Further on why same-sex “marriage” makes sense to so many:
Marriage is under attack from multiple directions. It has been for decades. The current push for same-sex “marriage” (SSM) is the full flowering of that attack.
The essential problem since at least the 1960s has been this: that marriage has been too often regarded as an institution of, by, and for the couple. It has been for the fulfillment and happiness of the many and the woman who entered into it.
From the beginning it was not this way: it was for unity, joy, and love, yes; but it was also for the overflowing of that love into new life. “Be fruitful and multiply; replenish the earth.” Beyond that, it’s a reflection of Christ’s relationship with the Church, a relationship that Christ wants to expand to all the ends of the earth.
A couple-centered marriage is very hard to distinguish from a self-centered marriage. Its love is confined and self-serving. A family-oriented marriage, on the other hand, is self-sacrificial,other-oriented, and future-oriented.
Same-sex “marriage” makes more sense than we might like to admit, if we think of marriage as being all about the couple. If we see it instead as being the comprehensive union of two persons overflowing into new life, SSM makes no sense at all.
So in counseling on this issue, I would begin with the question, “what is marriage? what is it for?” If the person you’re speaking with thinks it’s only about the couple, that might be a good time to remind them that God’s love expressed in marriage is bigger, deeper, and much further-reaching than just “the two of us.”
