Whether you call it evolving or flip-flopping depends what side of the isle you are on. Regardless, our president changed his stated position on marriage.
What type of marriage is best for society? Is it one man plus one man, one man plus one woman, two women plus two men? We Minnesotans need to give this some thought since a marriage amendment (passed by a bipartisan majority of the legislature) will appear on this coming November’s ballot. The amendment will define marriage as the union of one man and one woman. If the amendment is not passed, traditional marriage will be judicially challenged and marriage will eventually become legally genderless as “the union of any two persons.”
What definition of marriage provides the best situation for children? Would not the ideal be to have a social structure (traditional marriage) that advances children being born and reared by the father and mother that are responsible for bringing them into the world?
Some will advocate two moms or two dads or any combination of persons in place of the biological parents. Yet every child born into a same-sex relationship is intentionally denied the love and affection of one of his/her biological parents. Traditional marriage is the commitment that tells the child, “the man and woman whose sexual union made you will also be there to love and raise you” (David Blankenhorn). Traditional marriage promotes the survival of the human race.
Voters in 31 other states have upheld traditional marriage. Our founding fathers held to marriage as between a man and a woman, so I say to my fellow citizens, vote yes to the marriage amendment. World civilizations since the dawn of time have recognized marriage as between a man and a woman, so to my historically-minded friends I say, vote yes to the marriage amendment. The major religions of the world have honored marriage as between man and woman, so I say to my ecumenical friends, vote yes to the marriage amendment. For the good of society, the good of children and the good of Minnesota, vote yes to the marriage amendment.
To a smaller crowd, my friends who are interested in what God said and what God did, I remind you that back in the Garden of Eden, God defined marriage as the union of a man and a woman. “A man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh.” That is not bigotry; it is basic, straightforward history. About 4,000 years later, the Lord Jesus Christ instructed with an important warning question regarding tampering with marriage, “Have you not read that he who created them from the beginning made them male and female? What therefore God has joined together, let not man separate” (Matthew 19).
This fall, will you uphold marriage or will you undermine marriage? Vote yes on the marriage amendment to protect the union of one man and one woman.
Pastor Cory J. Rintala
Ray, MN
