Inter Racial Procreation a Sin?

[Emilia]

My father who is 90 years old and a very stern Catholic insists that God said it is a sin to procreate with someone who is outside of your race. He uses as an example that the creatures do not mix. He has disowned my sister because she has a son by a black man. She is caucasian. I told him that no where in the bible does it say that.

[Judah]

Oh dear, that sounds like pure racial prejudism to me, nothing out of the Bible that I know about. There is very likely to be other personal issues and concerns in there as well - social, cultural, ethnic, etc, and shame. And obviously the "creatures" do mix, as his grandchild gives testimony. Can your father give the actual Bible reference that supports his view? If he wants you to believe him, that would surely help.

We are told in 2 Corinthians 6:14 Do not be yoked together with unbelievers. For what do righteousness and wickedness have in common? Or what fellowship can light have with darkness?

Is your father mistaking "light" and "darkness" with skin colour, perhaps?
Of course skin colour has no bearing at all on righteousness and wickedness, but unenlightened attitudes are still around where white (light) = good, and black (dark) = evil.

As far as I know, the not being yoked with unbelievers is the only formal prescription given us (besides gender).

[Byblos]

I agree with Judah. Although your grandfather may be set in his ways, you might still be in a position to teach him a thing or 2. I'm not aware of anything in the bible that denies interracial marriage or procreation. Catholicism in particular, encourages procreation and discourages even masterbation as a sinful act. May I ask if your sister is married? If not, could it be that your grandfather is objecting to procreation out of wedlock and using race as an excuse?

[Canuckster1127]

My father who is 90 years old and a very stern Catholic insists that God said it is a sin to procreate with someone who is outside of your race. He uses as an example that the creatures do not mix. He has disowned my sister because she has a son by a black man. She is caucasian. I told him that no where in the bible does it say that.

You're correct.

The Bible does not say that. Humans are a single species. The differentiations of "race" for humans is not the same as different species intermixing, which, in fact, by definition could not actually breed and conceive between each other.

I don't know if the child you mention involved you're sister being married. If not, then there is sin involved, but that is not in any way based upon race.

Sadly, people make distinctions of this nature and it is wrong.

[Emilia]

Thank you for your replies. I have had many an argument with my father regarding this. He can't point to any specific writings in the bible. He has gone so far as to argue that one of the reasons God has said that the races should not procreate with each other is that the children would come out with spots and stripes. That God made the races different enough so that we would all recognize which is which and not mix. That when he made Asians and saw that their skin color was too close to Caucasian and might be confused with them, he gave them slanted eyes. He told my sister that her son is not of his bloodline and should not carry his last name (my sister did not marry her sons father and so he has carried her last name.) That she now needs to cut him out of her life and let him go be with "his" people. He went so far as to tell me that God would cut me off and send me to hell along with her if I continued to have a relationship with her.
Needless to say, I am flabbergasted by the absurdity of his arguments. It's abonimable how people will convolute and distort. Where could he possibly have come up with this stuff. He is from Poland.
I really don't think that at this late age he will change but I would love to find something that I could show him directly from the bible. Especially an original text, because he once used the argument that many bibles are fake.

[Judah]

Emilia, a great many people are Biblically illiterate. They think they know what their Bibles say about something, but a little simple research shows that they have got it quite wrong.

Here is a couple of interesting verses:
Genesis 3:20 Adam named his wife Eve, because she would become the mother of all the living.
Malachi 2:10 Have we not all one Father? Did not one God create us? Why do we profane the covenant of our fathers by breaking faith with one another?
Don't these two verses seem to imply that we are all of the one family of mankind?

However, if your father has such strong views which many would regard as irrational, then it is unlikely that he will give them up very easily. Despite all your efforts, he has not done so yet. I suspect it is more likely that he will simply find another way of discounting what you say and twist it to support his own beliefs.

Given that he is a stern Catholic, had you thought to ask the parish priest to speak with him? I am thinking that the authority of the Church might have some effect whereas you, a daughter, do not. Even so, he may still prefer to keep his own ideas since they have probably been a part of him for a very long time. Giving them up may not be an easy thing to do.

Since he is a stern Catholic, as you say, he will surely see that your sister has sinned and that this grandchild is illegitimate, and therefore a source of shame from which he wants to dissociate. His racial prejudices add to it all. He is finding a solution for himself - have the child handed over to the father's side of the family and his daughter come back to him. Then the child can be forgotten as though he was never born. His solution does not take into account the reality of the situation, just his own problem that he has with it.

This may require quite a lot of compassion and understanding on your part. You can see that his arguments are irrational, but he does not want to since they support his idea of what should be the solution to his uncomfortable situation. This is not a purely intellectual matter where plain reasoning is involved, but something far more complex and coloured with strong feelings and attitudes.

I'm hoping that others here will have some more perspective to add.

[Canuckster1127]

I think Judah has captured the importance of this issue very well.

Racial prejudice is irrational and most do not give it up early. It is more an issue of the heart and sinful human nature than it is thought out decision.

I think the idea of appealing to a priest for help in this matter is wise.

Pray and give this issue and your father over to God.

Most important in my mind, in this situation is the child. The issue of a child out of wedlock while less of a stigma in many societies today, is still something that may well mark that child for the rest of the child's life.

Yes, sex outside of marriage is fornication. It is sin. There are consequences and hardships that arise when we violate God's laws in this manner. Some of the consequences may extend beyond the parties involved and harm families and the resultant child.

God, however, still loves that child and your sister and there is foregiveness available in Christ, just as there is for all of us as sinners, regardless of the nature of our specific sins.

I would encourage you to follow the very good advice Judah has given and further to make it a point to reach out to your sister, love her and the child. You can do that without condoning the sinful actions in this regard. It can be difficult but God can show how to do this. He modelled it in many regards in that while we were still sinners he send Christ to die for us and provide a way out of our sinful condition that we could not provide for ourselves.

Pray for the child and show love and acceptance for them that models that love and Christ and trust God for the results.

[Gman]

Here is another thing that God says about the races... It's plan to see that God teaches equality..

Equality of the races

1. The Scriptures teach plainly that God "hath made of one blood all nations of men.” Acts 17:26 From one man he made every nation of men, that they should inhabit the whole earth; and he determined the times set for them and the exact places where they should live.

2. All races are equal under God. Galatians 3:28 There is neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.

3 The Bible teaches that all of humanity was created in the image of God (Genesis 1:27). This means that all people are equal and are to be treated as such. In the Old Testament God tells the Jews to care for foreigners in the land of Israel because they know what it is like to be 'foreigners' themselves.

4. Malachi 2:10 Have we not all one Father? Did not one God create us? Why do we profane the covenant of our fathers by breaking faith with one another?

If we are all one under God then skin color doesn't apply...

[Turgonian]

As far as I know, the not being yoked with unbelievers is the only formal prescription given us (besides gender).

I sincerely doubt whether this has anything to do with marriage.

To quote from the notes in the Dutch Bible: be yoked together: That is, a yoke, or fellowship with those who are of unequal religion, as the idolatrous pagans were. With which he does not forbid all kind of community, for that would conflict what he said I Corinthians 5:10, but only such fellowship, whereby they also should be brought to the fellowship of their idolatry or other sins, or the unbelievers be confirmed in their sins; and it is an allusion to the Law, Deuteronomy 22:10, where God forbids them to plow with an ox and a donkey yoked together.

I'm sorry I don't have anything by JP Holding today.

[Daniel]

My grandmother cites the story of Ham as proof that the black people are cursed, and where Proverbs says "birds of a feather mix together". I tried debating her but she just said that anyone who disagrees "needs to read their Bible more closely" and that she learned it in a Bible study from a lady who taught her a lot about God. I asked her about Ruth and Boaz and she said "one was Jewish and the other was Caucasian. That's close enough." Then she said "if God intended for black people to live in America, he would have created them here."

I know this is unbiblical, and it bothers me.

[cslewislover]

Hi Emilia. I'm sorry that you're having to go through all this. It is definitely irrational, and I'd try to do what Judah suggested. I'd see if your dad would go with you to a priest for counseling.