21st May 2016
SAME SEX MARRIAGE
A Secular View
If the redefinition of the word ‘marriage’ was a matter of human rights, we could ask. how can we live with our homosexual friends respecting their choices while protecting the foundational unit of mother-father-child.? However here we have a proposition that suggests this issue is much more than just a matter of individual human rights.
According to the
There is something seriously wrong here and again common sense can be excused for suspecting that beyond individual human rights there must be a much bigger, less obvious hidden agenda here. This makes sense when you stand back from the emotive nature of the debate to realise the magnitude of what is being proposed. For thousands of years across all cultures the word ‘marriage’ has been between man and woman. Monogamy has not always been respected but through history even polygamy has recognised the givenness of maleness and femaleness.
Without any Christian presuppositions this is how it is across all cultures. Dr David van Gend, President of Australian Marriage Forum has confirmed this by saying, “The truth that marriage is given to us by nature and affirmed by every culture, because man and women are uniquely empowered to nurture new life.” (1)
N.T Wright has said, “When anybody---pressure groups, governments, civilisations---suddenly change the meaning of key words, you really should watch out. If you go to a German dictionary and just open at random, you may well see several German words which have a little square bracket saying ‘N S’., meaning National Socialist or Nazi. The Nazis gave those words a certain meaning.” --- Wright points out that in the same way, there are those who insist that when we talk about assisted suicide we shouldn’t use words like ‘suicide’ and ‘killing’ because those sorts of words imply that you should not do it. He continues, “I find that sort of stuff chilling, the attempt to change an ideology within a culture by changing the language.” (2)
Former Prime Minister John Howard has said that the quest to redefine marriage, ---“is not an exercise in human rights and equality; it is an exercise in de-authorising the Judaeo- Christian influence in our society, and any who pretend otherwise are deluding themselves.” (3)
A Christian View
In an interview with J. John of Philo trust N.T. Wright explains why he views the complementarity of the sexes as essential to the Christian story, and to marriage itself.
“With Christian or Jewish presuppositions, or indeed Muslim, then if you believe in what it says in Genesis 1 about God making heaven and earth---and the binaries in Genesis are so important---that heaven and earth, and sea and dry land, and so on and so on, and you end up with male and female. It’s all about God making complementary pairs which are meant to work together. The last scene in the Bible is the new heaven and the new earth, and the symbol for that is the marriage of Christ and his church. It’s not just one or two verses here and there which say this or that. It’s an entire narrative which works with this complementarity so that a male-plus- female marriage is a signpost or a signal about the goodness of the original creation and God’s intention for the eventual new heavens and new earth.
If you say that marriage now means something which would allow other such configurations, what you’re saying is actually that when we marry man and a woman we’re not actually doing any of that stuff. This is just a convenient social arrangement and sexual arrangement and there it is---Simply at that level, I think it’s a nonsense. It’s like a government voting that black should be white. Sorry, you can vote that if you like, you can pass it by a total majority, but it isn’t actually going to change the reality---All the press is on-side, most of Parliament’s on-side, and people are saying—get this—that unless you support this, you’re on the wrong side of history.”
Wright concluded by pointing out that ironically it was none other than Communist, Nikita Khrushchev in 1956 who had originally said. “History is on our side and we will bury you.” Wright claimed that this was nothing more than a rhetorical smokescreen. In other ways we could call it ideological brainwashing, brash social engineering or bullying.
We conclude that marriage between man and women is more than a convenient social construct. It is a complementary natural moral law built into the created order and to mess with it is a bit like messing with the ecological balance of the physical environment. Not to respect the creation has far reaching consequences. In a similar way to fail in respecting the institution of marriage can only lead to social dysfunction.
E.A. (Ted) Curnow May 2016
Reference:
(1) Dr David van Gend, Vox Brief insert, Family Voice. May 2016.
(2) N.T. Wright on Gay Marriage, Matthew Schmitz, First Things. 6 November, 2014.
(3) Dr David van Gend, Vox Brief insert, Family Voice. May 2016.
For Sexuality and Marriage
Prayer:
Loving God, although we have often failed in our love
for you and in our relationships with others,
with humble hearts we thank you for your mercy
and love poured out towards us in Jesus Christ.
Lord who created us male and female,
we thank you for the complimentary
rhythms of life and for the purpose of sex.
Help us to regard gender and sexuality
as your sacred gifts so that we don’t
trash our instincts and affections
by being slaves to self desire or
to passions that exploit others.
We thank you that in the mystery
of marriage two become one.
We thank you that you planned the family
as the foundational unit of society so that
we could live together in loving company.
Lord be especially with those who are single parents
and with those people gifted to remain single.
Where marriages are broken or unhappy, forgive us.
Where there is hope, fan again that first love.
Where there is no hope strengthen and comfort people
with your everlasting love.
We pray for people deeply affected by the
traumas of social disorder, domestic violence,
sexual abuse, alcohol or drugs.
We pray for adolescents exploited by a sexualised society,
for those who struggle to understand themselves
and who battle with their feelings and impulses.
Lord as you were tempted from different directions
empower all of us to face subtle temptations,
to surrender our secret desires to you
and with patience and strength to choose that which is good.
Lord where there is confusion, depression or emotional stress
give wisdom to those with whom we
can share our troubles and bring hope and reason
into hopeless situations, in Jesus name,
AMEN
Ted Curnow May 2016
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