[EKY Sportster]

Here are SOME of the scriptures the church used against interracial marriage (scriptures quoted are from the King James Version):

Genesis 28:1: "And Isaac called Jacob, and blessed him, and charged him, and said unto him, Thou shall not take a wife of the daughters of Canaan".

Leviticus 19:19: "Ye shall keep my statutes. Thou shalt not let thy cattle gender with a diverse kind..."

Deuteronomy 7:2-3: "And when the Lord thy God shall deliver them before thee; thou shall smite them, and utterly destroy them; thou shalt make no covenant with them, nor shew mercy unto them: Neither shall they make marriages with them; thy daughter thou shalt not give unto his son, not his daughter shalt thou take unto thy son".

Deuteronomy 22:9: Thou shalt no sow thy vineyard with divers seeds; lest the fruit of thy seed which thou hast sown, and the fruit of thy vineyard, be defiled".

Jeremiah 13:23: "Can an Ethiopian change the color of his skin? Can a leopard take away its spots? Neither can you start doing good, for you have always done evil".

Acts 17: 24-26: "God....hath made of one blood all nations of men for to dwell on all the face of the earth, and hath determined the times before appointed, and the bounds of the habitation..."

The trial judge in a famous interracial marriage case appropriately titled "Loving v. Virginia" apparently agreed that racial separation was God's will and that mankind must not reverse that principle. He ignored the principle of separation of church and state as well as the equal protection clause in the U.S. Constitution when finding the Loving family guilty of miscegenation. Part of his ruling stated:
[INDENT] "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 show that he did not intend for the races to mix."



The above reference is another example of how, even back then, not only did the church use the scriptures for their own "benefit" to "prove" what they were teaching was right, but the courts did the same thing, as they are doing today with gay marriage, equal protection and separation of church and state. [/INDENT] Now...these are just SOME of the scriptures the church used against interracial marriage. Do I agree with it. No, I do not. But the point being, during the time when interracial marriage was the "hot topic" people used the Bible to "prove their point". In my view, it was an misinterpretation back then, because now, the church does not think of interracial marriage as a "bad thing" it's no longer the "hot topic" of the times. Was this misinterpretation intentional? Is interracial marriage as "wrong" today as it was back in the 70's or was it just the period in time when Christians chose to use their misinterpretations of the scriptures to prove their point about something that was nothing at all, like gay marriage is today?

And you are right, this thread is not just about the church and homosexuals, but it has taken the forefront of this discussion, due in part to peoples strong opinion about this topic. Religious groups/churches are fighting the gay community on the right to marry, just as they did back when interracial marriage was the topic of discussion. It does make me wonder what band wagon/agenda/people the churches will discriminate against next.

These Genesis, Leviticus and Deuteronomy quotes are from the Old Testmament and were meant to try and keep the Jewish people pure. Of course the New Testament changed all of that with the Gentiles being brought into the fold. As for the quotes from Jeremiah and Acts, I don't take them to mean that inter-racial marriage is a sin. Sorry but I don't see the connection. And yes you did have some old line churches and even some modern day churches that use the Bible and quote out of context to make their beliefs appear to be factual when they may not be. You just have to read the Bible in the context of the quote and make your own determination.

As for homosexuality, the government can do whatever it likes. It is only a civil union under our laws anyway. But it is wrong and also unnatural IMO. Homosexuals cannot even reproduce the last time I checked. What sort of family units are we wanting to create? Of course with the way people treat marriage now I guess it doesn't matter anyway. The majority of kids come from broken families and single parent households. No wonder people are like they are now and the morals of our society are in decline. We could even go further and allow people to marry their pets. What do you think about that idea? Seriously, I know there are people that would and if you allow homosexual relationships to be recognized, then these people would have an argument to make as well.