Moving beyond "race" -- to boldly go where no one has gone before!

For centuries mankind has asked the profound question: “are we alone?” While some may see this as a religious question, most today understand it as a question pertaining to the existence of extraterrestrial life (i.e., does E.T. exist?). The question is not merely the product of the modern age, for it has been pondered by many religious thinkers and philosophers throughout the ages. What's surprising to some is that many of these ancient thinkers found no contradiction between their faith and the existence of intelligent life elsewhere in the universe.

For example, the Jewish Talmud speculates that there are as many as 18,000 worlds where some form of intelligent life may exist. Hinduism also embraces the idea of “other worlds,” and even other universes. Christianity's view is a bit more fuzzy, but a a number of recent statements made by the Vatican and it's representatives, along with 2009's week long study on astrobiology hosted by the Pontifical Academy of Sciences, seems to indicate that even conservative forms of Christianity accept, at least the possibility, of the existence of extraterrestrial intelligence.

These statements by Christian leaders are quite timely given that modern astrobiology consists of very real science with very real scientific data. In our galaxy alone there are over 200 million stars and upwards of 50 billion planets, 500 million of which fall into the Goldilocks (not too hot, not to cold, but just right for life) zone in their respective solar systems. And that's just in the Milky Way galaxy. There are at least 100 billion Galaxies throughout the entire known and observable universe. The likelihood of extraterrestrial life is a very real possibility which much of Christianity is beginning to come to terms with.

Yet with mainstream Christianity's new acceptance of scientific realities, it was just a matter of time before some Christian Churches began making declarations not in favor of, but in opposition to our celestial neighbors. This week, it was reported that a Baptist Church in rural Kentucky, in a nine to six vote had banned interracial couples from Church membership and worship ministries. Of course this seems a bit premature since the last time I checked (a few hours ago) aliens hadn't visited Earth yet, but I suppose this little Church in Kentucky is simply hedging its bets. There probably are other races of beings out there in the universe (just like in Star Trek) so we best forbid these interracial couples from attending Church services and participating as active worship leaders. Such blatant racism seems counter productive to the message of Christ and may possibly lead to an intergalactic war, but I guess E.T. was a scary movie for these folks!

Oh wait, I just double checked my facts. Apparently I misunderstood this Church's intention. The Church's ban wasn't directed at “interracial” couples at all (i.e., marrying a non-human, like a Klingon or Vulcan) but at members of the same race (human beings, descendants of Adam and Eve) who just happen have a different skin color from one another and/or come from strange and far away lands – like anywhere you're not from! The ban is not an “interracial” ban, but an “intraracial” one, seeing as all human beings are made up of the same race.

Just when I thought Christianity was about to enter the 23rd century and boldly go where no one has gone before, it turns out that at least nine Christians in Kentucky want to take Christianity back to the 18th century and boldly go where humanity should never have gone in the first place – a world where we ignore the words of St. Paul who wrote that “there is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither bond nor free, there is neither male nor female: for ye are all one in Christ Jesus” (Galatians 3:28, KJV). Ouch! That's a pretty rough statement to hear – if you're someone who thinks banning “interracial” couples is a good way of preserving Church unity! An even more difficult verse must be Galatians 3:29: “And if ye be Christ's, then are ye Abraham's seed, and heirs according to the promise” (KJV). Got that? If you're a Christian, Paul (a Jew) says that you're actually the seed of Abraham (the father of the Jews) who – in case you didn't know -- wasn't from Kentucky, didn't have European ancestry and was actually from what is today known as modern day Iraq!

What's even more bizarre about a Church banning humans from marrying other humans based on the shade of their skin is that we're now closer to the world envisioned by Gene Roddenberry's Star Trek (often cited as the show where the first interracial kiss took place on U.S. television) than we are to the “good old days” where being dark skinned in a light skinned world would get you banned – from Church! I mean come on, banned from Church? What happened to the idea that Christ died for all (2 Corinthians 5:14)? Maybe these good folks need to go back and read all of Galatians again. Or perhaps they need to read the entire Bible which is filled with “interracial” marriages and relationships of all kinds (Song of Songs anyone?).

If and when we ever do encounter an extraterrestrial intelligence, and if and when our relations with these lifeforms grow strong enough to seriously consider true interracial marriage (marrying someone not a part of the human race), hopefully by then we will have outgrown our race's childish ethnic and religious tribalism, and realize that the human race may come in various shades, styles, and flavors but we are one species and one race: the human race, and nothing short of that realization is worthy of humanity or anything we should dare call Christian.