John Mark Reynolds (from Biola) writes about recent polls showing that more and more Americans are finding marriage outdated and irrelevant. I was particularly struck by his observation that future generations will look back in horror on our trampling of one woman-one man marriage, since moral facts are unchangeable.
Values endure, but fashions change. Recent surveys showing growing numbers of Americans are not that into marriage tell us something interesting about us, but nothing about love and marriage.
Survey says: we are becoming decadent. Morality says: it will not endure. Moral facts are no more fragile than physical facts. It is any given civilization that is fragile. Americans may reject romance, but love will endure, because Americans can no more harm marriage than they can loot Heaven. We can damn ourselves, but future humanity likely will shake their heads at our folly and use us as a moral lesson.
Marriage will endure, because it is the only worthy response to real romantic love. Romantic love is spiritual, emotional, intellectual, and physical. It is what happens when a woman or man discovers that there are other humans, equally people, but different from self. This other “side” of humanity seems designed to complement our souls.
It is the deepest form of sexism to believe that women or men could be replaced in such a relationship. Whatever the survey says at the moment, men and women complete each other in a unique way. Call a social contract or any other kind of love “marriage” and the romantics amongst us will simply invent a new word to describe this particular and powerful union.
12/13/2010 08:56:00 AM
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It's kind of like how this generation is still embarrassed about the abolishment of slavery.
Tim,
I linked to this (and kind of re-posted it) on my blog. I've been enjoying these little quotes and your thoughts on them.