Friday, August 6, 2010

Marriage is Redefined? So What?

C.S. Lewis said, "Even in literature and art, no man who bothers about originality will ever be original: whereas if you simply try to tell the truth (without caring twopence how often it has been told before) you will, nine times out of ten, become original without ever having noticed it."  Therefore, though I know a thousand others (perhaps a thousand times a thousand, maybe even a million) have posted on the subject of marriage in modern America already, particularly in light of the recent decision out of California, I feel compelled to do so as well.


My question is this: what does it matter if the word, "marriage" is redefined in society?  More precisely my question can be asked in this way: If Christians accept a redefinition of the word "marriage" to allow for homosexuals to get married what does it change?  If it changes things, should we fight the new definition?  If culture at large accepts the new definition, then how do Christians move forward?


Redefining marriage would dramatically change how we read Scripture (hermeneutics).  Allow me to explain.  If we look at verses like Genesis 34:9 (Make marriages with us. Give your daughters to us, and take our daughters for yourselves.) and we accept a redefinition of marriage, then we are obligated to explain that, when the offer was made to Jacob's son to marry with the men of the area, marriage meant something different to them than it does to us.  We are obligated to explain that marriage at that time only meant between a man and a woman, this was not an offer for Jacob's sons to marry the men, but only to give and take their daughters in marriage.  If we fail to explain that point then some might think that the men of the area are hitting on Jacob's sons.  (Then again maybe that would explain the violent reaction of Jacob's sons as found in Genesis 34:25, On the third day, when they were sore, two of the sons of Jacob, Simeon and Levi, Dinah’s brothers, took their swords and came against the city while it felt secure and killed all the males.  What an insult to offer marriage and then say, "Well I really meant I wanted to marry your daughter, not you.")


Okay, if you don't buy that it would require us to be more clear in the passages above, how about, in 1 Timothy 4:1-5:  "Now the Spirit expressly says that in later times some will depart from the faith by devoting themselves to deceitful spirits and teachings of demons, through the insincerity of liars whose consciences are seared, who forbid marriage and require abstinence from foods that God created to be received with thanksgiving by those who believe and know the truth. For everything created by God is good, and nothing is to be rejected if it is received with thanksgiving, for it is made holy by the word of God and prayer."  If marriage is redefined, couldn't anyone who can marry according to the state definition, claim that churches are sinning by forbidding them to marry?  Couldn't they claim that since marriage was created by God, and they are simply engaging in marriage, their marriage is made holy  through thanksgiving and prayer?  A cultural redefinition of the word would require teachers in the church to make clear that what Paul means by marriage here is only a union between one woman and one man, no other union, regardless of whether called marriage or not, can be made clean.


Further we see that additional teaching would be required for verses such as Hebrews 13:4, "Let marriage be held in honor among all, and let the marriage bed be undefiled, for God will judge the sexually immoral and adulterous."  What are we to keep pure?  What is marriage?  Is the church sinning by not honoring the civil marriages as granted by the state?  If you doubt for a minute that there would be activists insisting on these readings within the next generation then I would encourage you to study history more closely.  As a word loses meaning, or takes on new meanings, people always have a tendency to anachronistically read that meaning into the original use of the word.


Consider the use of the term "make love."  C. S. Lewis uses that term in The Silver Chair to indicate how Jill acts in a cute and disarming way around the "Gentle Giants".  But, when a modern reader sees a statement about a little girl "making love" to everyone in the room, our minds are not drawn to innocent imagery, but rather a horrible case of child abuse.  While we may certainly be corrected by context, what would we think if we did not have that context?  So likewise, in two generations, or three, or four, what will the average reader of a section like Hebrews 13:4 or 1 Timothy 4:1-5 think?


While it may be generations until there is general confusion stemming from these verses, what are we to do about it now?  This concept is one I look forward to reading your thoughts on, and addressing in a future post.  For now I ask you to simply consider this: If we accept a redefinition of marriage so that it means anything other than the biblical definition, it can lead to radical changes in what we think of as sinful, and thus what we allow within our churches.  If we redefine marriage then we risk becoming those of whom it is said, Woe to those who call evil good and good evil, who put darkness for light and light for darkness, who put bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter!

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