Welcome to Breakpoint, a daily look at an ever-changing culture through the lens of unchanging truth. For the Colson Center, I'm John Stone Street. Recently, singer Megan Traynor posted a picture of herself in a hospital bed, teary-eyed, holding a newborn for skin-to-skin contact. The woman who carried and birthed the child, however, was nowhere in sight. Traynor and her husband used a surrogate.
Now of course, as images go these days, that one is preferable to the one of men pretending to be postpartum, having just bought a child via the surrogacy market. But that shows just how disordered our society has become about marriage, sex, and babies. Many people, including many Christians, consider surrogacy a harmless and helpful technological advancement. After all, people want babies and more babies are good, the thinking goes. All the while, a blind eye is turned to the severe moral problems inherent to the mechanics of surrogacy.
including the commodification of children and the desecration of the maternal bond. Not to mention, the system is so underregulated, pedophiles and child abusers have been able to acquire victims. Thankfully, more are learning the truth about this practice and this industry. As Katie Faust of Them Before Us put it in response to Trainer's photo, quote, thousands are finally speaking up against surrogacy. The tide is turning.
We're grateful your baby is here, alive, and loved, but we won't pretend the method was harmless. No child should be created through a system that turns women into means and babies into products, end quote.
Well, that system is enabled and protected by the 2015 Obergefell Supreme Court decision. Severing marriage and law from the intrinsically biological realities of male and female also served to sever the connection between children and those whose union creates them. Marriage is now presumed, both in culture and in law, to be an institution of adult feelings. Kids are mere accessories. As Faust told the Coulson Center, quote, across the globe, 38 countries have legalized gay marriage, and exactly zero of them have simultaneously strengthened children's claim to their own mother and father.
All of them have either abolished or significantly weakened the idea that children belong to the two people responsible for their existence, end quote. In other words, kids are far more vulnerable today because of these new practices. This week, Faust announced the formation of a coalition of leaders and organizations called Greater Than. You may remember that advocates of so-called same-sex marriage campaigned on the promise of equality, posting memes of equal signs across social media.
Well, Greater Than proclaims the hard truth that children are treated as less than whenever they are deprived of their mom and their dad. As Faust described, quote, greater than is a coalition of pastors, parents, influencers, policymakers, theologians, lawyers, students, and normie Americans who are all speaking with one voice. What are we saying? Don't touch the kids. Marriage does not exist as a tool for adult validation.
It's God's plan A for child protection, and we intend to retake it on their behalf. Rather than seeing kids as truly equal and deserving adult protection, the dangerous combination of abortion, surrogacy, and redefining marriage reduces them to just an option among many, a means to fulfill adult desires. Legally, just as Roe v. Wade deprived pre-born children of their right to life, Obergefell is depriving children of their right to their mom and dad. Just as a culture of death enables the Holocaust of abortion, a culture of sexual autonomy enables the commodification of children.
As pro-lifers have done for decades now on the issue of abortion, so too the greater than coalition is committed to the legal and cultural work necessary to protect children. The Colson Center is proud to join this list of 43 and growing organizations and leaders. The Greater Than website features answers to difficult questions, opportunities to get involved, and the latest news and information about this pressing problem. You can join the movement too by going to greaterthancampaign.com. That's greaterthancampaign.com.
As the website puts it, the line has been crossed. The cost is our kids. It's time to fight back with truth, courage, and conviction. It's our responsibility to give kids their identity, security, and childhood back. For the Colson Center, I'm John Stone Street with Breakpoint.
Today's Breakpoint was co-authored with Dr. Timothy Padgett. If you're a fan of Breakpoint, leave us a review wherever you download your podcast. And to download and share this commentary with others, go to breakpoint.org.
