Don't become desensitized to marriage threat

“Let marriage be held in honor among all, and let the marriage bed be undefiled, for God will judge the sexually immoral and adulterous” (Hebrews 13:4).

In a society where we’re expected to accept that two men can call themselves married to each other, parents allow boys to dress like girls, and taxpayer-funded abortion mills promote sex among minors, it’s difficult not to become desensitized to it all. Tales of immorality are so frequent, we have to mentally toughen up to deal with them.

But one area where we should remain sensitive and vigilant is the family. Because marriage is so beneficial to the men, women, and children in the unit, and society as a whole, we should continue fighting to protect it, even as it descends into mockery. Children are better off living with their married, biological parents. Biological fathers are more invested emotionally and financially in their children when they live with them, and one of the best things a father can do for his children is to love their mother.

Children living with their married, biological parents are physically safer than children living with only their mother or their mother and stepfather or boyfriend. Despite these and other intuitive facts, some people work with steely determination to undermine this God-ordained structure. The homosexual and feminist lobbies would have you believe that the traditional family is outdated at best and dangerous at worst. (Do radical feminists who see heterosexual Christian men as bad realize how blessed they are to live in relative safety and comfort in a free-speech country built and maintained by such men? The irony is so strong, it hurts.)

As men are generally stronger and larger than women, they certainly pose a threat of violence against them (and weaker and smaller men). But as marriage researcher W. Bradford Wilcox pointed out in a “controversial” Washington Post op-ed published earlier this month, married fathers are more likely to protect women, directly and indirectly, from the threat of violence. Wilcox (who was recently interviewed by Warren Cole Smith on WORLD Radio’s Listening In) isn’t spouting his opinion; he draws on the government research, peer-reviewed articles, and other sources. Asserting that married women are generally safer is a statistical fact, and spousal abuse stories don’t change it. Anecdotes about married men beating up their wives and children can’t cancel out the truth. Wilcox noted:

“Marriage is no panacea when it comes to male violence. But married fathers are much less likely to resort to violence than men who are not tied by marriage or biology to a female. And, most fundamentally, for the girls and women in their lives, married fathers provide direct protection by watching out for the physical welfare of their wives and daughters, and indirect protection by increasing the odds they live in safe homes and are not exposed to men likely to pose a threat.”

How do we stay sensitive to cultural erosion, especially threats to the family? Remember that the kind of sins that weaken families also sent Christ to the cross. Stay focused on God’s design for the family, and preach repentance and salvation.