Putting aside that the Bible clearly inveighs against such behavior, there is plenty of worldly reasons to oppose it as well. The marital behavior described in the linked article weakens marriage by attacking the institution's seriousness and permanence (i.e., one man, one woman, until death). Given that the husband has remarried, and we have no information about the wife's behavior, but odds are she had fornicated at least once in the 50 years between divorce and remarriage. Thus, at the very least, one, if not both halves of this couple returned to land that was defiled and greatly polluted, mocking the gravity of marriage overall and sending the message that pursuit of one's happiness justifies anything, that divorce is not really all that bad, and there are take-backs and "undos" where marriage is concerned. With breezy attitudes such as this, little wonder that traditional marriage is on the ropes in our society. [Emphasis added.]
This, naturally, begs the question: just what, exactly, is traditional marriage?
EW gets part of the answer correct by noting that the Bible
defines marriage as a life-long union between a husband and a wife, with
divorce being permitted only in the event of adultery. The proof text for this is Matthew 19:1-10,
which says:
Now it came to pass, when Jesus had finished these sayings, that He departed from Galilee and came to the region of Judea beyond the Jordan. And great multitudes followed Him, and He healed them there.The Pharisees also came to Him, testing Him, and saying to Him, “Is it lawful for a man to divorce his wife for just any reason?”And He answered and said to them, “Have you not read that He who made[a] them at the beginning ‘made them male and female,’ and said, ‘For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh’? So then, they are no longer two but one flesh. Therefore what God has joined together, let not man separate.”They said to Him, “Why then did Moses command to give a certificate of divorce, and to put her away?”He said to them, “Moses, because of the hardness of your hearts, permitted you to divorce your wives, but from the beginning it was not so. And I say to you, whoever divorces his wife, except for sexual immorality, and marries another, commits adultery; and whoever marries her who is divorced commits adultery.”His disciples said to Him, “If such is the case of the man with his wife, it is better not to marry.”
Note that Christ makes his argument not from the
technicalities of Moses law (in fact, note that Christ rejects Moses law as
being nothing more than a concession to Man’s hardness of heart) but from “the
beginning.” His argument is based on
first principles, and it behooves us to look at the first marriage in order to
see God’s design for marriage. Note what’s
found in Genesis 2:21-24:
And the Lord God caused a deep sleep to fall on Adam, and he slept; and He took one of his ribs, and closed up the flesh in its place. Then the rib which the Lord God had taken from man He made into a woman, and He brought her to the man.And Adam said:“This is now bone of my bones
And flesh of my flesh;
She shall be called Woman,
Because she was taken out of Man.”Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and they shall become one flesh.
Note what’s missing here:
God did not take Adam and Eve to a justice of the peace in order for
them to get married. This is because
marriage exists solely in the mind of God, and is not subject to man’s control
or regulation. Man may choose to acknowledge a specific marriage, or man may
try to say that a given living arrangement is a marriage, but ultimately man’s
pronouncements on marriage are completely and totally meaningless. All that matters is what God has to say on
the matter. Therefore, marriage only occurs when an unbound man and an unbound
woman pledge their lives to one another in the sight of God. Anything and everything else is not marriage,
full stop.
Therefore, two men can never marry, no matter what Man
says. Two women can never marry, no
matter what man says. Three or more
people can never be married, no matter what man says. A human and an animal can never be married,
no matter what man says. No one person can
be married, no matter what man says. No
human and inanimate object can be married no matter what man says.
Furthermore, note that the marriage covenant is so important
to God that the only time that he allows it to be ended (and note that he does
not command it to be ended) is when
one party ceases to reserve himself or herself for their spouse. In essence, the only time one is allowed to
end one’s marriage is when one’s spouse refuses, by his or her actions, to
belong solely to the person to whom he or she has pledged his or her self.
The problem many social conservatives have* is that they do
not view marriage properly. They view it
as a legal institution rather than a spiritual institution, and they do not
view it as seriously as God does. Thus,
they think that the institution of marriage is subject to Man’s laws, which is
why they are often unconcerned with fundamental problems (like feminism) and
why they latch on to trivial problems (like gay marriage). In essence, they strain out a gnat and swallow a camel. Because they do not
view marriage properly, they have not defended it properly, which is why “traditional
marriage is on the ropes in our society.”
* And this indictment does not necessarily include Elusive
Wapiti.
