Holy matrimony in the ruins

Several evangelical voices endorsed the Respect For Marriage Act (RFMA), and they are fully culpable for their folly. They argued that the legislation was a necessary compromise. They claim to have protected religious liberty, even though amendments that provided substantial protections to religious liberty were shot down on the Senate floor. For these evangelicals, RFMA is simply an acknowledgement of what we’ve already known for a while: the legislative and cultural battle for marriage in America has been lost, at least for now.

But they may be only half right. Faithful Christians in America must reflect upon the devastation that our laws, mores, and religious infidelity have wrought upon such a praiseworthy, beneficial estate. Marriage is a pillar for all of society. It is the divinely-created and divinely-ordained institution into which children are to be begotten and raised. It is a foundational symbol that reveals the relationship of Christ and His Church. And we, the American people, have done our uttermost to pervert and subvert this, a highpoint of God’s good creation.

The only thing that marriage means for the everyday American libertine is a unique and perhaps outdated avenue for self-realization and personal satisfaction. And, once a marriage fails to satisfy and otherwise inhibit the individual via necessary sacrifices, it is discarded, perhaps in a long series of divorces and remarriages. Such treatment of marriage ignores biblical teaching on the subject (to say the very least).

In the corrupted vision of contemporary America, marriage is not a permanent covenant. That would entail that marriage is something anchored in a good beyond an individual spouse’s immediate desires—that husbands and wives are to provide one another “mutual society, help, and comfort” in prosperity and adversity. It is also not a remedy against sin, because, in America, sexual sin doesn’t exist as a category, or at least it’s been exponentially shrunk. And, as we are now finding out, marriage is not connected to the procreation and nurture of children.

Where did we learn these lies, as a culture? Most Christians are quick to point out the teaching we find in the spheres of Hollywood entertainment and politics, but these complaints only touch the surface. Obviously, no-fault divorce (and the normalization of remarriage) attacks the perpetuity of the marriage covenant. This development, perhaps more than anything else, has devastated the culture of marriage and family in America. But it is subsidized and exacerbated by other evils. Hefner-style hedonism, now made “risk-free” and readily available in internet pornography, has devastated courtship and purity. It joins the approval and even popular celebration of sex outside of marriage, which dominates hook-up and shack-up culture. Meanwhile, birth control ideology and technological innovations have led to deep confusion with regard to procreative child-bearing.

In a sense, the redefinition that has occurred in same-sex “marriage” logically follows this script of individualistic self-realization and personal satisfaction. As the apostle Paul pointed out in Romans 1, homosexual behavior is an observable sign that rebellion against the Creator and the worship of the creation has reached its fulfillment. Man rebels against the clear, discernible order of the creation that he decided to idolatrously worship.

It will not take long for monogamy to be thrown out. How long shall it be before marriage is redefined with regard to age and even species? Who knows? What principles are there in place to forbid such behaviors, especially since throwing off limits has become the order of the day? The laws of the land—including bad laws—will do much to catechize the American people. The trajectory will probably only worsen in the coming years.

Removing the limits of marriage removes the meaning of marriage. The cost has been hidden from view, but periodically reveals itself in stories of isolated loneliness, familial disloyalty and alienation, addiction, suicide, and nihilistic violence against neighbor. It is all right to contemplate and mourn such a desolate cultural wasteland. Indeed, this moral slide was made possible by a religious one: Fewer and fewer Americans are Christians. Having abandoned the faith, these Americans have gone on to embrace sin. And they are similarly cut off from eternal life until they repent of sin and turn to Christ in faith.

Do we not see it? That the proclamation of the gospel can in no wise be severed from the moral holiness of God—that such holiness is absolutely integral to the gospel message and a proper evidence of a life changed by the Christ revealed in the gospel? And how can we not see in Scripture that such holiness demands sexual morality?

Many compromisers within evangelicalism do not see this. They are busy making their peace with the darkness. We should not be surprised that they’ve turned out to be blind guides. We must look to other voices to shine the light.