Genesis 2:24: “Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and they shall become one flesh.”

Our Position

We hold that marriage is a comprehensive union of the lives of one man and one woman, a union pledged to fidelity.

Marriage is not merely a means of procreation, nor is marriage merely a means of personal happiness, although procreation and happiness are integral to marriage. Marriage is a comprehensive union of the lives of a man and woman, a union toward shared activities, which often results in children and mutual happiness. As an embodied male and embodied female are required to form a unified reproductive body, marital procreative acts can truly only be produced by a male and female, not multiple persons or persons of the same sex.

Marriage is regulated by the state because it provides a structure which forms community. A man and woman unite to provide mutual flourishing, care, and financial stability, among other societal goods. The bodily union within marriage is ordered toward procreation with child-rearing, and that natural relationship between parent-child creates societal formation and stabilization. The state has an interest in upholding these societal goods.

Married couples who do not or cannot have children are no less married or intrinsically valuable than those who do have children, because marriage is fulfilled by the comprehensive union of that man and woman’s lives. However, the marital relationship is integrated with procreation, which is the outpouring of life from the bodily union. Any child resulting from that marital union most often finds stability and development within the home of his or her parents. Western societies have made laws for situations in which a child is not safe at home with his or her parents, but these situations are a deviation from the norm that the safest people by which a child can be raised are the child’s parents, and the public benefits from the stabilization which that home provides.

FAQ

Q:  Why can’t any two consenting, loving adults enter marriage?

A: Mutual consent and pleasure do not, on their own merits, create a marriage. Rather, marriage is a comprehensive union of lives; in marriage, a man and woman’s lives unite. By design, marriage is a one-flesh union of the lives of a man and a woman which involves mutual pleasure and consent.

For bodily union within marriage to occur, one man and one woman must participate. Although not every marriage will result in new life, the bodily union is ordered toward life.

Q: Why can’t you allow equality in marriage?

A: Understanding what marriage is as a good is required to ensure equal access. Marriage is a comprehensive union of two lives, uniting two minds in objectives, uniting emotions, and uniting bodies, to give a few core examples.

Marriage is more than procreation and more than sexual pleasure – it is a comprehensive union. However, the necessity for one male and one female to each be a party of a marriage becomes particularly evident in the generative act. To become a reproductive unit, regardless of whether conception of a child occurs, a man and woman must unite bodily. Same-sex sexual acts do not create that one-flesh union, an integral aspect of that comprehensive union.