Teaching the purpose of marriage

Last week, voters in Ireland approved a measure to redefine marriage to include same-sex couples. On Monday, the issue surfaces again in Australia, where the opposition party plans to introduce a bill to replace the words “man and woman” and “husband and wife” with “two people” in the country’s marriage law.

Parliament overwhelmingly rejected a bill to redefine marriage three years ago. If it does come up again, Prime Minister Tony Abbott said his party would make the decision whether to bring a new bill forward.

This week, I talked with John Stonestreet of the Chuck Colson Center on Christian Worldview about the role of the church in Australia and Ireland. One Catholic leader has suggested the church in Ireland was a bit more focused on politics and less focused on spreading church teaching among its own members. What is the lesson for Christian churches in the United States?

“We’ve had decades of seminars at churches on how to have happy marriages, godly marriages, good finances, and a good sex life, but not very many intentional, clear teaching sessions on what marriage actually is and what marriage is for,” Stonestreet said.

People who go to evangelical churches in the United States don’t necessarily buy into church doctrine on sexuality. Stonestreet used the church’s approach to contraception as an example of its shortcomings: “It’s a personal, private, moral choice. Kids are a personal, private, moral choice. The divorce between sex and babies has already taken place. Well, if the divorce between sex and babies has already taken place … it’s hard to understand why the divorce between sex and gender shouldn’t also take place.”

The church can’t wait to cultivate primary identity and allegiance to biblical teaching, Stonestreet said, adding, “If we don’t really ground people fundamentally in that identity and those allegiances, then it’s going be rough days for the church ahead.”

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