Press Release  Marriage

ERLC Responds to Judge’s Ruling to Declare Parts of Utah’s Polygamy Law Unconstitutional

human dignity

WASHINGTON, D.C., Dec. 14, 2013A U.S. District Court Judge, Clark Waddoups, declared parts of Utahs polygamy law as unconstitutional on Friday in a case involving the Brown family from TLCs reality show, Sister Wives. Russell D. Moore, president of the Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission of the Southern Baptist Convention reacts to the ruling:

This is what happens when marriage becomes about the emotional and sexual wants of adults, divorced from the needs of children for a mother and a father committed to each other for life. Polygamy was outlawed in this country because it was demonstrated, again and again, to hurt women and children. Sadly, when marriage is elastic enough to mean anything, in due time it comes to mean nothing.

The loss of a marriage consensus is about more than just social policy. Marriage is an embedded picture of the gospel, the union between Christ and his church. That’s why Jesus pointed back to the beginning, to God’s creational purposes. We must talk about these issues not simply from the point of view of nature, but from the point of view of the gospel.

When reality TV scenarios drive our judicial decisions, we’ve truly reached a strange time in American life. But the gospel was given in strange times, and remains the power of God to salvation, calling us to repent of our self-made attempts at autonomy and back to God’s purposes.

The official court ruling can be found “here”:http://www.scribd.com/doc/191414121/Sister-Wives-Ruling.

human dignity


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