Selected Messages Book 2

Chapter 42—Counsel Regarding Intermarriage

[Note: these messages were written by Ellen G. White in 1896 and 1912. Repeated statements from her pen concerning racial relationships clearly indicate that her counsel on interracial marriage is not an issue of racial inequality; but essentially a question of advisability or inadvisability stemming from circumstances and conditions that could result in “controversy, confusion and bitterness.” See Appendix 2, “Important Factors in Choosing a Life Companion.” Ellen G. White has repeatedly reaffirmed her understanding of, and firm belief in, the equality of all races and the brotherhood of mankind. See Appendix 3, “The Brotherhood of Mankind.”—White trustees]

We are one brotherhood. No matter what the gain or the loss, we must act nobly and courageously in the sight of God and our Saviour. Let us as Christians who accept the principle that all men, white and black, are free and equal, adhere to this principle, and not be cowards in the face of the world, and in the face of the heavenly intelligences. We should treat the colored man just as respectfully as we would treat the white man. And we can now, by precept and example, win others to this course. 2SM 343.1

But there is an objection to the marriage of the white race with the black. All should consider that they have no right to entail upon their offspring that which will place them at a disadvantage; they have no right to give them as a birthright a condition which would subject them to a life of humiliation. The children of these mixed marriages have a feeling of bitterness toward the parents who have given them this lifelong inheritance. For this reason, if there were no other, there should be no intermarriage between the white and the colored race.—Manuscript 7, 1896. 2SM 343.2