COMMENTARY: Gay Marriage? How We Got Here

c. 2003 Religion News Service (David P. Gushee is the Graves Professor of Moral Philosophy at Union University in Jackson, Tenn.) (UNDATED) The Massachusetts Supreme Court made a decision last month that may open the way to gay marriage in America. Blame for that decision does not rest solely on the four judges who signed […]

c. 2003 Religion News Service

(David P. Gushee is the Graves Professor of Moral Philosophy at Union University in Jackson, Tenn.)

(UNDATED) The Massachusetts Supreme Court made a decision last month that may open the way to gay marriage in America.


Blame for that decision does not rest solely on the four judges who signed the majority opinion. We got here through a long and winding process involving the steady disintegration of a historic cultural consensus about the nature and meaning of marriage. This cultural consensus was ultimately grounded in religious convictions that are themselves rapidly fading.

Inflamed by the current gay marriage debate, people often overlook the fact that what has defined as marriage historically is not just heterosexuality.

Instead, Western culture, deeply shaped by biblical teachings as interpreted by the Christian churches, has invested marriage with a rich set of expectations and understandings that go far beyond maleness and femaleness. Every single one of these expectations has now either collapsed or is on the way to collapse.

At the core of the Western understanding of marriage has been the belief that it is a God-given institution for human life. The Bible’s account of the giving of Eve to Adam, among other passages in Scripture that discuss marriage, laid the foundation for believing that the God who designed and created men and women designed and created marriage as the bridge between them.

Elements of this design were spelled out with confidence. It was believed that God intended marriage to accomplish certain very specific goals, and church and state cooperated to make sure these were protected.

For example, marriage was to be the one and only place in which sexual intercourse occurred. All forms of nonmarital sex were rejected and often sanctioned severely. This is one key reason why cohabitation between unmarried adults of the opposite sex was often forbidden by law. Numerous other social norms were established intended to prevent occasions for sex outside of marriage.

This does not mean that nonmarital sex never occurred, just that society was clear about what its expectations for sexual behavior were.


Marriage was likewise to be the one and only context in which conception and childrearing were socially blessed. Children were to be brought into the world in the protective cocoon of the marital relationship. Legal and social sanctions against illegitimacy were oftentimes severe.

Marriage was to be monogamous _ it involved just one man and one woman. The perceived importance of this belief in western culture has been illustrated by ferocious fights against polygamy both here and in missionary and colonial settings.

Marriage was likewise to be sexually exclusive. The biblical command against adultery was taken with utmost seriousness. It was not so long ago that you could go to jail in this country for committing this offense against marriage. Even after the state gave up on punishing adultery the churches continued to proclaim the sexual exclusivity of marriage.

Marriage was for life. Deeply shaped by New Testament teachings against divorce, Western culture made it impossible or nearly impossible to obtain a divorce. Even as laws against divorce began to loosen in different countries at different times, opinion leaders almost universally decried divorce as an assault on the institution of marriage.

And, yes, marriage was for heterosexuals. This particular dimension of marriage received far less attention because it was almost never challenged. But until recently the concept of anything other than heterosexual marriage was inconceivable within the framework of Western culture.

Do you see what has happened? It’s not that the gay marriage movement suddenly has unleashed a withering assault on the sturdy institution of marriage that we have just described. Our situation is far worse. Every dimension of the historic meaning of marriage in Western culture has been in decline for some time. This decline began to occur long before the gay rights movement got to it.


Let’s go back through the list: Many believe there is no God or that God has nothing to do with human coupling. Sex outside of marriage is a routine feature of American culture. Cohabitation rates are skyrocketing. One-third of all children are born out of wedlock. Monogamy laws remain in place but adultery rates are distressingly high. Divorce claims just about half of all marriages. And now homosexuality has gained widespread social acceptance, and appears on the brink of gaining access to the status of marriage.

I oppose gay marriage. But I also oppose every one of the other trends that has proven so destructive to marriage as a social institution. If Christians and other concerned people successfully fight off gay marriage, it will be a great victory. But what are we doing about all the other behavior that is undermining marriage?

DEA END GUSHEE

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