“Respect for Marriage Act” is Anything But

The “Respect for Marriage Act” is truly anything but a bill that respects marriage. The so-called Respect for Marriage Act’s aim is to cement same-sex marriage as federal policy. It claims to merely codify the 2015 U.S. Supreme Court decision of Obergefell v. Hodges, but goes even further than ensuring same-sex couples the right to “marry.”

This bill is easily summed up by characterizing it as misleading and dangerous. It actually disrespects God’s creation of the institution of marriage.

God is the One who instituted marriage and defined it as being a union between one man and one woman in a covenant bond with each other, but this bill tramples on it and expands it to include relationships the Scriptures call an abomination.

From a Scriptural point of view, one can clearly see God’s standards for marriage when He created the institution. In Genesis 1:27, there is an account of God making man, the “adam” (in Hebrew) which can be translated as humankind. Man was not flourishing in this reclusive nature of solitary existence, and thus God determined to make man a suitable helper (Genesis 2).

God then caused “adam” to go to sleep, He took a rib, literally translated in Hebrew as “half” and created Eve, a woman to be Adam’s helper. The text then goes on to say that man and woman unite in marriage and become one flesh (Genesis 2:24). From this summary of God’s institution of marriage, it is seen that marriage can only be the union between two people who exhibit the complementary halves of humanity, which is one man and one woman.

Again, this bill attempts to make it federal policy to disrespect the sacred union of marriage. Not only is this bill misleading it is also extremely dangerous.

First, this bill threatens our precious First Amendment right to religious liberty. This bill could easily become a weapon for governmental threat and coercion, used to intimidate and punish those who hold to a Biblical view of marriage.

Second, this bill threatens religious institutions. Institutions that hold to a Biblical view of marriage, refusing to cave and adopt a view of marriage that is progressive, could be targeted with anti-discrimination lawsuits. Especially vulnerable are religious foster care and adoption agencies; though all religious institutions, churches, and non-profits could be targeted.

The (Dis)Respect for Marriage Act is yet another attempt to further erode the bedrock institution that serves as the foundation of humanity, the family. America must truly reinstate a sacred respect for marriage, as a nation, if we desire to flourish and be blessed.