. Needless to say, none of these situations, they warned me about, ever happened, nor are they likely to. My favorite was, "You would not be able to drive through a small town in Alabama during a Klan rally without making yourself a target". :laugh: Well, yeah, but why on earth would I do that anyway? That is like saying someone walking through the streets in an Arab country, carrying an American flag, during an anti-American rally would be making themselves a target. (FTR, the gentleman was from a small predominantly white town in Alabama, so he wasn't knocking the state) Anyway, just wanted to point out that the social and cultural stigmas, that many of you think, may plague interracial couples are not as prevalent as before, if not nonexistent.:flower:

 

JOJ---I appreciate your post---just wanted you to know!

Have a good day!

Blackbird

 

This exact same topic came up on another Christian website I was on, and, well, let's just say that the responses were totally unChristian ( and a couple more adjectives i could list. They too brought up the thing that Ham was cursed and therefore the black race "is not worthy to intermarry with the white race", to put it plain.

To put my opinion straight, it's enough to make any sensible,God-fearing Christian PUKE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
DRF

 

Although I don't know what site you were on, the granddaddy of today's KJVO movement is Peter Ruckman, who specializes in being impolite. He takes an old Ham/Canaan position and I suspect that you were seeing some of his proteges waxing eloquent. But I could be wrong.

There's no necessary connection between believing in the curse of Ham and being impolite, but the Junior Ruckman Forces tend to imitate Pete's meanness long before they master his material, so you seldom see the latter without the former.