The Institute (協会)

I am about to read the article and comments, though before I do I told some of my friends that I will marry a hispanic or black woman. I got strange responses from studies that show people that use their marriages to prove something fail(but if you look at it not statistically different then people who do it because of "love") to I am being closed minded, to it will be hard(at least this one is honest).

Look being at the University of Oklahoma first means it is almost all white second being involved with RUF means all white. So I have dated one person in my 6 years at OU. I know of one interracial marriage my friend Nick married an Indian from Trinidad.

Well off the read.

I think it was this past weekend that I heard you being talked about on Moody Radio. I believe they were talking about a book you wrote where in you talked about a need for a black theology. In all I think they talked about you for about 3 minutes or so. It was very negative. If I am wrong please correct me.

But if you do espouse a Black Theology, and in light of Galatians 3:28 [There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free man, there is neither male nor female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus.] How is your promotion of a Black Theology different then those who show racism by not backing interracial marriage?

Wow Anthony,
I read the article and started to read all the comments and man I just couldn't do it. My heart became bitter and I just couldn't do it. As a biracial man from the south (now living in California) I know what my parents went through. I to this day only know about 3 of my white family members because of it. So I am well aware of what "used" to go on but had hope that we had progressed. Look I have taught on racial reconciliation and made that a life calling for the better part of 10 years and have seen many resist the notion. But these comments threw me back into the 80's when my own grandmother (from my white side) said she didn't care about those "nigger" babies. I will never forget that but those comments on that article brought back the sting of that. When I was younger I used to resent the fact that I was half white because of the rejection/racism of my mothers family and to be honest some of that came back a little as I read those comments. Of course this is dumb and unthoughtful to have those thoughts but man they did start to creep up.
You had people literally saying that the Bible is about same race marriages (only) and slavery. I was about to comment but man I knew it was pointless.
It is a sad day in my household as I think about where we are at in the body of Christ. I agree with you 100& Anthony that the true test of where we are as a church in the area of race is determined by the number of interracial marriages.Not that interracial is the "right" (or best) way but rather an indicator of who we are hanging out with and rubbing shoulders with. Those who hang out together and have meaningful relationships often fall in love. Because whites and blacks represent less than 1% of all interracial marriages I am left believing that we still have a long way to go. Man this is crazy!
On a positive note I love my Puerto Rican wife (she is so fine!) and my children our beautiful. So what does that make them? Quarter black, a quarter white, and half Puerto Rican! This is a beautiful thing! Beautiful just like those that are only white, only black, only Latino, etc, etc.
May we see our need for God in this area!

I am still racially exhausted!

Peace,

quick question, ahh, I haven't written any books. I don't have time. Maybe one day I'll get to write something. If you can find a book I wrote let me know 'cause I'm not getting any royalty checks:)!

Wow, Aaron you've gotta a heavily story and one of the luckiest men in the world to have a boriqua as a wife!!

Boriqua... Morena!
Boriqua... Morena!

This is a lyric from a song done by arguably the greatest musical duo of all time... Big Pun & Joe!

(Laughing out loud)!!

Loved this song back when I used to go clubbin:)

Peace,

On a lighter and weird note Luke sent me this blog

http://stuffwhitepeoplelike.wordpress.com/

It is pretty damn funny.

When I looked your numbers were in the 190s.
“Also, I made mention of the fact that all this “racial reconciliation” talk is merely cosmetic and we won’t see any real change until people start intermarrying. Do we need another conference about it?”
A conference, maybe if it is a transformational experience and not just talking heads. We need testimonies from interracial marriages, books, magazine articles and things on the web. Help people understand the issues through stories. This is a very visible area in our global culture. Jesus told his disciples that the world would know who his disciples were because they loved each other. What can we learn from the global church in other cultures that deal with parallel issues, inter-tribal or multi-national marriages?
Reconciliation takes people a step beyond winning a victory or a loss. Reconciliation, a Biblical concept modeled after God’s grace is hard for many who have been raised that winning is everything and nothing short of a total victory in unacceptable. For many people racial reconciliation is tied up with family memories of the Civil War/states rights, the painful memories of loss and sacrifice. All of our memories are shaped by family stories.
I believe for reconciliation to start, especially racial reconciliation, the family stories/memories from our birth families need to be reshaped and by our new family, our adopted extended family. The stories of God’s grace and reconciliation need to become the focus of our memories. All memories are selective and edited; the Holy Spirit needs to edit our memories. If a memory is in the way of reconciliation, let it go.
It will also take leadership to keep the conversation and transformation that is reconciliation moving forward. Racial reconciliation needs to be a topic of conversations and sermons beyond BHM.

I don't really think about it often, but I'm in an interracial marriage. We've recently relocated to the South. I wish you were wrong, Anthony, but you're not. The thing is, my wife's biracial and looks white, so most of the time when we've encountered these attitudes, they've been from white couples looking for an approval of their racism. I too started reading the comments section over at World Magazine....and decided I had better things to do this morning than subject myself to that.

Dude, you gotta interview my sister and brother in law on this. You have no idea how much life and the amazing positive revolution my sister has brought to Australia. Viva Guatemala!!!

Looks like your World post got high-jacked by an all about the past crowd. Should we still be fighting these same old tired fights. Who cares what happend in 18 whatever. What are we doing to get ourselves together today.

All the racist comments on the World blog seem to come from that Night Train character. He should just be ignored. Do not answer a fool according to his folly.

Like Andrew said, I think most of the comments on there come from the commenter "Night Train", and people trying to counter him. He's not a believer, and has been hijacking the thread to talk about the untrustworthiness of God in general. There are a couple of people trading potshots about Southern Culture as well.

Other than those 2 side discussions, though, it seemed as though most people were generally in agreement with your article. There were a number of people at the beginning who pointed out that their churches are already accepting and encouraging of interracial dating, marriage, and adoptions, and felt unfairly criticized by your article, but overall, I thought that the sane commenters on there (there are a few) were generally in agreement with you. The thing I found encouraging was that there were only 2 commenters who tried to peddle their tripe about "slow genocide through marriage", and there were a number of people who quickly and firmly countered their arguments.

Here in NM, My church has several interracial (white/hispanic) marriages, and there are several white families who have adopted and/or fostered black and asian children. Maybe we're not firmly in the mainstream, but I think God is working in our church to promote healthier relationships.

Far too much "racial reconciliation" talk means "I'm happy enough to let them assimilate into my culture" at best.

Marriage across ethnic lines? That really is the true test of openness, with regard to your children that is.

I remember getting the business HARD when I preached in my former church about the hardness of hearts that would try to forbid their children from marrying "outside of their kind."

How pathetic that these so-called Christian parents would have much less problem with their professing Christian children marrying non-Christians of the same color than they would marrying Christians of different ethnicities.