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Reguarly I listen to a local college radio station that plays gospel. There is a radio show they have in the morning called, "Gospel Express." It's high-energy gospel music. Some of the music is at an aerobic level, blood pumping, wake you up in the morning whether you want to or not.

One morning while driving to work and listening to the show a segment called, "Ask the Bishop," which is hosted by a local pastor, aired. The Bishop answers e-mails that listeners have sent. There are questions from, "Why did 9/11 occur?" to "How far can you go when dating?" A recent question was rather interesting, because I've pondered this very question. The question was, "Should people marry someone from another race?"

I love this question, because people get really passionate about their answers. The Bishop was just as excited about answering this. Before he began, he stated that he would be giving his answer based on scripture, not personal opinion. My immediate thought was, "Go for it! I can't wait to hear this."

He, of course, mentioned the example of when Moses married Zipporah, found in Exodus 2:21. She was not of Moses tribe, however, she was still an Israelite. His point was that the rule then was to not marry outside of Israel to protect them from other religions and influences.

Do not intermarry with them. Do not give your daughters to their sons or take their daughters for your sons... (Deuteronomy 7:3NIV).

Then the Bishop moved to the New Testament examples written by Paul. One of which was not being unequally yoked.

Do not be yoked together with unbelievers. For what do righteousness and wickedness have in common? Or what fellowship can light have with darkness? (2 Corinthians 6:14 NIV).

The other example was that of God not being a respecter of persons.

Then Peter opened his mouth, and said, Of a truth I perceive that God is no respecter of persons (Acts 10:34 KJV).

For there is no respect of persons with God (Romans 2:11 KJV).

So his point, from a scriptural basis, is that intermarrying is not a problem. It's our personal viewpoints that get in the way. Of course, we always have to keep in mind that being unequally yoked from a spritual sense can be incredibly destructive. However, as I stated earlier, someone marrying outside his or her own culture or race is not a problem!

This doesn't only apply to marriage!

Here are some other questions I pose to you. Are we not supposed to be the most intelligent, most enlightened species on this planet? Are we more intelligent than dogs, elephants, zebras, ants, snakes, and any other cold or warm-blooded animal? Have we not been given permission by our Heavenly Father to reign over the earth, Genesis 1:28? The answer to allof these questions is yes. That being the case, why is that we can't get past the color, or accent, or looks of another person? I see dogs always get past the fact that other dogs don't look like them. How many of us have dogs at home that are mutts? There aren't too many families out there that are pure bred. I guess dogs see it as, "There's a dog, simply in different wrapping."

So why with our highly developed minds can we not get past our differences when it comes to things such as intermarrying, segregated churches (by choice no less), feeling threatened when someone from a different race asks us if we need help when we have a flat tire, etc? Are we not smarter than our dogs? Are we not from the same two people -- Adam and Eve? If dogs can see past their differences why can't we?