Same-sex marriage is ‘massive social reengineering’

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Redefining marriage to include same-sex couples constitutes a “massive reengineering of our social life” by the state, an influential Christian scholar has said.

Kevin DeYoung, a pastor, theologian and popular author, wrote that redefining marriage has a huge impact across swathes of areas because of the gender-neutral assumptions it enshrines. Same-sex marriage falsely assumes “the indistinguishability of gender in parenting, the relative unimportance of procreation in marriage, and the near infinite flexibility as to what sorts of structures and habits lead to human flourishing”.

Same-sex ‘marriage’ enshrines in law a “faulty” view of marriage, “one that says marriage is essentially a demonstration of commitment sexually expressed”, DeYoung writes.

But marriage isn’t just about commitment and sexual expression. It is about the union of a man and a woman, and is a pre-political institution which predates the state and exists independently of it. The state recognises this marriage relationship and gives it legal standing, “for the common good and for the well-being of society”. Foremost in its purpose in doing so is the “well-being of the child” which is the natural fruit of the marital union, for: “Kids do better with a mom and a dad. Communities do better when husbands and wives stay together.”

The problem is that by expanding the definition of marriage, the whole institution is weakened as the meaning of marriage is changed: “same-sex unions cannot be accepted as marriage without devaluing all marriages, because the only way to embrace same-sex partnerships as marriage is by changing what marriage means altogether.”

DeYoung speaks wise words. Too many people, whether Christian or not, slip into the trap of thinking that while they are personally opposed to same-sex marriage, they ought in fairness to support the ‘right’ of gay people to marry one another. But this fails to understand that redefining marriage weakens all marriages and thereby harms us all. At C4M we urge those who know same-sex marriage to be wrong to have the courage of their convictions and insist that the definition of marriage should not be changed.