babel to pentecost: loving v. virginia
It’s only been 50 years that interracial marriage has been declared constitutionally protected. Fifty. The lies that were embedded in the defense of anti-miscegenation laws have yet to be killed. White supremacy needed such a law to keep a sense of a ‘pure breed’ that would not have a single drop of any other race or ethnicity.
The oft used Biblical justification of separation of races is in the story of the Tower of Babel in Genesis 11. Humanity had a single shared language, a single shared culture. Instead of continuing the Creative Mandate, to “be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth and subdue it” (Gen 1:28), humanity decides to make a name for itself. God “confused the language of all the earth; and from there the Lord scattered them abroad over the face of all the earth.” His Creative Mandate was still to be fulfilled.
His Creation was not yet complete, and the story did not end here. At the moment of Pentecost, the separation was broken down by the Holy Spirit.
And how is it that we hear, each of us, in our own native language?
Acts 2:8 (NRSVCE)
The reversal of Babel was not going back to the way things were, but to something new. This diversity that God infused did not disappear, but was informed more deeply by the gospel.
Diversity is encoded within our DNA, our universe. To increase genetic diversity is better for a species; to limit it results in increased health issues. In diversity the brilliance of an infinite God is reflected.
The culture of the Cross is not, however, colorblind, or culture-blind. Pentecost could have been an opportunity for a singular monolithic language and culture to be understood by everyone. But it wasn’t. Each person understood in their “own native language.”
Interracial marriage reflects this beauty. And God does not look kindly upon critics of what He has joined together (Numbers 12). White supremacy seeks to co-opt the culture of the Cross into its own and deny the power of the Holy Spirit. White supremacy looks upon diversity with great fear, as it is an enemy of the Cross. White supremacy demands cultural superiority and paints other cultures as savage. And in 50 years, it is still alive and well, veiled in the same lie at Babel: “let us make a name for ourselves.”