Is Marriage Redundant?The proposed Civil Partnerships Bill has brought questions as to whether marriage is any longer relevant to society. With this bill alternatives to marriage will be created, ‘counterfeit marriages’ as the Christian Institute has labelled it. In essence the bill will create an equivalent for marriage for homosexuals who have been together for more than six months and will give marital legal benefits to heterosexual couples that live together.
Such a bill will serve to undermine what God ordained for the whole of creation and the repercussions will probably be quite dangerous. Marriage has always proven to be essential for society. It has been seen as the stable environment promoting respect, obedience and love as well as being the ideal situation for the upbringing of children.
The Christian Institute produced a booklet detailing the implications of such a bill if it were to be passed. In their research they described two situations in history where a similar idea was adopted.
The first example is that of early Communist Russia. In 1918 the leading authorities promoted cohabitation and recognised it to be as good as marriage. By 1926 the Family Code that had been established enabled couples to live together without registration and they needed only three days to obtain a divorce if it were necessary. However, things didn’t work out as planned. The idea of free love and sex with whoever left people getting divorced many times, there was no family stability and homelessness increased. By 1936 there was a demand for society to return to the concept of marriage and by 1944 divorce was only available through the courts and cohabitation registration was abolished.
Similarly during the French Revolution cohabitation was recognised as being the same as marriage, it didn’t take long for numbers of women and children to be abandoned and the concept of the family began to disintegrate. In 1794 the leaders of France set about to “reaffirm the family as the bedrock of society” .
As well as being destructive to society living with someone is contrary to what marriage stands for. If you live with someone you always remain an individual that can easily leave the so called commitment at any time. There is instability in cohabiting. Many couples who have cohabited come to a realisation that they should get married but sadly statistics from Britain, Sweden, America and Canada show that those who cohabit and then get married are 30-80% more likely to get divorced. The basis of their relationship had been one with little commitment it is hard to change this fundamental idea and the instability seems to continue.
In the beginning God recognised that it was not good for man to be alone and he created Eve to make Adam complete. He brought them together in marriage and ordained that this is the way it should be for all creation. God instituted marriage for companionship so husband and wife’s loneliness could be fulfilled. He ordained it so husband and wife could be united as one emotionally and also physically through his gift of sex; God also designed it as the best place to bring up children. It was designed to be a permanent arrangement that only death could end, not an arrangement that can be broken haphazardly. It was also designed for man and woman; any concept of same sex relationships was severely condemned.
The Bible gives marriage a high precedent as it is the institution God uses to describe his relationship to Israel and then Christ’s relationship to the church. It is the only human relationship that is close enough to describe the intimacy God has with us. To make substitutions for such an institution and to allow people who are not designed to be couples to come together is denying the essence of the wonderful relationship that God has established for humans and thus demeans the value of God’s relationship to us.
Sadly, as history shows, many want to neglect God’s institution for mankind, and many want to see homosexuality to be recognised fully as an acceptable lifestyle for people. As history also shows this is a dangerous way to go. If we follow God’s ways then we must do all we can to stand against the idea of ‘counterfeit marriages’. Return to Home Page |
