When God began the world, He started with just two people—Adam and Eve. They were married by Him and thus set the pattern for marriage that has continued until a very few years ago. For Christians, the ultimate explanation for why traditional marriage must be guarded is found in the Bible. The Bible is extremely clear on the definition of marriage and also on homosexual behavior. Most Christians, reading the Bible as a whole, see that we are to love everyone, but we do not have to give approval to all behaviors. A parent loves her children even when they do something they should not, but that does not obligate her to accept any behavior they choose to engage in. Jesus protected and loved the woman found in adultery from her abusers—but instructed her not to continue to sin. He did not find it necessary to and change the laws to make her sin legal and acceptable in order to love her. It is, in fact, more loving to help people make sound eternal choices.
Mormon beliefs teach that families are central to God’s plan.
Marriage is a sacred ordinance that has both temporal and eternal consequences. Its sacredness must be protected as God delivers both punishments and rewards for those who honor the most sacred eternal truths. While secular people can make their decisions based on what is fashionable, those who view the world through an eternal lens must look beyond today’s trendy beliefs. Studies have always shown children do best in a home with both natural parents married and in love—something possible only in a traditional marriage. Studies have also shown children do best with both a mother and a father, learning from the examples of both genders and benefitting from the differing parenting styles. Many recent studies have been done incorrectly, with a researcher calling a homosexual friend who is successful and asking her to participate in the study and to ask her other successful friends. They also compared successful lesbian women with low-income women who were not lesbians, muddying the waters by not taking into consideration the impact of poverty. A recent study that really used a random sampling of adults raised by homosexual parents and that used similar families in both groups found those adults had more emotional problems and felt they had been harmed by the experience. The study differed by asking the children, rather than the mothers, who naturally wanted to believe their children were not harmed.
Study Shows Different Outcomes for Children of Traditional and Gay Families
The author of the study did not carry it out as part of the gay marriage debate, but simply presented the results to encourage researchers to look further into the subject.
An interesting development in the debate about gay marriage took place in England. A gay rights activist who is a member of Parliament voted against gay marriage. She admitted it was very difficult for her to make this decision since she had long fought for a variety of civil rights for homosexuals. However, gay marriage, she realized, was an entirely different situation. She explained:
“My concern, however, is that by moving to a definition of marriage that no longer requires sexual difference, we will, over time, ultimately decouple the definition of marriage from family life altogether. I doubt that this change will be immediate. It will be gradual, as perceptions of what marriage is and is for shift. But we can already see the foundations for this shift in the debate about same-sex marriage. Those who argue for a change in the law do so by saying that surely marriage is just about love between two people and so is of nobody else’s business. Once the concept of marriage has become established in social consciousness as an entirely private matter about love and commitment alone, without any link to family, I fear that it will accelerate changes already occurring that makes family life more unstable. (I should add, that I also suspect it will make marriage ultimately seem irrelevant. After all, how long before gay people begin to say, as many straight couples of my own generation have begun to say, ‘if marriage is just about love, why would I need a piece of paper to prove it?’)” (See Sarah Teather, Why I Voted Against Gay Marriage)
The Mormons have long advocated for a traditional marriage structured coupled with appropriate civil rights for gay people. Church leadership asked Salt Lake City lawmakers to approve a law banning employment and housing discrimination for homosexuals. A recently built website allows homosexual Mormons and their family members to speak for themselves in unscripted videos, demonstrating how one can have a rewarding life without engaging in homosexual behaviors. Family members talked about the importance of loving gay family members while not condoning specific behaviors.
See New Church Website on Same-Sex Attraction Offers Love, Understanding and Hope
The Supreme Court is being asked to give a new definition to a word that has existed from the beginning of time. It is more than just legal rights—which can be protected in other ways. It is deciding the environment in which children will grow up. Once done, it is very difficult to undo, as we learned when we tried out ban alcohol in the United States. This decision has eternal consequences that must not be taken lightly, particularly given that we do not yet know exactly how this decision will impact families in the long run.
Mormons have a particularly strong reason to advocate for traditional marriage. In order to understand the beliefs of another, you have to understand the foundational beliefs that lead to it. Then one can ask, “If I believed the foundational belief, would I have to believe this other belief as well?” It does not ask you to accept the foundational belief, only to understand the reasoning.
Mormons believe we lived before our births with God. We were spirits, but our genders were already given to us and were meant to be an essential part of who we are. Mormons also believe marriage was meant to continue for eternity. God does not believe in divorce and would not tear our families away from us without giving us the opportunity to make them last. However, homosexuality is strictly a temporal challenge. It did not exist before our births and will not exist after our deaths. A gay marriage cannot exist for eternity because the couple will have no attraction to one another and because God will not recognize it. This is unfair to both the couple and to the children, who have no possibility of an eternal family with the parents who raised them. For Mormons, promoting traditional marriage is an act of loving protection for eternal happiness.
The Mormons recently reaffirmed their stance on the subject of traditional marriages:
Today the Supreme Court of the United States heard arguments regarding the definition of marriage in this country.
We firmly support the divinely appointed definition of marriage as the union between a man and a woman because it is the single most important institution for strengthening children, families, and society.
We hope the court will agree, and we look forward to the decision on this important matter.
The late Terrie Lynn Bittner—beloved wife, mother, grandmother, and friend—was the author of two homeschooling books and numerous articles, including several that appeared in Latter-day Saint magazines. She became a member of the Church at the age of 17 and began sharing her faith online in 1992.
