MARRIAGE EQUALITY NATIONWIDE

[Lek]

Here are the verses that were used to 'define' marriage in the segregated south:

It is also worthwhile to remember that most white people, when these laws were written, literally thought of blacks as a different, lower breed of human who would lead whites into depravity and away from God.

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.

In those days also I saw the Jews who had married women of Ashdod, Ammon, and Moab. And half of their children spoke the language of Ashdod, and they could not speak the language of Judah, but only the language of each people. And I confronted them and cursed them and beat some of them and pulled out their hair. And I made them take oath in the name of God, saying, “You shall not give your daughters to their sons, or take their daughters for your sons or for yourselves. Did not Solomon king of Israel sin on account of such women? Among the many nations there was no king like him, and he was beloved by his God, and God made him king over all Israel. Nevertheless, foreign women made even him to sin. Shall we then listen to you and do all this great evil and act treacherously against our God by marrying foreign women?” ...

(this one was also used to promote segregation.)

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.

For they have taken some of their daughters to be wives for themselves and for their sons, so that the holy race has mixed itself with the peoples of the lands. And in this faithlessness the hand of the officials and chief men has been foremost.”

They misinterpreted scripture, as these warning were given because of the depravity of the spouses they were taking. It had nothing to do with their genetic make-up, but rather to do with their immorality and their worship of other gods. The bible does caution against christians marrying non-christian spouses as Paul spoke of being "unequally yoked", but christians still recognized those marriages and we're commanded to remain in them unless the non-believing spouse were to abandon the other. I'm one of those by the way. "Unequally yoked" referred to their spiritual status. I agree that people were using verses such as these to justify banning inter-racial marriages, but the bible was not speaking against interracial marriage. In fact, foreigners could convert to judaism and as fellow believers be considered morally acceptable. Even at that, the Jews still recognized marriages to non-believing foreigners to be valid marriages. It happened quite regularly, by the way