"Separate but equal" in marriage

The fastest way for a preacher to get fired from a conservative Southern church today is to sanction interracial marriages from the pulpit. I could easily name men whose congregations gently let them go soon after the pastors intimated that interracial Christian marriages, especially between whites and blacks, are fully permissible and pleasing to God. These men weren't promoting interracial marriages as necessary. They simply communicated that God smiled when seeing a white Christian and black Christian, for example, enter the covenant of marriage.

Over 40 years ago (June 12, 1967) the U.S. Supreme Court struck down a Virginia statute barring whites from marrying nonwhites. Fifteen other states struck down similar bans. Factoring in all racial combinations, MSNBC reports Stanford University sociologist Michael Rosenfeld's calculations: More than 7% of America's 59 million married couples in 2005 were interracial, compared to less than 2% in 1970.

Christians, however, remain among those who seem most resistant to interracial marriages in America. Why is this? If it is true, with respect to being a full member in God's family, that there is neither "Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, there is neither male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus" (Gal. 3:28), why do our standards for marital unions go beyond what God sets forth for union with his own son?

I was in a black church once with a friend who made the mistake of bringing his blonde-haired girlfriend to church. Based on the looks he received, I wondered if he was wearing a sign reading, "I hate Christians." Christian parents talk positively about "equality" until "Martha Lynn" brings "Tyrone" or "Miguel" home for Thanksgiving dinner. "Ahh, Houston we have a problem!" True beliefs are exposed behind questions like, "what about the kids?"

One of the greatest pronouncements the Church can make about the radical implications of the resurrection of Jesus for the human family is to champion our future interracial heavenly reality here and now by marrying across races and classes. Without interracial marriages Christian churches will likely remain "separate but equal" like they were in 1967. The racial reconciliation that many long for in Christianity will bear better witness to the world at the wedding altar than the weekend conference.