What is Marriage?

The recent decision by a majority of Supreme Court justices legalizing same-sex marriage has far-reaching effects for many people.  How is it possible that a small group of highly educated appointed lawyers can make changes to the laws of a country which affect a fundamental social law? A natural law that is the basis in the formation of a family? Marriage has been between a man and a woman throughout civilization and provides a stable home for children to be born and raised.

In his dissenting argument Chief Justice Roberts reminds us that, “The constitution protects a right to marry. . . .The real question. . .is what constitutes “marriage,” or – more precisely—who decides what constitutes “marriage”? Even the majority acknowledges that marriage “has existed for millennia and across civilizations.”  Two terms ago the Court explained, “until recent years, . .  marriage between a man and a woman no doubt had been thought of by most people as essential to the very definition of that term and to its role and function throughout the history of civilization.”

I so agree with Judge Roberts further statement. “The premises supporting this concept of marriage are so fundamental that they rarely require articulation. The human race must procreate to survive. Procreation occurs through sexual relations between a man and a woman. When sexual relations result in the conception of a child, that child’s prospects are generally better if the mother and father stay together rather than going their separate ways. Therefore, for the good of children and society, sexual relations that can lead to procreation should occur only between a man and a woman committed to a lasting bond. Society has recognized that bond as marriage. And by bestowing a respected status and material benefits on married couples, society encourages men and women to conduct sexual relations within marriage rather than without. As one prominent scholar put it, “Marriage is a socially arranged solution for the problem of getting people to stay together and care for children that the mere desire for children, and the sex that makes children possible, does not solve.”

   

When this decision from the court was made public last summer, I was saddened that these Justices could make such a decision.  I, honestly, had not read the proceedings until recently, but I found that my feelings mirror those of the words of Chief Justice Roberts.  Marriage is to be between a man and a woman. The natural union of this married couple could produce children, and a committed marriage is the ideal situation to raise, teach, and nurture children.

Scripture teaches that God created male and female, and then commanded that man should “cleave unto his wife.” Marriage between a man and a woman is the beginning of a new family, a new unit of society.  God has commanded that sexual relations are to be only within the bonds of marriage.  When this results in the procreation of the species, when children are born to the family, the committed father and mother are in the best position to raise their children.

Any other bond between two people of the same gender is not marriage.  It may be a committed relationship, it may be a declared union, but it is not marriage.  Marriage is the union between a man and a woman.  That does not change simply because five judges decided that the definition should change.