Home
/
RELIGION & LIBERTY ONLINE
/
Discerning threats to marriage
Discerning threats to marriage
Dec 4, 2025 1:48 PM

Bill Robinson at The Huffington Post says that the real “enemies of marriage” consists of “those who treat it as modity, a temporary merger, a corporate buyout,” citing the impending fourth divorce of billionaire Ron Perelman.

In typically overblown fashion, Robinson asks, “Where are the Defense of Marriage Nazis when marriage is actually under assault? Why aren’t they boycotting Revlon? Is it possible billionaires and celebs are undermining this sacred institution more than ‘the gays’? David Hasselhoff, Babyface, and Christina Applegate, are just this week’s divorce stories. What kind of world are we living in when Eminem remarrying his ex-wife is considered the love story of the day?”

On the one hand, Robinson is right to point to divorce as the most pervasive threat to the institution of marriage. We shouldn’t forget that the biblical allowance for divorce is quite limited and was enacted only because of the reality of human sin, because our “hearts were hard,” and intended to function as a preservational check on further corruption.

But this doesn’t mean there aren’t other threats to marriage, which may just have the potential to be just as dangerous and insidious. It really isn’t an either/or question, but rather a both/and. For example, Acton senior fellow Jennifer Roback Morse highlights the move from gay “marriage” and polygamy, from “creating legal institutions to modate same sex couples and creating legal institutions to modate multiple spouses.”

In today’s column, Morse writes of the situation in Canada, which “have proven that the advocates of marriage are not being hysterical when they warn of the cultural and legal slide into polygamy.”

It’s a bit ironic to note how the world’s argument against the traditional Christian position has changed over the last few decades. When marriage and divorce laws were being relaxed in the last century, the move was hailed by feminists and others as a liberation from patriarchy and monogomous tyranny. When Christians opposed the change of such laws, they were labeled Neanderthals. But now that gay “marriage” is the issue du jour, the world asks, “Where are the Defense of Marriage Nazis when marriage is actually under assault?”

Christians need to witness to the world with humility and recognition of the realities of hypocrisy. When “born-again” Christians are “just as likely to divorce as non-Christians,” there are some huge problems. But this doesn’t mean that there aren’t other threats, or that Christians shouldn’t speak up. It just means that we should be consistent and careful in our witness. Indeed, Christian silence might end up being the greatest threat to the institution of marriage.

Comments
Welcome to mreligion comments! Please keep conversations courteous and on-topic. To fosterproductive and respectful conversations, you may see comments from our Community Managers.
Sign up to post
Sort by
Show More Comments
RELIGION & LIBERTY ONLINE
Real Charters Schools Needed in Kansas
A failed charter school and someone looking to start a charter school in Kansas can only look to Kansas City, Mo., and wonder what impact high-performing public charter schools may have for kids in the state. ...
Audio: Sirico on Pope Francis and President Obama
Acton Institute President and Cofounder Rev. Robert A. Sirico joined host Josh Tolley on The Josh Tolley Show on the GCN Radio Network to discuss the recent meeting at the Vatican between Pope Francis and US President Barack Obama. Sirico speaks about the discrepancy between the White House and Vatican recaps of the meeting and how that reflects the different purposes that the leaders had for the meeting as well as their different approach to dealing with social problems. You...
Woman Fights Back Against Occupational Licensing Laws in Mississippi
If you visited a florist would you immediately walk out if you found out it wasn’t licensed by the state? Would a florist shop still know how to perform their job without a state certificate? In most instances occupational licensing laws serve to mercial interests and not the consumer. Far too often these laws work directly against the entrepreneur. Melony Armstrong, who owns “Naturally Speaking,” fought back against the cumbersome and archaic cosmetology licensing laws that tried to prevent her...
Just Render Unto Caesar Already: The IRS and Frivolous Tax Arguments
In an attempt to trap Jesus, some Pharisees and Herodians asked him, “Is it lawful to pay taxes to Caesar, or not? Should we pay them, or should we not?” In response, Jesus said, “Why put me to the test? Bring me a denarius and let me look at it.” And they brought one. And he said to them, “Whose likeness and inscription is this?” They said to him, “Caesar’s.” Jesus said to them, “Render to Caesar the things that...
King David on the Heart of Christian Stewardship
We live amid unprecedented economic prosperity, and with the promise of globalization and the continued expansion of opportunity and exchange, such prosperity is bound to grow. Yet if we’re to retain and share these blessings, such gifts need to be received and responded to with a heart of service, sacrifice, and obedience to God. “Man is not the owner,” write Lester DeKoster and Gerard Berghoef. “He is the overseer…Each of us is steward over those talents and those pounds allotted...
The Counterculture World Of Flannery O’Connor
Flannery O’Connor had a brilliant but short literary career. She died in 1964 at the age of 39 due plications from lupus, yet managed to leave behind a legacy of keen insight into the human condition of sin, in ways some considered repulsive. Her best known story, A Good Man is Hard to Find, is a morality tale of stiff adherence to “good.” O’Connor manages to turn upside-down the moral code of the seemingly “good” people in the story while...
The Fountainhead of Satanism
Over the past few years, Anton LaVey and his bookThe Satanic Biblehas grown increasingly popular, selling thousands of new copies. His impact has been especially pronounced in our nation’s capital. One U.S. senator has publicly confessed to being a fan of theThe Satanic Biblewhile another calls it his “foundation book.” On the other side of Congress, a representative speaks highly of LaVey and mends that his staffers read the book. A leading radio host called LaVey “brilliant” and quotations from...
It’s Tax Day: How Generous Do You Feel?
It’s tax day, and though I’m sure you’ve already begun your revelry, I suggest take a moment of silence to relish that warm, fuzzy feeling we get when pressured to pay up or head to the Big House. Indeed, with all of the euphemistic Circle-of-Protection talk bouncing around evangelicalism —reminding us of our “moral obligation” to treat political planners as economic masters and the “least of these” as political pawns —we should be jumping for joy at the opportunity. Nuclear...
War on Women: Hypocrisy and Paternalism under the Guise of Equality
“The equal pay issue is rife with myths,” says Elise Hilton in this week’s Acton Commentary. “The myths have a long history in American politics.” With more than a dozen smiling women looking over his shoulder in the East Room of the White House, President Obama signed a proclamation in support of National Equal Pay Day on April 8. The president said he was working to prevent workplace discrimination and helping workers take control over negotiations regarding their pay. “My...
7 Figures: Tax Day Edition
[Note: ‘7 Figures’ is a new, occasional series highlighting data and information from a variety of surveys and reports.] 1. The average federal tax rate for all households (tax liabilities divided by e, including government transfer payments) before taxes is 18.1 percent. 2. Households in the top quintile (including the top percentile) paid 68.8 percent of all federal taxes, households in the middle quintile paid 9.1 percent, and those in the bottom quintile paid 0.4 percent of federal taxes. (Quintiles...
Related Classification
Copyright 2023-2025 - www.mreligion.com All Rights Reserved