Loaded Questions

Okay... I just want to know because I think I'd be smarter for it (in some insane kind of way).

There are some Christians who believe that interracial marriage is a no-no, that it's an "abomination"... I don't know what scriptures they're pulling from or whatever, or how much evidence based on these scriptures they have to be making these kind of claims.

In short, for those way into the bible and/or those who follow up on why some people in a religion believe one thing and others don't, what is the evidence being pulled from the Bible against interracial marriages?

I'll assume no one here is actually against interracial marriages, but if you somehow are and feel you need your shout out, I suppose you can use this thread too.

<Grabs a front row seat for this!>

Can't shed much light on that really.. You can look to history to see where there were many debates over whether or not many primative tribes were in fact human, if they possessed souls - or were mere animals.

I've know from my very very short stint in the cozy-lil-forwardlooking-city of Bakersfield CA that there are people that walk amoung us that still believe this.

Someone who was similarly so mercifully free from the ravages of intelligence could cite claims of beastiality.


Siggy.

If god can have a chosen people then that in itself is racist. I'd imagine most hardcore true believers see themselves as one of the chosen people. From there it's pretty easy to apply that concept to support cultural and ethnic prejudices that may have nothing at all to do with scripture.

I don't think that there is anything specifically against interracial marriage in the Bible. Indeed King Solomon's marriage to the Queen of Sheba, who was an African - probably a dark African, rather than Egyptian - comes to mind as an example.

It's not christians who believe that. It is racists in she...err christian clothing.

BTW is a loaded question one you ask while drunk?

Daemioth,

For Christians, there's nothing about this. However, I believe that (and maybe someone can confirm, Jon?) that in the books of Moses there was something about Jews not being allowed to marry non-Jews, something to do with their unclean practices. But it wasn't a racial thing. Anyone was welcome to change their religion and go through purification rights.

Actually, maybe one of our Jewish members may want to clarify that... you'd know better than me at any rate.

Sio

the law of moses instructed the jewsh nation to not marry outside their nationality. the reason given was that the forigners would bring their gods with them into israel and the jews would begin to worship them.

it was apparently a sound theory as it happened over and over again that judges & kings had to tear down idols and pagan temples after periods when the nation's people had been lax about following the law.

right or wrong, it was their law and their reasoning and never had any practicle application outside of their nation.

Honestly, I've never heard of it. Of course, I'm not very 'with-it' when it comes to Jewish laws. All I know is, my mother always said I could never marry a shiksa (non-Jewish girl), so, I didn't!

In American history, a powerful injunction against interracial marriage relied on the mark of Cain argument -- God supposedly made a "mark" on Cain and his children after he murdered Able, so that others would know them and shun them. The mark of Cain, many American Christians claimed in the past, was the dark skin of other races, specifically Africans and African-Americans.

The argument was part of a larger world perspective held by many Christians prior to the last century, called "the Great Chain of Being." God was supposed to have divided the world into hierarchies of creatures -- worms to fish to birds to mammals, and the like -- and therefore divided humanity into hierarchial races, inferior or superior. Cohabitation between races was likened to bestiality -- it was "unnatural".

In the American south, during the pre-Civil War antebellum period and well into the 20th century, white people justified slavery, segregation, and bans on interracial relationships, using these quasi-biblical arguments. While the arguments were not used to justify slavery or segregation in New England and parts of the Mid-Atlantic, they were used to justify laws against interracial marriage.

Many Mormons used the mark of Cain argument to justify banning blacks from their priesthood until the policy was changed in the 1970s, but this was not the official line of the Mormon church.

I am not "way into the Bible" but I know a little history. And if anyone thinks I'm baiting Christians by making these points, I'm not. They're part of the legacy.

Thanks, Donovan--that sounded pretty thorough and educated... just wanted some history and whatnot, and I got it. Thanks, everyone, for replying--I'm feeling smarter today.

I think we all need to grab another colored mate and pump like bunnies until we're all brown or whatever color then racism based on color will be a moot point.

I do however fear then that it would be the irish, african, polynesian, chinese would be against the Euro, Taiwanian, Japanese, Swedes, but theres always hope... right?