Killing Kinism
Kinism is the fringe but growing belief that the Bible teaches races and ethnicities should primarily interact and intermarry only within their own “kin.” It is a dangerous path that Bible-believing Christians need to be wary of, and be sure to get right biblically.
Created in the Image of God
One has to look no further than the very first chapters of the Bible to find clear principles against Kinism. That God created all humans as offspring of the same couple, made in the image of God (Gen 1:26-27), diminishes ethnic differences. The Bible recognizes how ethnicities develop over time with geographic and cultural distinctives, but that never changes the fundamental nature of human beings. We are one race, one Tribe with a capital T. We are all, as C. S. Lewis put it, Sons of Adam and Daughters of Eve.
Examples of Interethnic Marriage
Israel is special because they were chosen to receive the Torah, but they were called to be a light to the nations (e.g. Isa 49:6). Throughout Scripture, the Bible presents interethnic marriage positively on numerous occasions. Consider the following: Joseph was married to Asenath, the daughter of an Egyptian priest; Moses to Zipporah, a Midianite shepherdess; Salmon to the more notable Rahab the Canaanite; Boaz to Ruth, the Moabite great-grandmother of King David; and Esther to Ahasuerus, the Persian king who rescued the Jews. God repeatedly works through and blesses interethnic marriages.
But Doesn’t the Old Testament Say…
The Bible does make strong statements against Jewish men marrying “foreign women” (e.g. Solomon and his many wives). However, when condemned in Scripture, these marriages are always connected to how they affect one’s faith. It is never a question of DNA, but of Divine worship. The gentile in Israel was to be treated the same as the Jew in regards to the Torah: “There shall be one law for the native and for the stranger who sojourns among you,” (Ex 12:49).
The Bible offers no condemnation against the nations intermarrying with each other, which further clarifies that this prohibition for Israel is only related to their faith. To be unequally yoked has to do with believers and unbelievers (2 Cor 6:14).
The Gospel Unites Us
As Christians, we have an even more potent unifying force than creation. We are a new creation in Christ (see 2 Cor 5:17; Gal 6:15). Our shared identity in Christ takes precedence over our ethnic identities. Jesus died for all ethne; the gospel breaks down these dividing walls of hostility (Eph 2:14). “Here there is not Greek and Jew, circumcised and uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave, free; but Christ is all, and in all,” (Col 3:11; see also Gal 3:28). As with gender differences, ethnic differences need not disappear entirely (I am happy to be Irish and Korean), but fellowship calls me towards my brothers and sisters beyond my own kin. As a Christian, “I should not call any person common or unclean,” (Acts 10:28)
From Genesis to Revelation, God reveals in only a matter of time Christians will be “a great multitude…from every nation, from all tribes and people and languages,” (Rev 7:9-10). Christ is not a polygamist; there is only one Bride of Christ.
O Church, Arise!
Ethnic diversity in schools, sports, and social organizations are becoming the norm. The church above all these should display the unity we have in Christ. Our witness and faithfulness partly depends upon it (e.g. John 13:35; Eph 4:1-6). Our prayer should be as Jesus, “that they may all be one,” (John 17:21). A local church that displays ethnic unity, displays something of the heart of Christ. Kinism misses the mark by a longshot. I want to ensure evangelical Christians are on the right side of this issue. There are, in my opinion, tragic consequences for us not to get this right, and glorious blessings for us if we do.