Religion is different because a person can change religions. Ann Romney converted to Mormonism to marry Mitt, for example. Some groups are so insular that young people rarely meet people of different faiths. Other than the man in the OP’s original story, people raised Christian, in my experience, are very open to marrying different races and ethnicities.
My in-laws have made it very clear to me that I’m lesser in their eyes because of my lack of faith. Much of Mr R’s family doesn’t consider us married because the union wasn’t “blessed by God.” So for those of you in these last several posts who have said they’ll accept their children’s spouses regardless of differences, I thank you 
We’ve had interfaith marriages in my family since at least my grandparents’ generation (Jew/Catholic on one side, Christian/nothing on the other) so I truly don’t understand the aversion to interfaith marriages. Some of these posts have helped me to better understand why some people are so adamant about marrying into the same religion.
Protestant, Catholic, Muslim, and LDS people come in varying levels of religious observance, and varying levels of desire for their kids to marry someone of the same religion.
In terms of ethnic communities, the expectation to marry within the same ethnic community (or subdivision of such) is often from those in older generations who are more used to homogeneous social circles, while the person seeking a spouse in a more diverse environment may not want to limit himself/herself that way.
"Romani: My in-laws have made it very clear to me that I’m lesser in their eyes because of my lack of faith. Much of Mr R’s family doesn’t consider us married because the union wasn’t “blessed by God.” So for those of you in these last several posts who have said they’ll accept their children’s spouses regardless of differences, I thank you
We’ve had interfaith marriages in my family since at least my grandparents’ generation (Jew/Catholic on one side, Christian/nothing on the other) so I truly don’t understand the aversion to interfaith marriages. Some of these posts have helped me to better understand why some people are so adamant about marrying into the same religion. "
I doubt they believe you are “lesser” as a person in any way, but merely their (scriptural? Other religious faith) belief was that their son would marry into his faith (not sure what faith that is, so it is hard to speak to).
In biblical Christianity, one is forbidden to be “unequally yoked with an unbeliever”. 2 Corinthians. It isn’t a matter of personal preferences or who is better or worse. It is a matter of an inappropriate partner for the believer. God doesn’t strike anyone dead for doing it, but life is going to be harder when you don’t share that most critical of beliefs.
That said, like so much of scripture, even among believers, many just throw that out. Having been happily married for decades, I do believe that scriptural prosciptions are not actually limitations but freedoms. But that’s another thread.
YMMV
To the original point of the thread, my father could have been viewed in the same camp as the parent in the article. He was raised with these types of views in the home and I can remember him making a statement to my sister “that she better never come home with a black guy” Would he have disowned her? No. Would he have been less than accepting at first? Yes. Would he have come around and gotten to know the individual and made a different decision after the fact? Probably. He was an equal opportunity offender across racial, religious, and sexual orientation lines so the race he used could have been substituted for any number of other things.
People/families do change. My father’s family had fairly strong views around race that are not acceptable today but were not unique to those that had gone through the civil rights movement/integration as a blue collar working class white family. My father’s viewpoint was “softer” than his parents/uncles/grandparents etc. and continued to soften as he aged. My wife was shocked at comments he would make, jokes he would tell when she first met him and was very concerned when we had children that they not be exposed to his opinions on race. Long story short we never heard another racially insensitive remark from him once our first child was born. I don’t attribute this to self censorship but rather an overall growth and understanding.
My father, and his views on race, were very different when he died in his 70s than they were when I was young and much different than they were as a teen. Had he created a trust in his 30s (no need, no money) I don’t think he would have put a must marry white clause but if he had I imagine by his 60s he would have done anything to remove the clause, as he had grown, changed, and seen the error of his earlier opinions.
I have a friend who has had back luck finding love. She’s limited herself to J-Date and to only dating Jewish men. If she were more open to others she might have found someone to share a life with by now.
@TatinG, well, yes, but Jewish guys are generally much more appealing than the rest of the pack.
Perhaps the problem is that so many of us who are not Jewish end up marrying them and taking them off the market.
[Full disclosure: I’m not Jewish, but I married a Jewish guy. Our daughter, who was not raised Jewish, also married a Jewish guy. We’re part of the problem.]
Mostly an (occasional) lurker these days, but this thread caught my interest, as a Jewish single on the wrong side of thirty who is strongly committed to marrying within the religion…
First of all, I take strong exception to Tatin’s comment about her friend “limiting” herself to JDate and thus maybe being somehow to blame for not finding her life partner. I don’t know any single woman who has availed herself of every online dating option or in-person singles event available. Unless you think there is any particular reason that you would be more likely to click with a random non-Jew you meet on the internet than a random Jew you meet on the internet, you are no more limiting yourself by sticking the Jewish dating sites (of which JDate is only one of several) than you are by "only’ going on match.com and not also trying Tinder and plenty of fish.
Second, I think there’s a meaningful difference between discriminating on the basis of cosmetic difference and discriminating on the basis of important lifestyle priorities and/or theological principles. If you are in any way traditionally observant, that is going to have a variety of practical ramifications. I do know intermarried couples in which the non-Jewish partner, without converting, adopts certain ritual practices and agrees to raise the children as Jews, and that works for some people. In theory, if I were, without looking for it, to fall in love with a non-Jew at work or in my neighborhood, that might be a compromise I could make. I cannot imagine raising children outside my faith - and I say that as someone who doesn’t believe that non-believers go to hell, or even that Jews have an absolute monopoly on religious truth. I would far prefer to wind up a single mom by choice - perhaps to children of an ethnicity other than my own – to children I could raise as Jews than to abandon or not pass on something that is such a core part of my identity, experience of the world, and daily practices.
This gets even more fraught for people with more rigid theological beliefs than the ones I myself hold. I was just in a relationship with a more observant Jew that ended because he ultimately, painfully decided that while we could find a workable compromise on most practical, ritual issues, he just couldn’t be with someone who did not subscribe to certain core aspects of his theology (namely, the divine authorship of the Torah, and the consequent status of its laws). Obviously, this was painful for me - but I didn’t blame him, though it would be easier if I could.
I see no problem whatsoever with an individual choosing to marry someone who shares their faith. My dh and I both did - on purpose - and we love that we share our faith. It’s a major part of our lives.
I only have problems with folks who dictate that their offspring MUST do the same or will “lose out.” Their life and choices are theirs to make, not ours. My guys know all about our relationship and how great we feel it is, but they still get to make their own decisions about faith and everything else.
A good judge can separate personal feelings from his job. The judge I worked for was excellent. He was a very devote catholic, but he decided divorce cases and issued temporary and final orders according to the law, not to his own feelings. He did refuse to do marriages because they weren’t part of his duties (the county court judges were require to do them), but he refused to do all of them- same sex, interfaith, Wicken, on a mountain top, in the courtroom . As far as I know he had not committed any crimes and was anti-crime but he could adjudicate criminal matters, and I think he would have imposed the death penalty if such a case came before him. One of the hardest things he had to do was sign a warrant against a star basketball player because the judge really liked basketball, but he did it.
Even if the judge in the OP was a blatant racist, an open homophobe, a real Archie Bunker, he could still be a fair judge. Even if he was accepting of blacks and gays, he still might have reason not to like his brother and bil.