Kessia

“Therefore shall a man leave his father and his mother, and he shall cleave unto his wife: and they shall be one flesh” (Genesis 2:24).

A professor from Harvard (I think) gave a very good lecture on the issue of marriage at one of the University forums. What it comes down to, he said, is whether you believe that the body is a part of the overall human being - an essential element to the complete soul, as it were. Because if you believe that the body is merely a tool of the self in order to feel pleasure, than same-sex marriage ought to be legalized because then a close union is between two “selves” in the sense of two emotional cores and is not about the uniting of two bodies. Similarly then, marriage doesn’t have to involve only two individuals if this is true - because more than one mind or emotional core can unite. However, if an essential part of our identity as human beings are our bodies, then marriage is as much a matter of physical union as emotional and mental and therefore is essentially between a man and a woman - the only pairing that can “be one flesh” (Genesis 2:24).

Of course, we are very much connected to our physical bodies. It’s hard to deny the effects of physical actions upon our mental conditions and emotional health. Understanding this, it doesn’t seem logical to cut off the body from the idea of “self.” Thus it doesn’t stand to reason to say that marriage isn’t as much about physical as mental union. And therefore, marriage ought to only be about a man and a woman.

For people who believe, like I do, that the soul means both body and spirit, this is an essential argument. Likewise, in this time when the family is under attack, it’s time to take a stand one way or the other. We ought to be hot or cold, not luke warm to be spewed out.