We were all surprised yesterday when Boone came home from school and announced he has a girlfriend. Boone is only in 3rd grade. Pretty sure none of my other boys claimed to have a girlfriend at that age! Boone proudly informed me he and his new belle had made plans to do their homework together.
Stafan: "You gonna let him do that?!"
Me: "No."
Me: "Is she a Christian?
Boone (looking a little nervous): "Yeah, but she don't go to our church. I broke up with my last girlfriend because she wasn't a Christian."
Me: "Is she white?"
Lyric: "Yes. Her name is McKenzie."
Boone: "If she gets braces though she is outta here."
OK. Before anyone screams "racist!," let me explain the question above. While I very much care about what religion my kids' friends are, I could not care less about the race or color of any one my kids date or marry--and my kids know that. I asked the question about race because, as a parent of ten Chinese kids, I unfortunately know that some people who share my skin color don't feel the same way. Hopefully, if McKenzie's parents find out their little girl is smitten with a Chinese boy from Jiaxing City, Zhejiang Province, the only reason they'll put a stop to it is because she's in third grade.
Some people take Deuteronomy 7:3-6 out of context to argue that interracial marrying is not Biblical.
3 Do not intermarry with them. Do not give your daughters to their sons or take their daughters for your sons, 4 for they will turn your children away from following me to serve other gods, and the Lord’s anger will burn against you and will quickly destroy you. 5 This is what you are to do to them: break down their altars, smash their sacred stones, cut down their Asherah poles[a] and burn their idols in the fire. 6 For you are a people holy to the Lord your God.
The Lord your God has chosen you out of all the peoples on the face of the earth to be his people, his treasured possession.
Clearly, what God was telling the Israelites in this passage was not to marry people who worshiped other Gods because it would corrupt his pure people. However, marrying outside your race is acceptable to God. In fact, God was unhappy with Miriam and Aaron when they spoke against Moses, because Moses married a lady from Ethiopia.
Miriam and Aaron Oppose Moses
1
Miriam and Aaron began to talk
against Moses because of his Cushite wife, for he had married a Cushite.
2
“Has the LORD spoken only through
Moses?” they asked. “Hasn’t he also spoken through us?” And the LORD
heard this.
3
(Now Moses was a very humble man, more humble than anyone else on the face of the earth.)
4
At once the LORD said to Moses,
Aaron and Miriam, “Come out to the tent of meeting, all three of you.”
So the three of them went out.
5
Then the LORD came down in a pillar
of cloud; he stood at the entrance to the tent and summoned Aaron and
Miriam. When the two of them stepped forward,
6
he said, “Listen to my words: “When
there is a prophet among you, I, the LORD, reveal myself to them in
visions, I speak to them in dreams.
