Albert the Pious points, with no little irritation, toward a story I think is good news: Fewer and fewer young Americans want to get married in a church.
Mohler’s remarks comes during the course of his radio commentary, and haven’t been transcribed, so you’ll have to follow the link and listen.
To get the flavor of his views, recall these gems.
(1) In 2 Corinthians 6:14, the Apostle Paul commands that Christians must “not be unequally yoked with unbelievers.” This command reaches far beyond marriage, but it certainly includes the covenant of marriage within its span. Paul’s principle is clear: The Christian’s commitment to Christ is determinative of his or her other commitments. A believer must not marry an unbeliever, for this violates the very logic of the Gospel and the believer’s union with Christ.
The believer in Christ acknowledges him as Savior and Lord, with an allegiance that exceeds any earthly commitment. When two believers are married, they share this mutual commitment and are commonly dedicated to the Lordship of Christ.
And:
(2) The third theological fact about the family is the continued affirmation of the family within the redeemed people of God – the church. As the Gospels make clear, loyalty to Christ exceeds that of any family commitment, even as the church becomes the family of faith, embracing within its life all who come to faith in Christ and into the life of the church. And yet, Christians are explicitly instructed to honor marriage, to raise their children in the faith, and to order their family according to the Scriptures.
Those are the teachings of the cult and, make no mistake, someone whose greatest priority is pleasing an Invisible Friend is not married at all.
With severity and pedantry, the priest formulated once and for all, down to the large and small taxes he was to be paid (not to forget the tastiest pieces of meat, for the priest is a steak eater), what he wants to have, “what the will of God is.” From now on all things in life are so ordered that the priest is indispensable—marriage, sickness, death, not to speak of “sacrifices” (meals), the holy parasite appears in order to denature them—in his language: to “consecrate.”
For one must understand this: every natural custom, every natural institution (state, judicial order, marriage, care of the sick and the poor), every demand inspired by the instinct of life—in short, everything that contains its value in itself is made altogether valueless, anti-valuable by the parasitism of the priest (or the “moral world order”): now it requires a sanction after the event—a value-conferring power is needed to negate what is natural in it and to create a value by so doing. The priest devalues, desecrates nature: this is the price of his existence. Disobedience of God, that is, of the priest, of “the Law,” is now called “sin”; the means for “reconciliation with God” are, as is meet, means that merely guarantee still more thorough submission to the priest: the priest alone “redeems.”
Friedrich Nietzsche, The Antichrist, §26
Give ol’ Friedrich his due: He knew who and what the preachers are, he is still relevant, and he laughed in their faces.
It is not the preachers and their mumbles that make a marriage; it is mutual loyalty, striving together toward common ambitions, building satisfying lives together. That is the very reason the clergy oppose healthy marriages — they are not focused on the cult. So it’s wonderful news that church wedding are in precipitous decline; it means that smarmy, self-serving hot dogs like Mohler are tricking fewer people.