The lessons of Christianity
Christianity teaches that one should love others, even one’s enemies, and if struck simply offer the other cheek. This is a high standard, and people inevitably sometimes fail. What’s worrisome is when the failure becomes institutionalized so that Christian churches go astray from the Christian beliefs.
For example, on the issue of interracial marriage—two people who are in love and wish to join in holy matrimony, but are of different races—the Christian position (one would think) is to celebrate such love. But in fact evangelical Christians don’t agree. By a significantly higher percentage than other groups, evangelical Christians oppose interracial marriages. Why? Who knows? Fear most likely. It surely is not from love.
And, according to the survey you cite, it’s not a position endorsed by evangelical hierarchy–see Bob Jones University’s apology for earlier banning interracial dating. So it is that evangelical Christianity attracts a percentage of folks who oppose interracial marriage, never mind what their church’s position is?
Anonymous
29 June 2011 at 11:33 am
Could be. But something in that movement is definitely not discouraging those attitudes.
LeisureGuy
29 June 2011 at 11:39 am
To be fair, you are talking about 16% of the evangelicals — yes, higher than the other groups, but it is still unfair to talk about it as broadly representative of the group (e.g. “evangelicals don’t agree” when 84% don’t have an issue with interracial marriage or even think that it is a plus for society.
TYD
29 June 2011 at 7:03 pm
Good point: you’re right, it’s a minority and even what could be called a small minority. Headline is misleading. But it is interesting that the evangelical movement seems to have more such attitudes.
LeisureGuy
29 June 2011 at 7:07 pm
It may reflect the geographic pattern of the religion and the history of that geography (e.g. heavily southern) rather than something inherent in the religion or its practices.
TYD
29 June 2011 at 7:19 pm
Excellent point a good reminder: correlation does not equal causation. The attitudes may reflect causes other than religion. Perhaps among those who eat hominy grits for breakfast there’s more opposition to interracial marriages, but the hominy grits would not be seen as a cause…
LeisureGuy
30 June 2011 at 8:32 am