Sociologist Pitirim Sorokin prophetically noted that the stability of marriage eventually determines the welfare of the culture. Marriage is highly valued because it alone serves as a stable platform for regulating sexual behavior and provides the necessary support for the nurture and care of children. Indeed, it is the only social institution that accomplishes these functions.
As Sorokin noted: "The reasons for this high evaluation of marriage are obvious. Marriage is a social evidence of the physical, mental, emotional, spiritual, and civic maturity of the individual. It involves the momentous transformation of a boy into a husband-father, and of a girl into a wife-mother with corresponding changes in their social position, privileges, and responsibilities. For a large majority of men and women, marriage is the most vital, the most intimate, and the most complete unification of body, mind, and spirit into one socially approved, indivisible 'we'."
Throughout human history, marriage has been understood as the indissoluble union of a man and a woman, exclusive of all others. Experiments in polygamy, group marriage, and cohabitation have proved disastrous throughout human experience. Marriage is the one necessary institution for the survival of civilization as we know it.
Of course, marriage has been understood as an essentially heterosexual union. The very idea that marriage could be redefined to include homosexual partnerships would be beyond the comprehension of most human beings throughout human experience. Only in recent years have western societies reached the point of moral dissolution that such a notion has become not only imaginable, but actually possible.
With homosexual marriage looming as a reality across our northern border in Canada, and with state courts in Massachusetts and New Jersey poised to rule on similar claims, we must now all recognize that the institution of marriage is gravely threatened. Marriage cannot be redefined to include homosexuality or homosexual unions. The very idea strikes at the heart of marriage as a coherent concept and will weaken and ultimately destroy this institution so central to human happiness and welfare.
Christians understand that marriage is not a human invention. The Bible reveals that God's intention in making human beings as male and female was that a man and woman should be united in the holy covenant of marriage. Within that covenant, the couple should receive all the goods and joys of marriage, along with the responsibilities of parenthood.
Marriage is a picture of covenantal faithfulness in miniature that points to the larger picture of God's covenantal faithfulness to His people. From Genesis to Revelation, Scripture provides abundant evidence of the centrality of marriage to human holiness and happiness.
As a matter of fact, the inherent sinfulness and deficiency of all other forms of sexual expression and relatedness is seen in the fact that all of these are essentially submarital. The Bible's condemnation of fornication, adultery, homosexuality, and other sexual sins is directed towards the picture of marriage in order to demonstrate the sinfulness of those practices. Sexual perversions and illicit relationships are contrasted with the purity and holiness of marriage. The rejection of marriage is a clear sign of moral rebellion.
