It’s not clear exactly what set them off, but Americans United decided to give the Southern Baptist Convention the serious-minded trashing they deserve for their teachings about marriage.
But as the state of Alabama recently demonstrated to the nation, the Religious Right isn’t quite prepared to accept defeat; they battle on in the name of “traditional marriage.”
But what exactly do they mean by “traditional marriage?”
Yesterday evening, NPR’s “All Things Considered” took a look at the Southern Baptist Convention (SBC) and its push for early marriages. This push continues despite growing consensus that falling divorce rates are directly connected to rising marital ages. The U.S. divorce race, which used to be 50 percent, has been dropping, and studies show that marriages that last tend to be conducted at later ages.
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To sum up the SBC position: Young people need to get married because it’s preferable to having pre-marital sex, and it’s OK to get married (and have children) even if you’re not in a good financial position.
That’s a recipe guaranteed to get the divorce rate back up.
AU is right about what the Southern Baptists teach — but it’s worse than that: They also teach that you’re a poor spouse or parent if the pleasure of the Invisible Wizard doesn’t come ahead of your spouse and children.
Per Albert Mohler, head of the SBC’s Southern Seminary, with responsiblity for training the pastors who are going to be counseling distressed couples, and couples who are about to wed:
(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.
Let me be so clear, so definite, so plain that even a devoted Southern Baptist can understand it: If an Invisible Friend is more important to you than your spouse, then — psychologically, at least — you aren’t married at all. Period. Case closed.
Hell, you’re not even sane.
The bottom line, it turns out, is that Southern Baptists don’t disapprove of marriage merely for gays — they disapprove of marriage for everybody else, too.
