Long and stupid story. The mask has slipped a bit too much and now a priest is upset because of “racist” remarks. He’s honestly scrounging every portion of the internet to find dirt. Thought I’d already cleaned up the profile, but he found more “problematic” things *and* he’s going around asking parishioners if they’ve heard us say these things (that’s a whole different issue that I don’t want to get into). There’s probably a mole somewhere in the friend group.
Are there any Bible verses or Early Church Father quotes that have to do with race, race distinctions, culture, ethnicity, interracial marriage, etc. that I can sift through?
You can include things about the jews, too. Those are just a lot easier to find.
Thanks in advance.
Please pray for me and my husband, that we may speak with wisdom, lying like the Hebrew midwives if necessary.
[St. Thomas Aquinas, Commentary on Aristotle's Politics, Bk. III, Lectio II](https://isidore.co/aquinas/Politics.htm):
> For it pertains to the statesman to know how large a city should be and whether it should include men of one nation or of several. [...]
> Then he investigates another notion of unity, namely, whether, when men remain in the same place, the city must be said to be the same because its inhabitants belong to the same race; for even though they are not the same numerically, one generation is succeeded by another. Just as we say that springs or rivers are the same because of the steady flow of waters, even though one part runs off and another part runs in, so we say that a city is the same, even though some men die and others are born, so long as the same race of men endures.
> Then, by solving this difficulty, he reveals the true nature of the unity of the city. He says that, because of the aforesaid succession of **men belonging to the same race, a multitude of men can be called the same in a sense**; a city, however, cannot be called the same if the political order [or regime] is changed. For, since the association of citizens, which we call a regime, pertains to the nature of the city, it is evident that, if the regime is changed, the city does not remain the same.
So he make a difference between "city" and "people": The city would stay the same, but the people would not.
St. Cyprian of Carthage, Bishop and Martyr, Treatise 10, On Jealousy and Envy, par. 15:
> If it is a source of joy and glory to men to have children like to themselves - and it is more agreeable to have begotten an offspring then when the remaining progeny responds to the parent with like lineaments [characteristics] - how much greater is the gladness in God the Father, when any one is so spiritually born that in his acts and praises **the divine eminence of race** is announced!
St. Augustine on Gal 3:28:
> Although now we have the firsttruits of the Spirit that is life mercy to the justice of faith, as the body is still dead because of sin (Cf Rm 8,23.10), the difference based on nationality, social status or sex, has already been eliminated from the unity founded on faith, but still it remains in mortal existence. Moreover, its ordering **must be maintained** in the course of this life.
> The apostles send it, who give extremely healthy norms about how they should coexist, according to their different race, Jews and Greeks; according to their different social status, masters and slaves, and according to their different sex, husbands and wives, or according to any other differentiated situation that may occur.
Rev. Fr. Bonaventure Hinwood O.F.M. - Race, Reflections of Theologian, pgs. 74-76
> THE FIRST PROPOSITION - "Human races, by their innate and immutable character, differ so greatly from each other, that the lowest of them is further removed from the highest race of men than from the highest species of animals."
Noting that the above proposition was CONDEMNED in Mitt Brennender Sorge (1937), and an instruction published by the Sacred Congregation of Seminaries and Universities (1938), the distinguished theologian goes on to write:
> The existence of distinct races is nowhere denied...Neither would the assertion that these races differ among themselves fall under the condemnation, because if they exist it follows that there must be diversity in order that they be distinguishable at all. In addition the acknowledgement of this difference is common enough in Church documents. Nor do the words "by their innate. character" cause difficulty, because races are essentially groups constituted by heredity, whose qualities in so far as they are racial must be congenital. This fact is likewise acknowledged by the catholic hierarchy.
> It is worth recalling, before this discussion is concluded, the remark made earlier to the effect that this proposition does not rule out the possibility of a limited and accidental gradation of races. Because such a relative superiority and inferiority would not as such destroy the unity of mankind. Nor does it seem to be incompatible with the Church's teaching concerning the general equality of all men.
Mit brennender Sorge, English translation:
> Whoever **removes the race**, or the people, or the state, or the form of government, the bearers of state power or other fundamental values of human community design - who claim an essential and honorable place within the earthly order - from this earthly scale of values, makes them the highest norm of all, including religious values, and idolizes them with idolatry, **reverses and falsifies the God-created and God-commanded order of things.**
> Such a person is far from true faith in God and a conception of life corresponding to such faith.
Summi Pontificatus, Pius XII:
> 45. The Church hails with joy and follows with her maternal blessing every method of guidance and care which aims at a wise and orderly evolution of particular forces and tendencies having their origin in the individual character of each race, provided that they are not opposed to the duties incumbent on men from their unity of origin and common destiny.
Rev. Msgr. Glenn S.T.D, Ph.D., Glenn's Class Manuals in Philosophy, Sociology, 1941, pg. 372:
> That there are lines between classes of people is a certainty that may as well be acknowledged at once, and the color-line is one of them. While it is entirely possible to ignore these lines, the social effect of such action is seldom happy.
>
> Just as a member of the true Church is earnestly dissuaded from marriage, by dispensation, with a non-member, so should a member of one race be dissuaded from marriage with a person of another color.
>
> In marriages of either type, there is a definite injustice done to children, there are almost inevitable misunderstandings between the parties themselves, and there is sure to be some friction between the families so gracelessly united.