All Mixed Up

A few decades ago, when George Bush was running for president, he visited Bob Jones University. You would not believe the media firestorm that ensued. Some people were outraged that Bush went there at all, while others were astonished that his political opponents made so much of it. Of course, only political junkies like me noticed it at all.

The two things that really got under the media’s skin were that Bob Jones prohibits inter-racial dating and that they think Catholicism is a “cult.” Since Bush didn’t call them to account, they accused him of “pandering to the religious right.” Now I think that inter-racial dating is just fine, and I don’t think Catholicism is a cult. In fact, I disagree with a lot more of what Bob Jones U. teaches than just those two things, especially their view of women's roles.

But it’s only a short step from the intolerance of the media for those particular religious beliefs to intolerance of all politically incorrect beliefs: from the belief that homosexual acts are displeasing to God to the belief that women should not be ordained to the ministry (or to the priesthood), from capital punishment to corporal punishment, from divorce to polygamy to birth control. In hindsight, these issues pale compared to today's controversies over gender. But some questions remain the same.

How can I have fellowship with a Christian who doesn’t think I have any business preaching the Word or administering the sacraments? How can I have fellowship with Christians who, I believe, are promoting or at least condoning sin? Why do we think we’re right and they’re wrong? There's always a "we" and a "they," no matter which side you're on.

Both sides claim Biblical authority. Both sides of all the above controversies, in fact, so I should probably say all sides rather than both sides.

It’s not enough to say, “Well, everyone knows that banning inter-racial dating is racism, and racism is wrong.” Obviously, not everyone does know it, otherwise Bob Jones wouldn’t have quite such a large enrollment. It’s not enough to say “Everyone knows that women and men are equal and equally called to ministry and the people who don’t agree are misguided and medieval.” Because some people believe that those of us who won’t perform same-sex unions or ordain active homosexuals to church office are misguided, medieval, and motivated by fear and hatred. And we all know we’re not, right? So how do we know where we should make a stand? How do we know how to think of those Christians who differ from us on these issues? Are they evil and bad and to be criticized and shunned, or are they - just maybe - right? Have we succumbed to the popular culture rather than holding fast to Biblical truth?

The book of Ezra is a good place to look, to see where some of those views come from. Because it explicitly forbids mixed marriages. As Cambridge scholar H. G. Williamson puts it in his commentary on Ezra and Nehemiah, this part of Ezra is “among the least attractive parts of the Old Testament.”

Time for a little background.

Recently, we watched King Hezekiah as he tried to pull his people back from Baal-worship to the worship of YHWH. It didn’t take. He was followed by two of the worst king’s in Judah’s history, Manasseh and Amon, and within a hundred years, Judah fell to Babylon. God pulled his punches on this one, though; instead of destroying the culture by breaking up families and selling them into slavery all over the known world as Assyria had done, the Babylonians just picked up the inhabitants of Judah and moved them to Babylon where they could keep an eye on them and make sure they didn’t cause any more trouble.

During the seventy years of exile, Ezekiel preached God’s word and Daniel modeled it; after Persia conquered Babylon and let the Jews go back and rebuild the temple, those who returned were REALLY MOTIVATED to pay attention to their religious leaders, and to do what God wanted them to do.

The first group who went back, under Zerubbabel, set the tone.

"When the adversaries of Judah and Benjamin heard that the returned exiles were building a temple to YHWH, the God of Israel, they approached Zerubbabel ... and said to them, 'Let us build with you, for we worship your God as you do ....' But Zerubbabel... said to them, 'You shall have no part with us in building a house to our God; but we alone will build to YHWH the God of Israel, as King Cyrus of Persia has commanded us.' Then the people of the land discouraged the people of Judah, and made them afraid to build...." [Ezra 4:1-5]

Now, Zerubbabel may have had good reason to refuse the help of the local people; they may have been enemies of the returned exiles even before being so rudely rejected. Or it may be that Cyrus had made it clear that only the returnees were authorized to build. But they may have been motivated instead by religious elitism, or snobbery. Whatever the reason, from that point on, the Samaritans - for that’s who they were - hated the Judeans and did their best to frustrate their efforts.