Dale Partridge, pastor of King’s Way church Arizona has caused quite a stir in the debate of Christianity and interracial marriage. He posted a controversial take on X saying that interracial marriage is not the “ideal,” despite the fact that he is married to Mexican-American woman. He clarifies that he does not believe it is a sin but goes on to say how much of a burden it is to overcome.
“While we live in a multicultural mess that has assumed that the melting pot mentality is just as desirable as sharing ethnic similarities and culture, it’s not,” reads the post about his marriage. “It’s possible with Christ but it comes with its own unique hardships.”
Partridge’s critics say his “ideal” of marriage is not something based on the Bible, but rather a notion that he has put into marriage. Instead, it is a secular mentality that has burrowed its way into society, which critics say is “almost commoditizing the institution of marriage” and really “reduces marriage to benefits to the individual perceived benefits, not God's design.”
Ryan Helfenbein is the vice president of communications at Liberty University and the executive director of the Standing for Freedom Center. He spoke with Jenna Ellis on Jenna Ellis in the Morning, saying that this idea of “Kinism” among some Christan circles is not scriptural.
“It is this fear-based belief — that if people of two different skin tones or tones of melanin were to marry that somehow that would lead to some kind of moral compromise in some way,” says Helfenbein.
He references Second Corinthians 2:16, which talks about not being “yoked together” with unbelievers as, really, the only prohibition in marriage. According to the Bible, the problem is not tied to the social construct of different skin color, but rather the shared beliefs and faiths between two individuals.
And Helfenbein very much emphasizes that race is a social construct, not a biblical one.
“If we were to look at blood types, if we were to look at DNA, the composite structure, the makeup, the composition of DNA worldwide, the Human Genome Project that was researched back in the 1990s, every single male and female created in God's image, regardless of their melanin tone, are 99.999% the same,” Helfenbein says.
He returns to the notion of this idea being fear-based by observing the U.S. in 1924, when Catholic countries, Eastern European countries, Slavic nations, and more began to mass immigrate to the states.
“There was a fear that the United States was — and it was not an irrational fear — but that we were losing our homogeneous culture, and that had more to do with understanding what it meant to be an American,” explains Helfenbein. “For 40 years, there was basically a moratorium on immigration. We just didn't do it, and it was largely because we had a huge population of Catholics immigrating to a Protestant nation.”
Court weighed in years ago
He does note that there was an interracial marriage law that was passed in Virginia in 1924, the Racial Integrity Act. That, however, all changed with a Supreme Court case in 1967.
“Virginia is the state called the ‘state for lovers’ because of Richard and Mildred Loving. It was an interracial marriage. There was a case that went to the Supreme Court in 1967, that struck down the old bans, including a Virginia law against interracial marriage,” says Helfenbein.
He says that this topic is not largely debated in Christian circles because most Christians understand that everyone is equal under Christ. He gives a couple of examples of interracial marriages found in the Old Testament, one being Ziporah and Moses.
“She was a Cushite woman, she was of a different tribe, that by a kind of standard is an interracial marriage. That would be forbidden. We see very clearly in scripture where Miriam states something that is not based on Zipporah's faith or culture, but just on her race, and she's struck with leprosy for seven days,” says Helfenbein. “God condemns this notion of racism. We have to be very, very careful.”
He then points to DNA testing where people are finding out that their ancestry includes contributions from many different areas of the world. It ultimately reflects what Peter preached in Acts 17, about how everyone is descended from Adam.
“It doesn't matter what continent you come from, or whether you're from Shem, Ham, or Japheth, you know, going back to the sons of Noah. We all come from Adam. He's the father of the entire human race, and we've all sinned in Adam. We've all sinned and fallen short of the glory of God,” states Helfenbein.
He compares two different cultures against each other — one that reveres God and orients their life around the belief in Him and one that orients their life around paganism.
“White, black, brown, it doesn't matter. That culture that orients itself around faith in the one true and living God will be superior. Superior how? In their values. Superior in the kind of life that they enjoy, not because the culture is better, but because God is better, and I think that's something that people need to understand,” says Helfenbein.
Blending faith, culture and expectations
He goes on to say that in a mixed marriage, in this sense of two different faiths, it is wise for the sake of the marriage and children that there is a clear way to define their faith. This includes even if the difference is a Baptist or a Catholic. He uses the marriage of Vice President J.D. Vance as an example. Vance is raising his kids Roman Catholic, but his wife is Hindu.
“Every marriage between two families is going to be a blending of different expectations, different values. That is why it is so critical that faith in Christ comes first,” says Helfenbein. “But it is so clear from Scripture that God is not placing a prohibition based on melanin, based on skin tone.”
Those who take this “Kinism” belief to the ultimate extreme, Helfenbein says, are not basing it on conservatism or Christianity. And he grimaces when groups such as the Anti-Defamation League and the Southern Poverty Law Center label all Christians under this false notion.
“They want to throw that whole lot into this lot of kin, racist, white supremacist, and that is certainly not the case. None of us hold to that. So, this is something we need to be aware of, and we need to certainly instruct our kids and our churches about this,” concludes Helfenbein.
