Reclaiming Marriage

A Duty of the Christian Church and of Every Christian, and an Opportunity for All Tennesseans

It’s time for the people to reclaim the power that five unelected justices seized.
—Bruce Hausknecht, Judicial Analyst for The Daily Citizen, a resource from Focus on the Family—

Key points: Marriage is, was, and forever will be an institution uniting one man and one woman together in a lifelong commitment to each other. God, not people, designed and established marriage as society’s most basic and bedrock institution, and God declared it to be what it is. It is the responsibility of the government to recognize marriage for what it is; yet in the United States, government has redefined marriage. Citizens have a responsibility to reclaim God-given marriage and uphold it as the institution God designed at the dawn of creation. Through the God-Given Marriage initiative, Tennesseans now have a special opportunity to do these very things.

In December of 2017, I began writing a series of posts for Word Foundations titled “Myths that Led to the Recognition of Same-Sex Marriage in the United States.” The series consists of ten articles and highlights a total of 18 myths related to a wide range of subjects. Significantly, Part 1 deals with with “Myths Relating to the Courts, Government, Law, and the US Constitution.” It highlights four such myths. Here was the first one we discussed.

Myth #1: Marriage is a government construct over which government and government alone has oversight.

Fact: Marriage—the lifelong union of one man and one woman—is not at all a government construct, but an institution that preceded government, and an institution that preceded the United States government by thousands of years. Moreover, marriage and the family is society’s most important and most basic institution. Despite any and all appearances and sentiments to the contrary, without healthy marriages and healthy families, societal stability cannot be maintained.

Later in the same article, quoting the Manhattan Declaration, a statement drafted and released in 2009, I affirmed,

In Scripture [see Genesis 2:23-24 and Ephesians 5:32-33], the creation of man and woman, and their one-flesh union as husband and wife, is the crowning achievement of God’s creation. In the transmission of life and the nurturing of children, men and women joined as spouses are given the great honor of being partners with God Himself. Marriage then, is the first institution of human society—indeed it is the institution on which all other human institutions have their foundation.

I also quoted from the Pledge in Solidarity to Defend Marriage.

On the matter of marriage, we stand in solidarity. We affirm that marriage and family have been inscribed by the Divine Architect into the order of Creation.

Marriage is ontologically between one man and one woman, ordered toward the union of the spouses, open to children and formative of family. Family is the first vital cell of society, the first government, and the first mediating institution of our social order. The future of a free and healthy society passes through marriage and the family.

The point here is that the government’s duties with regard to marriage include these responsibilities and little else.

- - recognizing marriage for what it is,
  - affirming it and protecting it, and
  - restraining itself from tinkering with it and manipulating it.

In the Obergefell v. Hodges decision it released on June 26, 2015, the Supreme Court of the United States violated all three of these sacred responsibilities.

It was not as though numerous state legislatures and various lower courts had not also acted irresponsibly, for they had. The path to same-sex marriage in the United States is littered with government coercion and abuse. The Supreme Court’s action in late June of 2015, however, was abusive in the most extreme way possible.

We will be reaping the bitter fruit of that decision for decades to come.

But now there is hope.

A New Initiative

On Wednesday, October 23, 2019, the Family Action Council of Tennessee (FACT) launched an initiative I believe can and should become a movement. It’s called “God-Given Marriage,” and the question it poses is simple, yet profound—and critical for our day.

Is marriage an institution created and given to us by government, or is it God-given?

Watch this video. It explains why marriage, as it was defined for millennia and recognized by government, is so important. It also explains how government recognition of marriage eroded into government manipulation—ultimately with disastrous results.

How Will You Answer this Critical Question?

What say you?

Is marriage an institution created and given to us by government, or is it God-given?

Are you ready to take a stand and declare marriage is God-given and must be recognized in Tennessee and beyond as what it has been for thousands of years? If you’re a Tennessean, are you willing to pray and work in your state toward this end on a legislative level? Are you willing to pray for the courts to affirm Tennessee’s right to recognize the time-honored definition of marriage—the Supreme Court’s Oberfell ruling notwithstanding?

Marriage should be honored by all, and the marriage bed kept pure, for God will judge the adulterer and all the sexually immoral.
—Hebrews 13:4 (NIV)—

I believe that it is a Christian’s duty to do these things, although of course not everyone’s involvement in the process will manifest itself in ways identical to that of others. Hebrews 13:4 (NIV) declares, “Marriage should be honored by all, and the marriage bed kept pure, for God will judge the adulterer and all the sexually immoral.” The word marriage here refers not just to individual marriages, but to marriage as an institution. At this time, I can think of no more strategic or critical way to do this than to help promote God-Given Marriage as a cause and a movement.

At this time, I can think of no more strategic or critical way to uphold natural marriage than to help promote God-Given Marriage as a cause and a movement.

Go here for additional general information about God-Given Marriage. Accessing the links provided, you can learn more about the constitutional, social, and theological issues involved. Also, you can learn about the movement’s legal and legislative strategy by going here, here and here.

The God-Given Marriage Facebook page can be found here.

Pastors, How Will You Answer the Question Posed by this Movement?

If you’re a pastor, you especially need to ask yourself this all-important question.

Is marriage an institution created and given to us by government, or is it God-given?

Also, ask yourself this. If marriage is a God-given institution, what am I willing to risk to uphold it, and to lead the people of my church to uphold it as well?

In a previous post, I discussed 12 characteristics that must characterize the church’s case for natural marriage. One of these is that churches must uphold God-given marriage with greater frequency. I wrote,

When was the last time you attended a Bible study, or heard a sermon, not on improving your marriage, but on God’s design for marriage and the importance of revering it and upholding it as an institution? Pastors, where are you?

Here is an article with links to Bible studies that will help Christians uphold marriage. These can be used as Bible studies or easily adapted as sermons.

Now and in coming months, especially in Tennessee, Christian pastors, Christians, and other advocates for natural marriage will have action points they can take to help advance natural marriage legally, right where they live. This isn’t about politics, but about the sacred institution of marriage, the most basic and fundamental building block of society. It’s also about evangelism, for man-woman marriage is a picture of Christ’s relationship with His church and a representation of the diversity and unity and within the Godhead—the very nature of God.

With regard to the Cultural Commission as well as the Great Commission, I can think of no more worthy cause for Christians and churches than that of working to restore God-given marriage. Here’s the thing.

If we lose the true definition of marriage completely in our culture, we will lose an image that helps people understand why Christ died. While we cannot expect non-Christians to act as Christians, neither can we ignore the fact that America was founded on Judeo-Christian principles and for many years upheld those ideals. Yet in recent decades in this country, we, as a nation, have kicked God out of public life. Given all the opportunities we as Americans have had to hear and respond to God’s truth, we must understand that God will hold us accountable.

Pastors, you must lead your people in this worthy endeavor. The culture will push back, of course; but the cause of Christ is worth the price we must pay. I encourage you to be willing and ready to lead your people to uphold God-given marriage in Tennessee and beyond.

Keep in mind that David Fowler, the primary architect of the God-Given Marriage initiative, has said this:

This week the organization of which I am a part launched a new initiative, God-Given Marriage. Some will say the U.S. Supreme Court settled the “issue” of marriage in 2015 in the decision known as Obergefell v. Hodges. To the contrary, I believe the Court may have stoked the fires of another reformation, if not yet in culture, in what is called “the church.”

Some will say the U.S. Supreme Court settled the “issue” of marriage in 2015 in the decision known as Obergefell v. Hodges. To the contrary, I believe the Court may have stoked the fires of another reformation, if not yet in culture, in what is called “the church.”
—David Fowler, the primary architect of the God-Given Marriage initiative—

Summary, and A Call to Learn More

On Thursday, October 24, one day after FACT unveiled God-Given Marriage, FACT President David Fowler was a guest of the Family Research Council’s radio program Washington Watch. Their discussion of this effort and its underpinnings is more than fascinating. Here is the six-minute, thirty-five-second segment that carried Perkins’s and Fowler’s conversation.

In conclusion,

- - become and remain informed,
  - pray for this movement and its leaders,
  - become involved,
  - encourage your pastor to lead your church to be involved,
  - contribute financially, and
  - let your state representative, senator, and Governor Lee know of your support for natural marriage and the Marital Contract at Common Law Recording Act.

Together, with God’s help, we can reclaim marriage!

Scripture references cited in this article marked NIV have been taken from The Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV® Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.

top image credit: Photo by Drew Coffman on Unsplash

image credit: Tennessee in the continental United States

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Myth #1: Marriage is a government construct over which government and government alone has oversight.

A New Initiative

How Will You Answer this Critical Question?

Pastors, How Will You Answer the Question Posed by this Movement?

Summary, and A Call to Learn More

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