So, God advises us to make marital decisions based on what our racist families and neighbors might say? Yikes.
No, we should make our marital decisions based upon revelation and the best chances of a harmonious interaction and relationship between the two spouses and the respective cultural background of each. This is what I am (vainly, it seems yet again) attempting to get across. It can be better to stay within one's own ethnic group, socioeconomic background, educational level, and other variables. There is nothing hard and fast about h is, only, as a mean, its probably wise counsel.
I can understand cultural differences being an issue, but these are not directly related to man-made "ethnic boundaries."
How so? How is ethnicity unrelated to culture under conditions in which the ethinic boundaries in question have been created by cultural differences grounded in a sense of ethnic identity as over against "the other" outside?
Would it be wise for an upper middle class university student to marry a woman raised and enculturated within the inner city welfare underclass? It
might work, but rolling those dice might also, and I'd say quite likely, end in disaster for all concerned.
A blue collar kid marrying into the Heinz family also may or may not work, based upon the same concerns.
Take, for example, a Bolivian who wants to marry an Argentine of similar genetic makeup. The church says this is fine and dandy, but Argentines tend to think of Bolivians the way white Americans tend to think of Mexicans: lower class, illiterate, lazy, etc. For this reason, Bolivians don't think much of Argentines, either.
Most Americans do not see Mexicans in this manner. Ground Control to Major John, you're suffering from space fever. Take your meds.