Thinking about marriage and culture...

Same Sex Marriage — What Say You?

“If we truly love each other why don’t we have the freedom to marry whomever we want regardless of gender?”  

Sounds right doesn’t it?  I mean who is against freedom?  

However on second thought what do we mean by freedom and is it true we are free to do whatever we want?  Really?  Freedom is not the ability to do whatever we want but the power to do what is right.  

I heard a man on the radio use this analogy. He said, “ just as we should not discriminate and prohibit people from two different races from marrying so also we should not prohibit two people of the same sex to marry. They should be free to marry whomever they want.”   Is he serious?  As Dennis Prager has stated, “There are enormous differences between men and women, but there are no differences between people of different races. Men and women are inherently different, but blacks and whites (and yellows and browns) are inherently the same. Therefore, any imposed separation by race can never be moral or even rational; on the other hand, separation by sex can be both morally desirable and rational. Separate bathrooms for men and women is moral and rational; separate bathrooms for blacks and whites is not.”

We are not free to marry whomever we wish and there are many good reasons for this.  We are not free to marry a family member — incestual marriage is an illegitimate marriage.  We are not free to marry another if we are already married — polygamy is illegitimate.  Why are these two examples taboo?  And what right do we have to continue to say these are illegitimate marriages if we permit same sex marriage?  In doing so, don’t we open Pandora’s Box to all sorts of possible so-called marriages?  If not, why not?  

Why should we care who marries whom?  Marriage is the oldest institution of mankind.  It is over 5,000 years old and exists in every single human culture around the globe.  Every culture, every civilization, every religion has recognized marriage as that of between the two sexes: a man and a woman.  Why is this?

Greg Koukl from Stand to Reason asks the question, “Which came first, bricks or buildings?”  Of course bricks came before buildings. Bricks are the building blocks for buildings.  Even so, marriage came before civilization.   If civilization came first then marriage is simply a matter of social order.  But if marriage came first then marriage is the foundation of family and family is then the foundation of civilization.  When we alter marriage, we are altering the very foundations on which society is built.   And history shows us that when we mess with sexual mores we end up in a societal mess.  

For example, Philip Yancey writes in the “Lost Sex Study” about scholar J.D. Unwin’s “Sex and Culture”.  “He studied 86 different societies.  His findings startled many scholars - above all, Unwin himself - because all 86 demonstrated a direct tie between monogamy and the "expansive energy" of civilization.  He found with no exceptions that these societies flourished during eras that valued sexual fidelity. Inevitably, sexual mores would loosen and the societies would subsequently decline, only to rise again when they returned to more rigid sexual standards.”  

The real issue here is not one of freedom.  It is an issue of authority.  On whose authority do we define marriage?  Is this authority up to each individual to decide?  Is it the domain of government to determine what makes a marriage?  Or is there a higher authority, namely the One who designed marriage for the benefit of mankind — our Creator.   Jesus, who came to testify to the truth said,  “Have you not read that He who created them from the beginning MADE THEM MALE AND FEMALE, and said, FOR THIS REASON A MAN SHALL LEAVE HIS FATHER AND MOTHER AND BE JOINED TO HIS WIFE, AND THE TWO SHALL BECOME ONE FLESH’? So they are no longer two, but one flesh. What therefore God has joined together, let no man separate.”  Matthew 19:4-6.

In removing the sacred boundary of marriage between a man and a woman we reject God’s original design.  We reject His ways and claim we have a better idea.  Yep, we think we know better and can determine for ourselves what is right and wrong.  

Here we go again – swallowing the fruit.