»Ashlie Talley – atalley2@my.apsu.edu
Last week in a 9-6 ruling, an all-white church in Tomahawk, Ky put a ban on extending church membership to interracial couples, according to CBS News and the Christian Science Monitor. The congregation lost 25 out of 40 members over the issue.
The remaining congregation stated the passing of the vote was “not intended to judge the salvation of anyone, but is intended to promote greater unity among the church body and the community we serve.”
No more than a week later, the Gulnare Baptist Church is now repealing its decision to ban interracial couples from its congregation. It is a justified repeal when, according to Genesis, all men are made in God’s image and, according to Psalms, all humans are fearfully and wonderfully made.
Although the ban has now been lifted, the mere fact there are still Christians in our communities who believe interracial coupling is wrong and would rather drive them away than show them true Christian values is tragic.
The ideals of Christianity are vastly misunderstood by many people. Everything a Christian does is put under scrutiny and over analyzed because of the religion’s strict call for its believers to better themselves. However, people who call themselves Christians often times don’t “walk the talk,” so to speak.
For example, it is known Christianity warns against passing judgment on others unless they want to be judged likewise, but many people in the Christian faith seem to pass harsh judgment on others regardless of their own fallacies.
It is actions such as those of the Gulnare Freewill Baptist Church that breed hatred against the Christian community, and with good reason. When the only Christian values a person witnesses are that of ignorant, backward translation of biblical scripture, what else are they to think?
There are many biblical scriptures that suggest the forbiddance of interracial dating and marriage, most of them being in the Old Testament pertaining to the Israelites establishing their own nation under one God.
When the Bible is examined closer, we find God is not concerned with interracial coupling, but rather the religious beliefs of the persons that are involved in a relationship. Biblically, God would prefer the union of Christians.
The passage is referring to situations such as a Christian marrying a polytheist, for example. Perhaps many people disagree with this, but it is much better to choose a person based on a part of their character rather than an ethnicity they had no power in choosing.
Unfortunately, however, there are people who continue to carry on traditions of backward thinking and refuse to accept anything other than what they’ve been taught their entire lives.
They don’t take into account the scriptures that are contrary to their beliefs, and often, so-called Christians such as those at the Gulnare Baptist Church wind up sticking their feet in their mouths. Furthermore, if a religious church body passes legislation that can be so easily overturned, it obviously was not rooted very firmly in the values of that religion. If the Gulnare Baptist Church had been at all justified in establishing such a rule, it would not have disappeared at the first sign of controversy.
When dealing with something as significant as a person’s spirituality, leaders have to be steadfast in developing arguments in favor of their decisions before they are made, or they lose all credibility. This shouldn’t be news to any church.
Most devout Christians believe incorporating their faith into their both their daily lives and things like education and law-making. However, these Christians will now stand out as an example of how Christians everywhere are incapable of separating justified necessity from mere whim, whether it’s true or not.
The Bible does not indicate the existence of a superior race, or that keeping the races biologically separated is important. To translate scripture in such a way and insinuate such garbage is sad. TAS
