Should interracial marriage be permitted?
The idea of racially harmonious marriage stems from such:
When the LORD thy God shall bring thee into the land whither thou goest to possess it, and hath cast out many nations before thee, the Hittites, and the Girgashites, and the Amorites, and the Canaanites, and the Perizzites, and the Hivites, and the Jebusites, seven nations greater and mightier than thou;
And when the LORD thy God shall deliver them before thee; thou shalt smite them, and utterly destroy them; thou shalt make no covenant with them, nor show mercy unto them:
Neither shalt thou make marriages with them; thy daughter thou shalt not give unto his son, nor his daughter shalt thou take unto thy son.
For they will turn away thy son from following me, that they may serve other gods: so will the anger of the LORD be kindled against you, and destroy thee suddenly.
But thus shall ye deal with them; ye shall destroy their altars, and break down their images, and cut down their groves, and burn their graven images with fire. -Deuteronomy 7:1-6
For thou shalt worship no other god: for the LORD, whose name is Jealous, is a jealous God:
Lest thou make a covenant with the inhabitants of the land, and they go a whoring after their gods, and do sacrifice unto their gods, and one call thee, and thou eat of his sacrifice;
And thou take of their daughters unto thy sons, and their daughters go a whoring after their gods, and make thy sons go a whoring after their gods.
Thou shalt make thee no molten gods. -Exodus 34:14-17
Judging from the context of this, it would seem that it is not a prohibition against interracial marriage in and of itself; but of inter-cultural marriage. It isn't the race that profanes the tribes listed, but idolatry. There is even the declaration that inter-marriage within other cultures and religions pollutes not only them joined in union, but the children also. Isn't Solomon the perfect example of how inter-religious marriage ruins a righteous man?
Of course no one should trust my interpretation alone. What do the scriptures say?
"And Miriam and Aaron? spoke against Moses because of the Ethiopian woman whom he had married; for he had married an Ethiopian woman" (Num. 12.1).
Here, Moses' marriage is protested by his brother and sister because the woman was of another race. The LORD responded to this charge against his servant Moses by turning Miriam's skin leprous and white as snow Many people believe this was God's way of sticking it to her for despising Moses' wife's blackness, he made her "snow white".
And again; in the case of King Solomon and the Queen of Sheba:
I am black, but comely, O ye daughters of Jerusalem, as the tents? of Kedar, as the curtains of Solomon.
Look not upon me, because I am black, because the sun hath looked upon me: my mother's children were angry with me; they made me the keeper of the vineyards; but mine own vineyard have I not kept. Song of Solomon 1:5-6
Again, Ruth a Moabite was proselytized into the faith. She abandoned her idolatrous roots and eventually became the grandmother of King David and his royal line running all the way to the Messiah!
The scriptures demand that every matter be established by two or three witnesses. Let the testimony of Moses,Solomon, and Ruth stand.
I will take this a step further:
For as many of you as have been baptized into Christ have put on Christ.
There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither bond nor free, there is neither male nor female: for ye are all one in Christ Jesus.
And if ye be Christ's, then are ye Abraham's seed, and heirs according to the promise. -Galatians 3:27-29
Wherefore remember, that ye being in time past Gentiles in the flesh, who are called Uncircumcision by that which is called the Circumcision in the flesh made by hands;
That at that time ye were without Christ, being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers from the covenants of promise, having no hope, and without God in the world: -Ephesians 2:11-12
All believers are grafted into the same olive tree. We are all become as one. --a new creature.
We should not be respecters of persons. In as many are in Christ are of Christ are brothers and sisters one to the other.
The only prohibition against marriage has always been as a safe guard against idolatry, as it is written: "A little leaven leaveneth the whole lump." Believers should not be unevenly yoked with unbelievers; even as Israel was commanded.
The only exception to this is if you are married to an unbeliever before coming to Christ:
But to the rest speak I, not the Lord: If any brother hath a wife that believeth not, and she be pleased to dwell with him, let him not put her away.
And the woman which hath an husband that believeth not, and if he be pleased to dwell with her, let her not leave him.
For the unbelieving husband is sanctified by the wife, and the unbelieving wife is sanctified by the husband: else were your children unclean; but now are they holy.
But if the unbelieving depart, let him depart. A brother or a sister is not under bondage in such cases: but God hath called us to peace. -1 Corinthians 7:12-15
There is no division of flesh within the house of God.
And the Gentiles I suppose are everyone else, but that word's died out a bit. Okay, well, I'm going to cut off this rambling because I'm obviously not the person to help you there, I'm pretty clueless.
