Pride Month should sternly remind Christians that we have work to do defending the sanctity of marriage

Marriage is a beautiful covenant in which a man and a woman choose to mutually submit to and love each other as long as they both shall live. God created marriage because He saw that it was not good for Adam to be alone in the Garden of Eden and thus made “a helper fit for him.” While each partner is sinful and brings weaknesses to the relationship, the marriage bond is held in place by the Creator of marriage: God Himself.

God values marriage, having created it as a covenant that sharpens each partner in their walk with the Lord. Furthermore, Mark 10:9, NKJV, states, “What therefore God has joined together, let not man separate.” God holds marriage together as an earthly illustration of what His love for the Church looks like and uses it as a testimony to the rest of the world.

God blesses heterosexual, Christian marriages, but abhors any perversion of this sacred institution. Throughout the Bible, God makes it abundantly clear that marriage between one man and one woman is the only form of marriage that He wants. Any distortion or corruption of this union (or sexual activity) is expressly forbidden in the Bible. Hebrews 13:4 says, “Let marriage be held in honor among all, and let the marriage bed be undefiled, for God will judge the sexually immoral and adulterous.”

But our culture is abandoning God’s mandate for marriage at an alarming rate. Whether it be homosexual marriage, extra-monogamous relationships, affairs, etc., marriage is seen as casual in contrast to the fiercely poignant covenant it was intended to be. 

According to the American Psychological Association, 40 to 50 percent of marriages end in divorce. When the bond between a man and a woman breaks, the results for those around them are disastrous. Children begin to doubt their worth, the parents only become concerned with what they can get in the fallout of their relationship, and communities are weakened and destroyed.

Bradford Wilcox, a senior fellow at the Institute for Family Studies, stated, “The family divide in America matters because the American Dream is in much better shape when marriage anchors the lives of children — and the communities they grow up in.”

Now that so many families in America have been severely damaged and destroyed, society is trying to reinvent what the family structure should look like — and hailing those changes during the month of June.

LGTBQ+ members across the country are reveling in celebration as Pride Month begins. It is the time of year where we are annually reminded that our country does not care about the sanctity of marriage and instead allows you to choose to love whomever you want — regardless of what the Bible, or conventional wisdom of the past, might say is normal.

Support for “gay pride” is everywhere — from pride parades in major cities to numerous corporations adjusting their logos with a rainbow-scheme to politicians and celebrities voicing their support for those who choose this lifestyle.

It is appalling that America, once a nation that strongly adhered to high religious and moral standards, has changed into a country that more closely resembles Sodom, a city where homosexuality was rampant. Sodom was burned to the ground for its wickedness, and while America hasn’t yet had to deal with fire and brimstone reigning down from Heaven as a result, we are still experiencing some awful consequences as a result of our sinfulness.

The saddest avenue of support for the gay lifestyle is from the Church.

Since the Supreme Court ruled to allow gay marriage nationwide in 2015, numerous denominations within Christianity have voiced their support of this repulsive restructuring of marriage. Every time the Church supports this, we delegitimize our witness, disobey the Lord we claim to serve, and destroy the beauty of the most sacred covenant two people can make to each other.

We cannot do this anymore.

The devil will try to undermine Christian marriage because he knows it is God’s foundation for healthy families, communities, and nations. Christians have lost a lot of the necessary strength and credibility to defend this relationship, and we must humble ourselves and repent before God to see any change in this area. In addition, to defending our stance on biblical marriage, we must support those in our churches and community who make the decision to enter into God-honoring marriages through mentoring, encouragement, and anything else couples — from newlyweds to those who have been married for years — might need so more marriages can thrive and survive.

As Alistair Begg has stated, “The welfare of human society can be strong and happy only when the marriage bond is held in high honor.”

May God’s Church and His people return to holding tight to and honoring marriage, lest we continue to endorse these sinful unions our country is so anxious to celebrate — and reap the consequences.