Pastor Boone: The heart is color blind and does not discriminate
They say opposites attract. Those who know my husband and I would totally agree.
I don't mind being center stage, but he loves being behind the scenes. While I see a glass half full, he sees a glass half empty.
I always look for the good and he is a self described “realist.” I am a people person and he can be a little short. But don’t get me wrong; he has a heart of gold. He just doesn’t wear his on his sleeve like I do.
Besides personality, we have a lot of other differences, such as our choice of food. I will try new things on menus, but he's a hamburger person. I enjoy traveling while he enjoys staying home. He is very organized and takes meticulous care of everything he owns while I am carefree. I, of course, like to watch Hallmark movies while he prefers to watch action movies. Lastly, the main characteristic that makes my husband and I opposites is he is white and I am Black.
People who don’t know us are usually surprised when they find out we are a couple. My husband always gets a big kick out of people who assume that he is a volunteer and continues to tell him how they are good friends with Pastor Boone. When we are in line shopping most cashiers assume we are not together.
I remember one time when we went on a cruise, the photographer asked my husband to step back because he assumed he was trying to crash our family photo. After 17 years of marriage we are unbothered by other people’s reaction. In fact, when we first started dating, one of my husband’s family members questioned him about “playing in the mud”. Everyone does not understand that the heart is color blind and it does not discriminate when falling in love.
Sadly, interracial relationships have a long history of being taboo. Yet in America most Blacks who trace their ancestry discover they somehow have a white relative. It took President Thomas Jefferson’s Black family almost 200 years to prove they were his descendants.
I was shocked to learn that until 1967 it was illegal for a white person and a Black person to be married. The Lovings (The name says it all) were an interracial couple from Virginia who were arrested for getting married. They were given two choices: to leave the state or get a divorce. They left the state but decided to take their case to the Supreme Court. They won the right to be together.
In the Bible in the book the Song of Songs there is a relationship between Solomon and a Black woman but theologians deny this. They claim the book was only allegory. Moses married a foreign woman who was a Cushite from Ethiopia. Moses’ siblings had a problem with this relationship but Moses loved his wife despite their differences. Moses’ wife even saved his life.
I thank God for all the brave interracial couples who paved the way for my husband and I to be together. The truth of the matter is we are all really the same. Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.
Happy Black History Month and Valentines Day!
Heather Boone is pastor of Oaks of Righteousness Christian Ministries and Oaks Village in Monroe. Reach her at oaksofrighteousness@aol.com.
This article originally appeared on The Monroe News: Pastor Boone: The heart is color blind and does not discriminate
