What do Jehovah's Witnesses believe about interracial dating?

Answer 1

Jehovah's Witnesses believe there is nothing wrong with interracial dating and have no religious mandate to either prohibit it or discourage it.

In fact, it is very common among Witnesses, because their are no racial divisions when it comes to meeting together - it is not strange to find Greeks, Italians, Portuguese, Zulu, Xhosa, Malawian, Afrikaans, British, Zimbabwean, and Nigerians all worshiping together in a single Kingdom hall in say, South Africa. This is unheard of in many other religions.

The Bible shows that all humans were created equal, and that God is not partial in any way.

Answer 2

Dating per se, is not an issue in Religious Judaism as long as the "daters" at least have a possibility of getting married to one another and as long as they avoid physical contact (as is typical in Shomer Negia). Less religious Jews care less about any regulations and therefore will not be discussed in this answer.

Religious Judaism is strongly against inter-religious marriage, i.e. a marriage between a Jew and a non-Jew, but says nothing about the race of the two Jews or two non-Jews who marry each other. There are several black Hasidic Jews who have all been set up by Jewish matchmakers with white spouses because the "romantic spark" was there.

While the majority of Jews are European or Middle Eastern, there are also East Asian Jews, Indian (from India) Jews, Black Jews, and Hispanic Jews. There was some animosity in Israel concerning intermarriage between European Jews and Middle Eastern Jews in the first two decades of Israel's establishment, but the animus was political, not religious.

Answer 3

Members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (the "Mormon" church) do not ever really mention anything about interracial dating in modern times, although it was sometimes discouraged historically. Interracial couples are quite common in Mormonism today.

Mormons are encouraged to avoid dating before they are sixteen years old and to avoid 'steady' or serious romantic relationships until marriage age (generally when they return from mission service at age 20 or 21). Mormons believe that dating is to learn how to properly treat someone of the opposite gender and to explore different personality traits that they desire in a spouse, not to fulfill romantic or sexual desires. Mormons are encouraged to date those of high moral standards, and preferably those of the same faith. Race is never mentioned.

If you want to learn more about Mormon beliefs and customs about dating, check out the "Related Links" below.