Interracial Marriage: The Fundamentalists Were Wrong

In 1967, the Supreme Court ruled in Loving v. Virginia that states could not outlaw interracial marriage. The primary opponents of interracial marriage cited the Bible in support of their prejudice. The Biblical arguments they used are today rejected by most Christians, including most Fundamentalists. The same can be said about past Christian support of slavery: the Biblical arguments used then are rejected today.

But this matter gives us a potent lesson about using the Bible to justify your prejudice. To modern ears, the Biblical arguments cited in the past in opposition of interracial marriage or in support of slavery or anti-Semitism sound flat and false. But at the time, they were taken as quite reasonable and valid.

These arguments cite passages such as:

[Numbers 36:6] This is what the LORD commands for Zelophehad's daughters: They may marry anyone they please as long as they marry within the tribal clan of their father.
[7] No inheritance in Israel is to pass from tribe to tribe, for every Israelite shall keep the tribal land inherited from his forefathers.
[8] Every daughter who inherits land in any Israelite tribe must marry someone in her father's tribal clan, so that every Israelite will possess the inheritance of his fathers.
[9] No inheritance may pass from tribe to tribe, for each Israelite tribe is to keep the land it inherits."

[Ezra 10:2] Then Shecaniah son of Jehiel, one of the descendants of Elam, said to Ezra, "We have been unfaithful to our God by marrying foreign women from the peoples around us. But in spite of this, there is still hope for Israel.
[3] Now let us make a covenant before our God to send away all these women and their children, in accordance with the counsel of my lord and of those who fear the commands of our God. Let it be done according to the Law.

[Nehemiah 13:23] Moreover, in those days I saw men of Judah who had married women from Ashdod, Ammon and Moab.
[24] Half of their children spoke the language of Ashdod or the language of one of the other peoples, and did not know how to speak the language of Judah.
[25] I rebuked them and called curses down on them. I beat some of the men and pulled out their hair. I made them take an oath in God's name and said: "You are not to give your daughters in marriage to their sons, nor are you to take their daughters in marriage for your sons or for yourselves.
[26] Was it not because of marriages like these that Solomon king of Israel sinned? Among the many nations there was no king like him. He was loved by his God, and God made him king over all Israel, but even he was led into sin by foreign women.
[27] Must we hear now that you too are doing all this terrible wickedness and are being unfaithful to our God by marrying foreign women?"

[Malachi 2:11] Judah has broken faith. A detestable thing has been committed in Israel and in Jerusalem: Judah has desecrated the sanctuary the LORD loves, by marrying the daughter of a foreign god.
[12] As for the man who does this, whoever he may be, may the LORD cut him off from the tents of Jacob —even though he brings offerings to the LORD Almighty.

Also employed was the story of Phinehas, grandson of Aaron, who thrust a spear through an Israelite man and the Moabite woman he was having sex with, in order to save the kingdom of Israel.

So the argument was made that God will be angry with nations that allow "race-mixing." And given all of these passages, it seems like a reasonable belief for a Christian to hold, if he takes the Bible seriously, no?

American attitudes were for decades influenced by this reasoning. The Virginia law struck down by the Supreme Court in 1967 called interracial marriage an "abomination" that threatened to "pollute" America. Many prominent preachers and politicians over the decades, seeing themselves as well-grounded in Christian doctrine, described interracial marriage in the harshest, most hateful terms. A senator said of interracial marriage that "natural instinct revolts at it as wrong." A U.S. representative said that interracial marriage "necessarily involves (the) degradation" of conventional marriage. Other politicians argued that it was a "calamity" which would lead to unrestrained immorality, sterile children, widespread male effeminacy, and many other social ills. (See more here.)

How could Christians 140 years ago, or even 40 years ago, have discerned the truth about these hateful statements and these false Biblical arguments? They could have seen through the hatred if they had only taken to heart the words of the man they call the savior: if they had applied the litmus test of Jesus.  Jesus called on his followers to judge whether or not a religious teaching brought "good fruit" or "bad fruit."

he argument that interracial marriage is wrong bears the bad fruit of suffering and sadness on the part of many who fall in love with someone who happens to be of another race. Of course, the racist could argue in reply that mixing the races is bad fruit, so we must demonstrate "tough love" to avoid the sinfulness of interracial marriage. But "tough love," which means harshly rebuking those who break God's commandments, is very clearly counter to Jesus' meaning.  We can see this when we examine the parable of the good Samaritan. We can also see in his interactions with the Samaritan woman in John 4:1-26 and the crowd who wanted to stone the accused adulteress in John 8:1-11 that Jesus did not use harsh rebukes to reach people he thought were acting counter to God's law -- because he saw the law to love one's neighbor as taking precendence.

Fundamentalists could take the lesson of "anti-miscegenation" laws and activism to heart and consider the ways in which so-called "tough love" is currently being practiced and promoted. Does it meet the good fruit/bad fruit "litmus test" which Jesus gave his followers? Does it exemplify loving one's neighbor as one of the two foremost commandments?

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