“It depends upon what the meaning of the word is is,” said the smooth-talking, skirt-chasing, totally busted philanderer.
“Well, no, Bill,” replied Congress. “Actually, things just ‘is’ what they is.”
Here’s what marriage is: the God-ordained, lifelong, covenantal union between man and wife designed to provide men, women and children optimal stability and overall well-being. Marriage is that biologically, spiritually and morally centered institution calculated to ensure responsible procreation and perpetuate the human race. Marriage—real marriage—represents the fundamental cornerstone of any healthy society (any society that hopes to survive, at least).
Here’s what marriage is not: anything else.
In short, marriage is what it is.
Our nation has fallen so far and so fast in its embrace of empty relativism that it makes the head swim. It’s at once perplexing and heartbreaking that we have a U.S. Supreme Court seriously considering inventing a newfangled “right” to that chicane aberration tagged “same-sex marriage.” This is true particularly when one considers that the defining behaviors central to “gay marriage” were, for hundreds of years and for obvious reasons, legally and properly classified as “crimes against nature.” Though our postmodern zeitgeist may have changed, objective reality has not.
Indeed, American culture, while casting aside that which is just, moral and true, has instead taken up that which is unjust, immoral and false. This abject rejection of absolute truth provides compelling evidence that the good ol’ USA—the greatest nation on earth—is on the fast track to becoming “the late, great USA.”
So-called “gay marriage” is a counterfeit—a mockery of legitimate marriage. It’s like taking a rotten apple, spray-painting it orange and then calling it an orange. “Same-sex marriage” is no more real marriage than a rotten apple is an orange. It’s mock marriage.
One of the best appraisals I’ve read on marriage was presented in 2003 to the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith by then-Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger (Pope Benedict XVI). Among other things, the future pontiff explicitly recognized the empirical fact that “homosexual acts are intrinsically disordered.” Following are excerpts from his treatise titled “Considerations Regarding Proposals to Give Legal Recognition to Unions Between Homosexual Persons.”
“The Church’s teaching on marriage and on the complementarity of the sexes reiterates a truth that is evident to right reason and recognized as such by all the major cultures of the world. Marriage is not just any relationship between human beings. It was established by the Creator with its own nature, essential properties and purpose. No ideology can erase from the human spirit the certainty that marriage exists solely between a man and a woman … in order to cooperate with God in the procreation and upbringing of new human lives,” he said.
“In the first place, man, the image of God, was created ‘male and female’ (Gen 1:27). Men and women are equal as persons and complementary as male and female. Sexuality is something that pertains to the physical-biological realm and has also been raised to a new level—the personal level—where nature and spirit are united,” he added.
“There are absolutely no grounds for considering homosexual unions to be in any way similar or even remotely analogous to God’s plan for marriage and family. Marriage is holy, while homosexual acts go against the natural moral law. Homosexual acts ‘close the sexual act to the gift of life. They do not proceed from a genuine affective and sexual complementarity. Under no circumstances can they be approved.’”
To be sure, “marriage equality” already exists. It is, quite simply, the self-evident truth that both husband and wife are co-equal, indispensable partners essential to the formulation of a marriage covenant. While moral relativists clamor for their propagandist version of “marriage equality,” the rest of us live in marriage reality.
Every single mentally competent adult enjoys the right to marry within exactly the same parameters required by natural law. Thus, “equal protection under the law” is afforded to all. As long as your spouse-to-be is: 1) not too closely related to you; 2) of legal age; 3) only one person; 4) of the opposite sex; and 5) a biped of the genus Homo sapien, then you’re golden. Marry away.
If you remove one requirement—in this case, the binary male-female prerequisite—then there is no justification, logical or legal, for not removing all requirements. If we yank one foundational brick from the marriage wall, then, as in the days of Jericho, the whole danged thing comes a-tumblin’. That is to say, if the Supreme Court rolls out “gay marriage,” then legalized polygamy, incestuous marriage and heaven-knows-what-else must inevitably follow.
Even still, the willy-nilly left loves to suggest that “gay marriage” supporters are “on the right side of history.” This is utter nonsense. Natural marriage has, for all of history, been on the “right side of history”; and so it shall remain.
Another rotten apples-to-oranges false equivalency is the claim that precluding “gay marriage” is akin to banning interracial marriage. Again, this is nonsense. Liberals, in making their case for the former, are quick to cite Loving v. Virginia, the Supreme Court case that invalidated anti-miscegenation laws.
By comparing “gay marriage” to interracial marriage, leftists endeavor to draw a parallel where none exists. The Loving court both recognized and affirmed the fundamental man-woman nature of marriage while simply—and rightly so—removing arbitrary and truly discriminatory racial barriers. While the Loving case left the institution of natural marriage fully intact, a pro-”gay marriage” ruling by the High Court would thoroughly deconstruct it.
In sum, proponents of counterfeit “gay marriage” pretend that normalcy, biology, history, morality and sanity are all irrelevant to the debate. They are not. As counterfeit money devalues the dollar, counterfeit “gay marriage” devalues the institution of legitimate marriage.
Scripture reminds us that “there is nothing new under the sun” (Eccl. 1:9). Ultimately, the oxymoronic notion of “same-sex marriage” is nothing new. It’s both rooted in man’s age-old rebellion against God and ancient pagan sexual morality.
So, I’ll leave you with this fundamental question: Since God undeniably designed marriage to be the exclusive union of man and wife, who—or what, then—do you suppose manufactured the absurd notion of “same-sex marriage”?
I think the answer is pretty clear.
Matt Barber (@jmattbarber on Twitter) is an attorney concentrating in constitutional law. He serves as vice president of Liberty Counsel Action.
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