Interracial Marriage

Q: Is it a sin for a Christian to marry someone from a different race? (That seems to be the commonly held belief of most of the Christians I know.) And if it's okay, then why are so many people against it?

A: No it is not a sin for a Christian to marry someone from a different race. The Bible is actually silent on this subject; it neither forbids or endorses interracial marriage. What God did explicitly forbid is interreligious marriage. Christians are not to marry people of other faiths. Christians should only marry other Christians.

Back in the Old Testament, God told the Israelites not to marry anyone from outside their faith. (Deuteronomy 7:3-5) The primary reason was that He didn't want their faith to get diluted by other (false) beliefs. And God didn't want His people to be distracted in their marriage by worship of other (false) gods. (Exodus 34:12-16)

So what if a Christian is already married to a non-Christian? That could only happen in one of three ways I believe. (1) You made a mistake and married a non-Christian. (2) You became a Christian after you were already married. (3) Your spouse deceived you about the fact that they were really not a Christian. In any case, the Bible tells us how to handle that. The Christian is obligated to stay in the marriage and do their best to reflect the love of Christ to their spouse. If the non-Christian spouse wants out of the marriage, he or she may leave. But the Christian can not be the one to make that decision. (1 Corinthians 7:10-15)

Okay, back to interracial marriages. Like I said, the Bible neither forbids or endorses them. However, we have several examples of God's chosen people entering into marriages with people from a different race. Moses married an Ethiopian woman (Numbers 12:1). Salmon married Rahab, the harlot of Jericho (Matthew 1:5). Boaz married a Moabite (Ruth 2:10 & 4:13). We never find any issues with those marriages on the basis of race.

So interracial marriage is fine, so long as it is between two believers - which is the same criteria that should be applied to marriages within the same race.

Finally, there are people, even people who call themselves Christians, opposed to interracial marriage because they are ignorant (unaware) of the truth. God created us all in His own image - as spiritual beings. The human bodies He's assigned each of us to during our tour of duty on earth are not material to who we are.