Dear brother,<\/p>\n
I am facing a dilemma in the congregation with which I worship. We are in the process of searching for a minister and are not under the guidance of an eldership. We have interviewed several candidates and have found one in particular that interests us. He has preached and taught for us on several occasions and has delivered scripturally sound and beneficial messages at each opportunity. The majority of the congregation is strongly interested in this candidate, but a very small minority has reservations. These reservations stem from the fact that this candidate has a white Caucasian fianc\u00e9e and he is half Puerto Rican and half Sicilian and is mildly dark complected. There has been a debate within the search committee regarding this issue. I Corinthians 10 has been used to dissuade his hiring, with the point being we have weaker brethren who may be turned off by his relationship and be caused to stumble. I have trouble accepting this argument because I see the origin of the reluctance to accept him steeped in hate and racial superiority, not just simple ignorance. We have several members who are married outside their race, but the thought of a black man with a white woman is too much for some to stomach. Part of me wants to tell this candidate to look elsewhere because of potential problems. My question or you is this, is this a valid usage of this scripture, or is it misapplied? I certainly don’t want to cause any brethren to stumble, but also don’t want to allow my brethren to continue with hate dictating their actions, which could also be seen as a stumbling block itself.<\/p>\n
I would appreciate your opinion, as I strongly agree with many of your lessons, and truth be known to have been guilty of using them as models for my own devotionals, classes, and sermons.<\/p>\n
Any advice would be helpful.<\/p>\n\t
You have brethren who are violating one of the fundamental principles of Christianity.<\/p>\n
“I do not pray for these alone, but also for those who will believe in Me through their word; that they all may be one, as You, Father, are in Me, and I in You; that they also may be one in Us, that the world may believe that You sent Me<\/em>” (John 17:20-21).<\/p>\n
“There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is neither male nor female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus<\/em>” (Galatians 3:28).<\/p>\n
“For He Himself is our peace, who has made both one, and has broken down the middle wall of separation, having abolished in His flesh the enmity, that is, the law of commandments contained in ordinances, so as to create in Himself one new man from the two, thus making peace, and that He might reconcile them both to God in one body through the cross, thereby putting to death the enmity<\/em>” (Ephesians 2:14-16).<\/p>\n
“And have put on the new man who is renewed in knowledge according to the image of Him who created him, where there is neither Greek nor Jew, circumcised nor uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave nor free, but Christ is all and in all<\/em>” (Colossians 3:10-11).<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
This is not an option to be coddled. Just imagine that the church in Corinth made it a requirement that only Gentile Christians could preach there so as to not offend the community! Or that they insisted on a Jewish Christian because so many there came out of Judaism! To true Christians, there is no race, nationality, or skin color that divides people.<\/p>\n\t
Response:<\/h2>\n
Thank you, brother.<\/p>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Question: Dear brother, I am facing a dilemma in the congregation with which I worship. We are in the process of searching for a minister and are not under the guidance of an eldership. We have interviewed several candidates and have found one in particular that interests us. He has preached and taught for us…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[20],"tags":[215,214],"class_list":["post-34413","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-answer","tag-prejudice","tag-racism"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":28053,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/do-i-need-to-disclose-my-savings-to-my-fiancee\/","url_meta":{"origin":34413,"position":0},"title":"Do I need to disclose my savings to my fiancee?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"July 8, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Once again I come with a question that I hope you can assist me with. I'm on the verge of marriage, we have been going to counseling, and I wanted to know what advice you can give about the financial status of a married couple. I discussed with my\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":47110,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/how-do-we-handle-the-mother-of-my-fiancees-former-boyfriend\/","url_meta":{"origin":34413,"position":1},"title":"How do we handle the mother of my fianc\u00e9e’s former boyfriend?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"February 8, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Hello, My fianc\u00e9e and I are getting married soon.\u00a0 Recently, her grandfather has been going through trouble with cancer.\u00a0 It has brought up a few encouraging text messages. 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We have less than ten youths and three of them are ours. Our oldest is now a teen and is having trouble navigating adolescence (none his age at our home congregation). We have fellowship with surrounding sound congregations over the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":43846,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/am-i-being-selfish-and-covetous-in-marrying-a-woman-who-had-a-child-by-another-man\/","url_meta":{"origin":34413,"position":4},"title":"Am I being selfish and covetous in marrying a woman who had a child by another man?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"November 6, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Greetings, I met my fianc\u00e9e last year and we became friends. We go to the same church. Later we decided to pray and ask God if we should get married and we did get confirmation. So we went to our pastor and told him of our decision. We are\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":38070,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/how-do-i-return-to-god-after-committing-fornication\/","url_meta":{"origin":34413,"position":5},"title":"How do I return to God after committing fornication?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"September 21, 2021","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Good morning, Thanks for all you do for singles all over the world -- taking questions and giving wisdom-filled answers. God will keep blessing you. I have a huge problem. 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