It happened incrementally and the seeds of it started with . . . .
Believe it or not it started with a change of attitude to birth control. At the beginning of the 20th century, almost all churches spoke against artificial birth control because there was a unanimous conviction that the primary purpose of marriage was procreation. The goal was to raise ‘godly children.’ As Anglican (Episcopalian) bishops put it the use of “unnatural means for the avoidance of conception” was a grave sin.
As John Stonestreet writes in a Breakpoint article, ‘Marriage, Same Sex Marriage and Birth Control,’ (May 24, 2013) “For Christians, sex within marriage serves two purposes: a procreation one and a unitive one. For nineteen centuries Christians regarded the two as inextricably connected The potential for creating new life gave physical expression of marital love meaning beyond the satisfaction of physical desires.”
He quotes a colleague Jim Tonkowich, who points out that severing that link “turns marriage into nothing more than mutual love, commitment and companionship” and “that’s what same-sex marriage advocates are seeking in their necessarily non-procreation marriage.”
A film ‘Birth Control: How did we get here?’ (Link to film below) documents these changes that began in the 1930’s. It would seem that only the Roman Catholic Church, as a denomination, has held fast to the primary purpose of marriage being the procreation of children consistent with the mandate of Genesis 1 and 2 to be fruitful and multiply. In recent times there has been a lot of talk about the dominion mandate of Genesis 2 but little or no emphasis on the mandate to be fruitful and multiply. (I have however personally noticed a number of evangelical and pentecostal couples who have apparently taken this mandate seriously and are raising large families.)
By the way, this is the approach that Muslims are using. They believe that by increasing their numbers they will eventually take over nations.
So this change in the purpose of marriage led to many developments.
Hugh Hefner published Playboy magazine in 1953 with the emphasis on sexual gratification and the idea that anything goes. In turn society moved down the path of pornography and hedonism.
The pill supposedly gave women the freedom from unplanned pregnancies but it in turn promoted promiscuity as seen in the cultural revolution of the 1960’s and the Woodstock generation.
The feminist movement at that time got under way. Undoubtedly there were wrongs that needed to be righted in regard to women in society. However, the movement started to undermine the time-honored relationships of men and women.
The arrival of the ‘no fault’ divorce in the 1970’s undermined the life long commitment that a lasting marriage demands. People could get divorced simply on the basis of ‘irreconcilable differences.’ At the same time, even so-called Christian couples began ‘living together.’ It used to be called ‘living in sin.’
Then came a generation of fatherless children. Only about half of today’s children have grown up with a biological father. This spreads over to the homosexual community. As Os Hillman points out in an excellent article ‘How We’ve Been Set Up for a Gay Friendly Culture,’ when he quoted an ex-homosexual, ‘You will never find a person who is gay who has had a healthy relationship with his father.’ (Link to article below)
Going back to a police raid in New York in 1969, the homosexual movement began in earnest. By the way, I often wondered why they chose the word ‘gay.’ A friend of mine informed me that it started in San Francisco where they would say to straight people, ‘We are as Good As You.’ i,e, gay.
Abortion fed into this by downplaying the gift of children and the procreation purpose to marriage. The end result has been millions of babies have become innocent victims.
One of the bi-products of the Aids epidemic was that it produced in the community a wave of sympathy for people struck down with a killer disease. At the same time, people did not critically examine and even ignored the life style that spread the disease.
All these issues were fanned by the media, the entertainment industry, television and films. Slowly at first, media began to depict homosexuality in a positive way.
I have not majored on the spiritual aspects that permeate all of the above. Undoubtedly as a nation we took a major step away from God when in 1963 prayer in schools was ruled as unconstitutional . This opened a floodgate and the devil has had a field day ever since. By the way he hates Christian marriage because it is a reflection of the relationship between Jesus and his bride the church.
So it all started almost 100 years ago and like the frog and the kettle, in incremental steps, we have come from where we were to where we are today. We have moved towards – a genderless society where the only reason for marriage is love and commitment.
So do not be surprised if the supreme court votes in favor of gay marriage for the culture has been moving in that direction for a century. Why do I say that – because currently the cases before the supreme court have become a matter of the human right of marriage equality and there was little credence given to the connection between marriage and procreation given, either in the presentations to the supreme court or in the responses of the judges.
In the next issue we will look at the impact of all this and where we are headed.
Birth Control Movie
http://thebirthcontrolmovie.com/the-films/how-did-we-get-here/
Os Hillman article – “How We’ve Been Set Up for a Gay-Friendly Culture.”
http://www.charismanews.com/us/39444-how-we-ve-been-set-up-for-a-gay-friendly-culture
Kairos Ministries 