The Christian Establishment's Self Serving View of Itself on Marriage

I've come to think Christian leaders or what we might call intellectuals would be better off not saying anything at all than trying to justify their arguments. One of these is about marriage. 

Slowly but surely, Western countries and their cultures have come to see that humans come in a vast variety. As races mixed, which was originally considered a deep sin, another variation began to be recognized, a variety of genders. 

It is an understatement to say religion is most persuasive when answers are simple. Religions do not prepare themselves for the high probability the public will come to realize answers to some things are complex. When the realization arrives those in charge of religions are not prepared. 

A detailed argument was presented recently by a U.S. professor of religion who has written many books. He explained the three reasons Christianity treats marriage as a sacred institution. The reasons are a.) reproduction, b.) following a marriage draws a line in the sand there are only two genders and c.) gay marriage limits the size Christianity. The author notes the percentage of Anglican clergy who support gay marriage has gone from about 1/3 a decade ago to now over 1/2. He concludes the majority of Anglican clergy no longer considers marriage a sacred institution.

Over the 300,000 years of human history, most of the time whatever we today might call "marriage" was quite different. The "institution" of marriage belonged to the family, clan or tribe. Marriages were arranged for trade and to prevent warfare. It remains the case to our present day. In the voluminous literature about former Iraqi dictator, Sadam Hussain, it was noted he arranged the marriages of his two sons to women in competing clans. It was a common strategy, probably still is, to maintain political alliances.

There can be only one reason for Christian clergy to be involved in this private part of any person's life. It is to exert control. This phony view that it is integral to the faith is being disregarded across the Christian world. Leaders in the faith who continue to claim they have some valid reason to reject gay marriage should wake up and realize it is they who are hurting the faith. The majority of clergy who have no problem with gay marriage are helping the faith discover its past errors.