Imagine that. In the space of a few generations in which it was nearly a universal assumption that the goal was to have a world where as many people as possible can get married, have stable marriages, and raise children, this has become anathema to the modern mind. Indeed, the liberal and progressives are not only not choosing marriage for themselves but insisting that anything close to a traditional view of marriage and the family is the worst kind of bondage and unreasonable in this day and age. How quickly the time has passed.
A world where as many people as possible marry a member of the opposite sex ought to be normal. It is surely the expectation of government. Where is the government going to find the money to take care of people who do not have a spouse to take care of them -- whether in illness or in old age? Not all the tax money in the world could provide for the people to replace where spouses do for each other and to replace the caregivers who enable perhaps 80% of those over 65 to live on their own. Yet somehow this is deemed more dangerous than the idea that marriage is patriarchal and unreasonable.
Stable marriages should be a practical value as well. Though divorce, and particularly no-fault divorce, has created an industry of people trading in their spouses for a different model or abandoning them for a life without marriage, stable marriages are the bedrock of society. Every child of divorced parents and every child who grows up without one parent or the other knows the blessing of growing up in home with a stable marriage. Our culture so filled with constant and urgent change would benefit from good and stable homes in which marriages work out their problems and remain stable amid the chaos that too often passes for everyday life today.
Children raised not by daycare or government program or other institutional settings is not some sort of gold standard but the most basic norm of all. Strangely enough, we live at a time in which people too often presume that parents are not well equipped to care for their children and so-called experts must intervene. That usually happens among those who did not know a stable home with both parents and so have no idea that this is not only the norm overall but the least a child should be able to expect. Yet this has also become a radical idea as well.
These are not American goals but universal standards for all nations and peoples and are generally espoused by all religions as well. Well, at least they used to be. Man for woman and woman for man, marriage until death parts you, and parents raising their children and imparting values and faith while also providing good examples to them. But, I am sad to say, this has become a racial thought in America today and in the world overall. It is no wonder we are in trouble.
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And not one theologically orthodox Lutheran leader has raised an imprecatory prayer to God about the five _Obergefell v. Hodges_ justices who betrayed the United States and the millennia-old concept of marriage.
Remember how the Old Testament prophets used to warn the men of Israel to stop “putting away” their wives, many for reasons unrelated to adultery? If a Jewish man found any actual or perceived fault with his spouse, he could simply divorce her and find another replacement, or add more wives. What a dilemma for Israel.! This practice causes great instability in families and societies alike, and is a rebellion against God’s command that marriage consist of a life long commitment and covenant of one man and one woman. The polygamous marriages of David and Solomon brought about calamity, as the sons born to them often became their own sworn enemies, vying for their titles, kingdoms and thrones. In America and Europe, traditional marriage has been under assault for decades. Yet, many professing Christians also accept this as the new normal. This ought not to be never true for believers in the Lord: “Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and they shall become one flesh.” (Genesis 2:24.) A host of verses in Holy Writ reinforce God’s command: “He who finds a wife finds a good thing, and obtains favor from the Lord.” ( Proverbs 18:22.) Yet, the reality is that some marriages are battlegrounds and dysfunctional places where men and women torment one another, with violence, or intimidation, willful neglect, or emotional and physical abandonment. Children see all, and are adversely affected. Some marriages endure, while others cannot persevere where the partners in a marriage are unable to reconcile their differences. Sadly, sin pervades our lives in all arenas. There was a true story of a Christian woman who was being courted by a young man. He asked her to marry him. She said to him, “I will never marry a man who doesn’t love the Lord more than me!” This Godly woman encouraged the young man in the Gospel and in his Christian walk, and they eventually married and had a fulfilling and enduring marriage. Hebrews 13:4 also affirms: “Marriage is honorable among all, and the bed undefined, but fornicators and adulterers God will judge.” These words seem to offend some people, but they are plain, and express the words of the Lord. Soli Deo Gloria.
A September 12, 2024, Gallup article, “Exploring Young Women's Leftward Expansion” (https://news.gallup.com/poll/649826/exploring-young-women-leftward-expansion.aspx) has a graph, “Identification as Politically Liberal by Gender/Age, Recent Trend” {https://datawrapper.dwcdn.net/KQ9r0/6/#). The article notes:
“Aligning Gallup’s annual trend in young women’s liberal identification with major news events that occurred each year suggests that the political and cultural environment had little impact on young women’s politics from 2001 through 2014… Rather, it increased gradually, and unevenly, from an average 28% in the Bush era to an average 32% during the Obama era.
“However, in 2015, young women’s liberal ID rose above 32% for the first time, to 34%, and it’s gradually increased to 41% in the first half of 2024. This spans the Supreme Court’s legalization of gay marriage in its 2015 Obergefell v. Hodges decision, Donald Trump’s emergence as the leading Republican political figure in 2015 and Hillary Clinton’s nomination for president in 2016, a landmark event for women.”
A more detailed graph, based on 1999-2023 Gallup Poll data – “Young women have become much more liberal. Young men, not so much” (https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HHZu52HWkAEZ0mU.jpg)
Related to this, for Missouri Synod Lutherans, are Overtures 5-31 thru 5-34, submitted to the 2026 LCMS convention, in order to reconsider woman suffrage in the Church.
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