Marriage in America Hebrews 13:4

1. Marriage in America Hebrews 13:4

2. Honoring Marriage • Marriage is to be held in honor among all, and the marriage bed is to be undefiled; for the sexually immoral and adulterers God will judge. (Hebrews 13:4)

3. Honoring Marriage • “Marriage exists to bring a man and a woman together as husband and wife to be father and mother to any children their union produces. It is based on the anthropological truth that men and women are different and complementary, the biological fact that reproduction depends on a man and a woman, and the social reality that children need both a mother and a father. Marriage predates government. It is the fundamental building block of all human civilization. Marriage has public purposes that transcend its private purposes.” - Ryan T. Anderson, Marriage

4. Honoring Marriage • 26 Then God said, “Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness; and let them rule over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the sky and over the cattle and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.”27 God created man in His own image, in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them. 28 God blessed them; and God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth, and subdue it; and rule over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the sky and over every living thing that moves on the earth.” (Genesis 1:26-28)

5. Honoring Marriage • 18 Then the Lord God said, “It is not good for the man to be alone; I will make him a helper suitable for him.” 19 Out of the ground the Lord God formed every beast of the field and every bird of the sky, and brought them to the man to see what he would call them; and whatever the man called a living creature, that was its name. 20 The man gave names to all the cattle, and to the birds of the sky, and to every beast of the field, but for Adam there was not found a helper suitable for him. (Genesis 2:18-20)

6. Honoring Marriage • 21 So the Lord God caused a deep sleep to fall upon the man, and he slept; then He took one of his ribs and closed up the flesh at that place. 22 The Lord God fashioned into a woman the rib which He had taken from the man, and brought her to the man. 23 The man 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.” 24 For this reason a man shall leave his father and his mother, and be joined to his wife; and they shall become one flesh. 25 And the man and his wife were both naked and were not ashamed. (Genesis 2:21-25)

7. Honoring Marriage • 4 And He answered and said, “Have you not read that He who created them from the beginning MADE THEM MALE AND FEMALE, 5 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’? 6 So they are no longer two, but one flesh. What therefore God has joined together, let no man separate.” (Matthew 19:4-6)

8. Honoring Marriage • “First, marriage restrains evil by promoting sexual faithfulness between a man and a woman, by establishing a legally binding commitment for parents to care for their children, by establishing a legally binding commitment for spouses to be financially responsible for and to care for one another, and by providing a legal protection to keep women from being exploited by men who might otherwise enjoy a sexual relationship for a time and then abandon a woman and any children she may have borne from that union.” – Wayne Grudem

9. Honoring Marriage • 25 Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ also loved the church and gave Himself up for her… 31 FOR THIS REASON A MAN SHALL LEAVE HIS FATHER AND MOTHER AND SHALL BE JOINED TO HIS WIFE, AND THE TWO SHALL BECOME ONE FLESH. 32 This mystery is great; but I am speaking with reference to Christ and the church. (Ephesians 5:25, 31-32)

10. Facts • 2-3% of the worldwide population is “gay” • Homosexuality is not genetically predetermined – it’s a choice • Homosexual conduct is consistently spoken of as sin in the Old and New Testament • Christians do interpret the Bible consistently

11. Unmasking the Real Agenda • “Opting out of marriage altogether will provide a quicker path to progress, as only the death of marriage can bring about the dawn of equality for all.” – Dr. Meagan Tyler, lecturer in Sociology at Victoria University

12. Unmasking the Real Agenda • “The real question that should be debated is not whether gay marriage should be allowed, but rather, is marriage really something we need anymore?” – David Vakalis, arena.org

13. Unmasking the Real Agenda • “A middle ground might be to fight for same-sex marriage and its benefits and then, once granted, redefine the institution of marriage completely, to demand the right to marry not as a way of adhering to society’s moral codes but rather to debunk a myth and radically alter an archaic institution. Legalizing ‘same-sex marriage’ is also a chance to wholly transform the definition of family in American culture.” – Michelangelo Signorile OUT magazine, December/January 1994

14. Unmasking the Real Agenda • “The trick is, gay leaders and pundits must stop watering down the issue – that ‘this is simply about equality for gay couples’ – and offer same-sex marriage for what it is: an opportunity to reconstruct a traditionally homophobic institution by bringing it to our more equitable queer value system. Our gay leaders must acknowledge that gay marriage is just as radical and transformative as the religious Right contends it is.” – Michelangelo Signorile, Out magazine, May 1996

15. Unmasking the Real Agenda • “And after all, we are advocating the destruction of the centrality of marriage and the nuclear family unit...” – Ryan Conrad, xtra.ca

16. Unmasking the Real Agenda • “But perhaps the next step isn’t to, once again, expand the otherwise narrow definition of marriage but to altogether abolish the false distinction between married families and other equally valid but unrecognized partnerships.” – Sally Kohn, Prop 8: Let’s Get Rid of Marriage Instead!

17. Unmasking the Real Agenda • “Wouldn’t marriage’s death as a state institution, including for straight people, be the best solution? ...Scrap the civil register; make no distinction in the state’s eyes between married and unmarried citizens.” –Alex Gabriel, Politics.co.uk

18. Unmasking the Real Agenda • “The gay movement, whether we acknowledge it or not, is not a civil rights movement, not even a sexual liberation movement, but a moral revolution aimed at changing people’s view of homosexuality.” – Paul Varnell, Chicago Free Press

19. Unmasking the Real Agenda • “We must aim at the abolition of the family, so that the sexist, male supremacist system can no longer be nurtured there.” – Gay Liberation Front: Manifesto, London, 1971, revised 1978

20. Unmasking the Real Agenda • “Being queer means pushing the parameters of sex and family, and in the process, transforming the very fabric of society. ...We must keep our eyes on the goal of radically reordering society’s views of reality.” –Paula Ettelbrick, The National Gay and Lesbian Task Force

21. Unmasking the Real Agenda • “...Fighting for gay marriage generally involves lying about what we are going to do with marriage when we get there—because we lie that the institution of marriage is not going to change, and that is a lie. The institution of marriage is going to change, and it should change. And again, I don’t think it should exist.” – Masha Gessen, journalist, Sydney Writers Festival

22. Unmasking the Real Agenda • Marriage is to be held in honor among all, and the marriage bed is to be undefiled; for the sexually immoral and adulterers God will judge. (Hebrews 13:4)

23. 1. Same-Sex Marriage Doesn’t Expand Marriage; It Destroys It • “Marriage in not merely a private taste or a private relation; it is an important public good. As marriage weakens, the costs are born not only by the individual children or families but all of us taxpayers, citizens, and neighbors. We all incur the costs of higher crime, education and health-care expenditures…Simply as a matter of public health alone, to take just one public consequence from marriage’s decline, a new campaign to reduce marriage failure is as important as the campaign to reduce smoking.” - Maggie Gallagher, The Case for Marriage

24. 1. Same-Sex Marriage Doesn’t Expand Marriage; It Destroys It • “Marriage is slowly dying in Scandinavia. A majority of children in Sweden and Norway are born out of wedlock. Sixty percent of first-born children in Denmark have unmarried parents.” – Stanley Kurtz,The End of Marriage in Scandinavia

25. 2. Same-Sex Marriage Threatens Freedom of Conscience, Speech, and Religious Liberties • Catholic Charities • Luther Schools • Yeshiva University • Cheryl Clark and Elsey McLeod • Linda and Margo/Michael • Elaine Huguenin • Arlene’s Flowers • Eharmony.com

26. 2. Same-Sex Marriage Threatens Freedom of Conscience, Speech, and Religious Liberties • Eastern Michigan University student • Christians in Sweden, Spain, Belgium, England, and Canada • Doctors in California • Bed and Breakfast owners in Illinois • Military Chaplains

27. Honor God and Marriage • Marriage is to be held in honor among all, and the marriage bed is to be undefiled; for the sexually immoral and adulterers God will judge. (Hebrews 13:4)

28. Marriage in America Hebrews 13:4