During a two-year period, while serving in Japan as a Chaplain in the United States Air Force, I interviewed two hundred and fifty couples who were taking the legal steps to marriage. They were all of mixed races. Today in some American cities it is not uncommon to see couples of mixed races walking hand in hand. Many parents are being surprised by the necessity of facing this problem.

Whether one has a deep conviction that companionship of any sort between members of different races is wrong or believes that there should be no regard for race in choosing companions, he will work out his problems more effectively and more harmoniously if he understands that his conviction is based on human considerations.

Human conditions are never divine. In varying degrees they pattern the divine, and in the degree that they do this they express the harmony of divine reality.

We are taught in Christian Science that marriage is a human institution; it is not a divine one. A particular marriage, therefore, is right in the degree that it manifests the divine qualities, and it is wrong in the degree that it embodies qualities of the carnal or mortal mind. In other words, some marriages are better than others, and many marriages can be improved. On page 353 of Science and Health, Mrs. Eddy says: "Perfection underlies reality. Without perfection, nothing is wholly real. All things will continue to disappear, until perfection appears and reality is reached."

Forming an opinion or facing a decision on a question involving members of different races is done on a human level. One who understands this is able to apply the facts of Science—the allness of harmonious Mind, man in God's image, and the nothingness of discordant mortal belief—to the human scene he faces. Spiritual reality admitted into human consciousness will have the effect of awakening human thought to whatever it lacks and of supplying through divine wisdom the missing elements so that human decisions and human conditions may be improved and harmony may reign.

The fact stated in the Bible that "God is no respecter of persons" (Acts 10:34) does not exempt us from the obligation to make wise human decisions. The spiritual fact that man is made in the image of Love does not mean that every human being must be welcomed into the home as Love's image. We choose as companions those who we feel have demonstrated enough of their true identity as Love's image to make them our desirable companions. But because we see that each human decision must be made on the basis of what is nearest right and because we understand that the human situation is not divine perfection and therefore must be worked with to bring it closer to perfection, we turn to divine reality for our standard. We then work to pattern our human lives, as nearly as we know how, after spiritual perfection.

The pattern we choose must be one we can demonstrate, not merely one we can academically profess to believe in. When we shall have reached the point where a material body is no longer a problem to be considered, we may be sure we have reached the point where the outward appearance of that body need no longer concern us.

One deciding whether or not to plunge into a companionship with a member of another race must consider carefully his human ability to face and overcome the consequences of his decision. To insist that because God is the Father of all, there is no difference between human beings is to confuse the divine with the human. While it is true that, scientifically speaking, materiality is unreal and spirituality is real, it is also true that the decision one faces in such a matter must be based on reliance upon divine guidance.

One may make a better human decision by spiritualizing one's human thought; but to assume spiritual facts which one has not yet humanly demonstrated is to invite disaster. Christ Jesus walked on the water. Peter attempted to walk on the water before he had made the spiritual facts his own, and he sank.

The problem of miscegenation requires the prayerful thought of all Christian Scientists at this time. The elements of this problem constitute the basic fears which underlie much of the social as well as the political unrest of today. Divine Truth must be understood, and it must be applied. We must pray that the elements of this problem shall not confuse our citizenry.

Those of us who are certain we already know the answer must come to understand that even our best convictions in the human realm are subject to revision. And as we willingly subject them to revision, praying earnestly and meekly that our thoughts on this problem be based more firmly on divine Love, we shall find hateful elements melting. We shall bear witness to the power of God's motherhood lifting the thought of mankind to behold man in God's image. And thought thus spiritualized will form new opinions, make new decisions, which will bring out a higher and higher sense of immortal harmony in the lives of men on earth.

Carl J. Welz