Home
/
RELIGION & LIBERTY ONLINE
/
Discerning threats to marriage
Discerning threats to marriage
Jul 4, 2025 1:56 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
Samuel Gregg on France in the face of decline
In a recent article for The American Spectator, Acton’s Samuel Gregg tackles the tensions in French politics and addresses the uncertainty that the French people have for their ing Presidential election. French politicians have failed to address impending economic issues such as an inefficient government and a growing national debt, but they also seem unable to address a growing concern: Radical Islam. Gregg says: Plenty of Muslims in France are well integrated into French society, and they are just as...
Why we should oppose both Skynet and minimum wage increases
Terminator 2: Judgment Day poster / TriStar Pictures I oppose implementing Skynet and increasing minimum wage laws for the same reason: to forestall the robots. It’s probably inevitable that a T-1000 will return from the future to terminate John Connor. But there is still something we can do to prevent (at least for a time) a TIOS from eliminating the cashier at your local fast food restaurant. For example, Wendy’s is adding customer service machines to at least 1,000 restaurants,...
A guaranteed income isn’t the solution to widespread unemployment
In a recent article for Public Discourse, Dylan Pahman, a research fellow at Acton, examines the ineffectiveness of trade protectionism and universal e guarantees. Pahman argues that regulating wages and restraining free trade will do more harm then good to the success of business. Pahman begins his critique by responding to Trump’s stance on protectionism. During his inaugural address, Trump said: One by one, the factories shuttered and left our shores, with not even a thought about the millions upon...
Samuel Gregg on the unexpected lessons of ‘Populorum Progressio’
In a recent article for Crisis Magazine, Samuel Gregg, Acton’s director of research, reflects on Pope Paul VI’s social encyclical Populorum Progressio. He criticizes it for faulty “time-bound” economic ideas and international approach to charity efforts, but praises the work it for its openness to variety in how to address social and economic problems as well as its affirmation of the differing roles of clergy and the laity. In his criticism, Gregg challenges the protectionist ideals put forth in Populorum...
Radio Free Acton: Samuel Gregg on the life and impact of Michael Novak
On this edition of Radio Free Acton, we speak with Acton Institute Director of Research Samuel Gregg about the life and impact of Michael Novak, who passed away on February 17, 2017. Novak, a Roman Catholic theologian, philosopher, and author, was a powerful defender of human liberty and made vital contributions to our understanding of the morality of the market economy. Novak’s influence was an important factor in Rev. Robert A. Sirico’s effort to found the Acton Institute, and he...
The Christian patristic roots of religious liberty
One of the aspects that I left out of my article yesterdayon the fifth European Catholic-Orthodox Forum statement worth noting isits declaration on the origins of religious liberty. Freedom of conscience and the right to choose one’s own religion – two human rights extolled by the modern, secular EU – grew out of the Christian conception of human dignity. Specifically, they originate with second-century Christian writers, according to the fifth European Catholic-Orthodox Forum’s statement: We have endeavoured to recall the...
The morality of Brexit
Public domain.) As a setback in the House of Lords leaves the UK debating how best to plish its departure from the European Union, perhaps the most neglected question is the moral one. Rev. Dr. Richard Turnbull, the director of the Centre for Enterprise, Markets, and Ethics (CEME) and also an Anglican minister, asked that leaders focus less on arguments based strictly upon metrics than upon Brexit’s deeper impact upon individual persons in a speech before the Oxford Union:...
Chinese Communists intensify religious persecution, according to new report
A disturbing new report from Freedom House shows how widespread religious persecution is in China. Titled “The Battle for China’s Spirit,” this report looks at “religious revival, repression, and resistance under [General Secretary of the Communist Party of China] XI Jinping.” The report reveals that “under Xi Jinping’s leadership, religious persecution in China has increased overall.” Despite this intensificationof persecution, the Chinese religious have remained resilient. “Religion and spirituality have been deeply embedded in Chinese culture and identity for millennia,”...
Why did people in the 1970s have to wait in line for gas?
Note: This is post #23 in a weekly video series on basic microeconomics. If you’re over 40 you may remember back in the 1970s having to wait in long lines to buy gasoline. Some days you were only allowed to buy gas on alternate days (based on whether the last digit of your license plate number was an odd or even number). Why did this happen? As economist Alex Tabarrok explains, when price ceilings were imposed on gasoline, people could...
Equally the gift of nature: the link between religious and economic liberties
In this week’s mentary, Acton research fellow, Kevin E. Schmiesing, affirms the necessity of standing up for economic and religious liberty stating these are two liberties extremely necessary for limiting government and maintaining successful opposition to totalitarianism. A …reason for the link between [religious and economic] liberties is that both reflect at base mitment to the limits of state power. Where, for example, a right to seek employment in whatever field an individual chooses is recognized, it is implicitly held...
Related Classification
Copyright 2023-2025 - www.mreligion.com All Rights Reserved