Even though racially mixed marriages are becoming more common, some still resent it when a member of their own ethnic community marries an outsider. Others are convinced that such marriages are morally or spiritually wrong. Until concluding that mixed marriages do have spiritual implications, I wasn’t sure I wanted to think through the subject in the presence of those who might be hurt or offended by my attempts to find a biblical perspective.
Do the Scriptures give us reason to believe that Asian, African, and European bloodlines should be kept pure? What about lesser ethnic distinctions? Some families believe Dutch stock should not be mixed with Swedish or German gene pools (as in my own parents’ case when they married, with some resentment from Holland-born relatives).
To test our thinking, let’s give a hearing to those who believe ethnic differences are a part of the divine order. Such a person might say, “Racial purity is a righteous idea. Whether we like it or not, our Creator made the races different. The same God who made all living creatures to reproduce after their own kind is the One who made Asians, Africans, Europeans, and Latinos. How could it be right for us to blend distinctions He conceived? Furthermore,” such a person might argue, “according to the book of Genesis all bloodlines are not equal. Through Noah, God predestined the descendants of Ham, who migrated to Africa, to be a servant race. We may not like all of this. We may think we are sophisticated enough to override God’s purposes. But according to the Bible, our Creator is the source of our differences, and it’s dangerous to think we know better than Him.”
Some might see such an argument for ethnic purity as an example of conservative, Bible-believing conviction. Let me suggest, however, why I think using the Scriptures to condemn racially mixed marriages is an example of theological and biblical confusion. Let’s see if the Scriptures can give us help in evaluating the validity of Afro-European marriages.
- We were alike before we were different. The Scriptures repeatedly show that all of us have roots from the same parents (Acts 17:26). Before there were differences of skin tone, facial features, and language, we were alike. First, we were the sons and daughters of Adam and Eve. After a terrible flood wiped out everyone except one family, the gene pool was narrowed back down to Noah’s family. For this reason there’s no merit to the idea that God expects people to protect racial purity by reproducing after their own kind. All families of the earth share equally, not only in the gene pool of humanity but in the image and likeness of God. We may be inclined to belittle one another by failing to identify with the thoughts and emotions of people who look or sound different than we do. But the Bible clearly says that we all have the same human blood running through our veins.
- God did not predestine Africans to be a servant race. The idea that Africans were predestined to be a servant class comes from a misreading of a biblical story. It relates to a curse pronounced by Noah after learning that his son Ham had told his brothers he’d seen their father lying naked in a drunken stupor (Genesis 9:20-27). From Noah’s reaction to Ham, we conclude he felt that Ham had shown him disrespect. A closer look shows that Noah did not curse all of Ham’s descendants, many of whom migrated south into Africa. The curse settled specifically on Canaan, the fourth son of Ham, whose descendants eventually moved into the area now occupied by the nation of Israel. Noah’s curse fell on the Canaanites, who were judged for their idolatrous, sexual excesses.
- Moses married an Ethiopian woman. When Aaron and Miriam, Moses’ brother and sister, spoke against Moses “because of his Ethiopian wife,” God showed His displeasure with their criticism, but did not indicate He had a problem with Moses’ mixed marriage. God showed disapproval of Miriam’s condemnation of Moses by striking Miriam’s skin with leprosy for seven days (Numbers 12:1-15). I doubt it’s a coincidence that God turned Miriam’s skin “leper white” in judgment.
- Hearts are more important to God than skin color. While the New Testament urges followers of Christ not to enter into a binding relationship with someone who does not believe in Christ (2 Corinthians 6:14), it never says anything about avoiding people with a different shade of skin. Never does the New Testament give us reason to believe that God wants us to stay within our own ethnic profile. But a concerned black or white parent may ask, “What about the social burden carried by partners in a racially mixed relationship? Isn’t marriage difficult enough without facing enormous cultural differences too?” These are important questions. Ethnic and temperamental differences that are appealing in courtship sometimes become the very differences that are most difficult to tolerate as the marriage matures. But however difficult our differences, we must remember that God is more concerned about the attitudes of our hearts than about skin color.
The real issue isn’t what we think about racially mixed marriages. It’s how deeply we care about all who’ve been created by Christ, and for whom He died.
