Who needs marriage? Albert Mohler Jr. believes everyone needs it—but only as God intended, of course.
In the Christian Post, Mohler, president of The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, Kentucky, writes:
God created the institution of marriage—defined on his terms—as the central institution of human society. Marriage was given to us by our Creator as the central institution for sexual relatedness, procreation, and the nurture of children. But, even beyond these goods, God gave us marriage as an institution central to human happiness and flourishing. Rightly understood, marriage is essential even to the happiness and flourishing of the unmarried. It is just that central to human existence, and not by accident.
Mohler spends most of his commentary bemoaning the downfall of marriage and a new study from Time magazine and the Pew Research Center that shows marriage is in decline. Nearly 40 percent of those surveyed said they believed marriage is obsolete. Forty-four percent of those under the age of 30 believe that.
Mohler blames the requisite list of boogeymen for the destruction of marriage: feminists and the sexual revolution that meant no one had to buy the cow to get the milk, growing numbers of cohabiting couples, no-fault divorce, serial monogamy, and of course, the Pill for giving women control over their own bodies.
While he doesn’t come right out and blame the gays for the decline in marriage, he does take a backhanded swipe at the marriage equality movement noting that “the concept of marriage as a sacred covenant has given way to the idea that marriage is merely a legal contract.” This, of course, has been one of the main arguments for same-sex marriage—banning it is to deny two consenting parties from entering into a civil contract with one another.
What Mohler misses, of course, is that marriage is not a “sacred covenant” for everyone, and it never has been. It has, and will always be, at its heart, “merely” a legal contract. A church service can convey a sense of “sacredness” to the wedding, but the first stop for any couple is the county courthouse, not the church sanctuary.
When I first read the Time piece about the decline in marriage, I worried that gays and lesbians had arrived too late for the marriage party. Why would our community clamor to be part of something that nearly half of the nation thinks is already as out as last year’s Prada shoes?
Then, I thought, perhaps gays and lesbians can be the savior for marriage. Just as many old neighborhoods in my hometown of Atlanta were saved by gays and lesbians buying dilapidated houses and renovating them, why can’t gays and lesbians rehab marriage?
Gays and lesbians are clamoring for the right to get married. Obviously, within our community the idea of “’til death do us part” is not a hackneyed phrase or something to be avoided at all costs. We want to walk down the aisle and have our happily ever after. For those gays and lesbians who agree with Mohler that marriage is “an institution central to human happiness and flourishing,” we want the ability to flourish together as married couples, and yes, even to raise children together.
For Mohler, and others who believe as he does on the issue of marriage equality, to deny gays and lesbians that right, is to cruelly deprive an entire population of what is essential to “human happiness and flourishing.” It would seem to me that if Mohler and others value marriage as much as they say they do, they would welcome the effort of any group of people who want to revere that institution and rebuild it to its former greatness.
