QUOTES FROM THE BIBLE & RELIGIOUS RIGHT
ON RACISM, SEXISM AND MARRIAGE EQUALITY:
A HISTORY OF HYPOCRISY, GREED, AND BIGOTRY
Until 1967, laws banning interracial marriage - known as anti-miscegenation laws - were a prominent part of United States legislature. Anti-miscegenation laws were passed individually by states specifically to prohibit interracial sex and/or marriage. In most cases, these laws considered relationships between people of different races as a felony, and though they were mainly targeted at relations between blacks and whites, they included relationships between whites, Asians and Native Americans as well.This was these case until these laws were deemed unconstitutional in 1967 by the Supreme Court case Loving v. Virginia (Wikipedia).
In this court case Richard and Mildred Loving, two newlyweds, were arrested in 1959 by police who burst into their bedroom (Religious Tolerance). The deputies and officials who bombarded the Loving home did not recognize the couple as husband and wife. Mildred was African-American, and her husband Richard was white. The couple married in the District of Columbia in 1958, but then moved to Virginia where they established a home together. According to Virginia law, their relationship violated the state's Racial Integrity Act of 1924, which banned marriage specifically between people considered "white" and people considered to be "colored." The couple was charged in 1958 for the act of being married out of state, and then returning to Virginia (Wikipedia). The trial judge who oversaw the case stated, "Almighty God created the races white, black, yellow, malay and red, and he placed them on separate continents. And but for the interference with his arrangement there would be no cause for such marriages. The fact that he separated the races shows that he did not intend for the races to mix."
RELATED ARTICLES ON MISCEGENATION LAWS
The Moral Status of Miscegenation
(Information on the religious history of the laws.)
"You shall not intermarry with them, giving your daughters to their sons or taking their daughters for your sons, for they would turn away your sons from following me, to serve other gods. Then the anger of the Lord would be kindled against you, and he would destroy you quickly." (Deuteronomy 7:3-4)
"You shall not sow your vineyard with two kinds of seed, lest the whole yield be forfeited, the crop that you have sown and the yield of the vineyard. You shall not plow with an ox and a donkey together. You shall not wear cloth of wool and linen mixed together." (Deuteronomy 22:9-11)
"Therefore do not give your daughters to their sons, neither take their daughters for your sons, and never seek their peace or prosperity, that you may be strong and eat the good of the land and leave it for an inheritance to your children forever." (Ezra 9:12)
"As you saw the iron mixed with soft clay, so they will mix with one another in marriage, but they will not hold together, just as iron does not mix with clay." (Daniel 2:43)
"Before him will be gathered all the nations, and he will separate people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats." (Matthew 25:32)
"That I may make you swear by the Lord, the God of heaven and God of the earth, that you will not take a wife for my son from the daughters of the Canaanites, among whom I dwell, but will go to my country and to my kindred, and take a wife for my son Isaac." (Genesis 24:3-4)
"The moral and physical development of both races … require that they should be kept distinct and separate … that connections and alliance so unnatural that God and nature seem to forbid them, should be prohibited by positive law, and subject to no evasion" (Kinney v. Commonwealth, Virginia, 1878)
"Slaves, obey your earthly masters with deep respect and fear. Serve them sincerely as you would serve Christ." (Ephesians 6:5)
"However, you may purchase male or female slaves from among the foreigners who live among you. You may also purchase the children of such resident foreigners, including those who have been born in your land. You may treat them as your property, passing them on to your children as a permanent inheritance. You may treat your slaves like this, but the people of Israel, your relatives, must never be treated this way." (Leviticus 25:44-46)
"When a man sells his daughter as a slave, she will not be freed at the end of six years as the men are. If she does not please the man who bought her, he may allow her to be bought back again. But he is not allowed to sell her to foreigners, since he is the one who broke the contract with her. And if the slave girl's owner arranges for her to marry his son, he may no longer treat her as a slave girl, but he must treat her as his daughter. If he himself marries her and then takes another wife, he may not reduce her food or clothing or fail to sleep with her as his wife. If he fails in any of these three ways, she may leave as a free woman without making any payment." (Exodus 21:7-11)
"The move from Africa to America was a vast increase of freedom for the Negro, materially and spiritually."
"The University of Timbuktu never existed. The only thing that existed in Timbuktu was a small mud hut."
"Some people are by nature slaves and will always be so."
"The urge to dominion is God-given and is basic to the nature of man. An aspect of this dominion is property."
"The false witness borne during World War II with respect to Germany (i.e., the death camps) is especially notable and revealing.. the number of Jews who died after deportation is approximately 1,200,000 … very many of these people died of epidemics."
"All men are NOT created equal before God."
"The matriarchal society is thus decadent and broken… matriarchal character of Negro life is due to the moral failure of Negro men, their failure …to provide authority. The same is true of American Indian tribes which are also matriarchal."
"An employer therefore has a property right to prefer whom he will, and he can prefer whom he will in terms of color, creed, race, or national origin."
"Selective breeding in Christian countries has led to … the progressive elimination of defective persons."
"A ‘Litany’ popular in these circles identifies ‘God’ with the city, with the ’spick, black nigger, bastard, Buddhahead, and kike,’ with ‘all men, this concept runs deeply through the so-called Civil Rights Revolution… But …no society has ever existed without class and caste lines."
"The answer is, there is not a law against it, but there is basically a principle that militates against such marriages, so that you might say they are just barely legal, but in principle Scripture is opposed to them. Because the whole point of marriage is that the wife be a helpmeet to her husband, and the term “helpmeet” means in effect a mirror, an image, one who reflects him spiritually; that is, in terms of faith, in terms of a common background, in terms of a common purpose. Now, marriage between persons of very different races generally doesn’t fulfill that requirement, you see. So that it can be technically a marriage, but it isn’t one in which the wife can be a helpmeet. So that while it can legally qualify, theologically you could say there are factors which normally, in almost 99 cases out of 100, would militate against it."
"A wife is bound to her husband as long as he lives. But if her husband dies, she is free to be married to whom she wishes, only in the Lord." (1 Corinthians 7:39
"Do not be unequally yoked with unbelievers. For what partnership has righteousness with lawlessness? Or what fellowship has light with darkness? What accord has Christ with Belial? Or what portion does a believer share with an unbeliever? What agreement has the temple of God with idols? For we are the temple of the living God; as God said, "I will make my dwelling among them and walk among them, and I will be their God, and they shall be my people." (2 Corinthians 6:14-16)