Welcome to Breakpoint, a daily look at an ever-changing culture through the lens of unchanging truth for the Colson Center on Johnstone Street. The old joke that whoever said marriage is a 50-50 proposition didn't know the half of it. takes on a whole new meaning in a culture that's flirting with polyamory. Poly means multiple, amor means love, thus polyamory refers to multiple loves, what's traditionally been called open relationships.
Some polyamorous relationships involve marriage, others do not. As opposed to polygamy, which means many spouses, polyamory is about multiple committed relationships consenting together to be part of a larger relationship. As Sean McDowell recently noted, polyamorous relationships are not new. Examples go back to at least the Greco-Roman world. What is new is that over 50% of Americans today under 30 believe open marriage is acceptable.
And another study showed that one in nine Americans have actually engaged in polyamory. Also new and quite consistent with the American experience is the collection of reality shows, thought pieces, and films these days. all conspiring together to promote it.
Now most important in the drive to normalize polyamory was the Supreme Court's 2015 Obergefeld decision. By legalizing so-called same-sex marriage nationwide, the male-female distinction was treated as irrelevant when it comes to marriage, and that opened the door to additional relational arrangements being considered marriage as well. In fact, in his dissent, Chief Justice John Roberts even questioned whether arguments for same-sex marriage would end up justifying, and I quote, people who find fulfillment in polyamorous relationships. The clear answer a decade later is yes. And a few local governments are also trying to mainstream the practice.
An ordinance passed this spring by the Portland City Council prohibits discrimination based on one's, quote, family or relationship structure. It reduces the obstacles to receiving various city services that were previously reserved for only monogamous couples. Other cities have passed similar resolutions. It's worth noting that the push to normalize same-sex relationships also began with anti-discrimination laws. And just recently, in an article in The Christian Century, David Congdon argued that, and I quote, biblical and theological arguments in favor of polyamory are readily available, end quote.
As an example, he cited Ephesians 5:31 and 32, in which Paul describes the husband and wife as pointing to Christ's relationship to the church. as actually referring to one church in Ephesus with multiple people. Thus, Congen concludes, and I quote, If Christ's relationship to the Church is supposed to be the model for marriage, it might well be a plural marriage. Congdon then correctly stated that mainline Protestants who already embrace same-sex relationships within the church don't necessarily see Adam and Eve egenesis or the marital analogy in Ephesians as normative templates for marriage in the first place. That's true.
Mainline liberals long ago rejected biblical teaching about marriage and sexuality. And according to Congdon, this means, and I quote, that Christians cannot simply assume that our faith straightforwardly supports the norm of monogamy, end quote. And so Cognen encourages liberal Christians to take yet another step in normalizing behavior that historic biblical Christianity has always considered to be sinful. In doing so, he not only is rejecting the biblical understanding of marriage and sexuality, he's rejecting what both the Bible presents and history affirms as the fundamental institution of human civilization. And the very same arguments that the Bible's not necessarily clear, that God is always on the side of love, and that we should first get to know people who've made such choices, these were arguments also made for so-called same-sex marriage by liberal affirming Christians.
Another assertion that we will hear about polyamory, also leveled in the same-sex marriage debate, is that Jesus never talked about it. But Jesus did talk about marriage. In fact, he described the creation account as being both normative and authoritative. In Matthew 19, when he was asked about divorce, Jesus pointed to creation, how God made humans in his image, male and female, for one another. Quoting Genesis 2.24, that the man and woman become one flesh, Jesus rejected divorce.
So if God's purpose is in creation, that the sexual act of procreation should exist rightfully within God's design for marriage as exclusively between one man and one woman for life, if that's plain enough to guide us on the question of divorce, It's safe to guess what Jesus would have said had he ever been asked about polyamory. Paul also quoted Genesis 2.24 in his teaching on marriage in his epistle to the Ephesians, and he wrote to Timothy that an elder must be husband of one wife. It's hard to imagine that he would have affirmed the moral legitimacy of a thruple. In our book on same-sex marriage, Sean McDowell and I repeated three basic observations made by others from history that summarize the case for marriage from natural law. First, sex makes babies.
Second, society needs babies in order to continue. And third, babies need a mom and a dad. Study after study, in fact, shows that the single greatest predictor of a child's long-term success is that they're raised in a home with married biological mom and dad. even beyond the inevitable relational jealousies and sexual brokenness, Polyamory makes children the objects. Of yet another social experiment just to cater to adult desire.
You know, we were wrong when we said, oh, the kids will be fine with happy but not married parents or with two dads and two moms instead of their mom and dad. And they won't be fine with multiple unrelated adults coming in and out of their lives either. One of the most important ways that Christians have to be ready to give a reason for the hope that's within them. Is by making the case for marriage. Even more, we have to demonstrate God's good design by living it out in our own homes.
Marriage, as God intended, has always been one of the best gifts the church can give to the wider world. In every time and in every place. That's because it's always the best context for sexuality, the best situation for children. That's because God created it that way. For the Colson Center, I'm John Stone Street with Break Point.
Today's Breakpoint was co-authored with Andrew Carico. If you're a fan of Breakpoint, please leave us a review wherever you download podcasts. And for more resources or to share this commentary with other people, please go to Breakpoint.org. Christian Educators, this is Billy Hutchinson with Colson Educators. As a former teacher myself, I know you're busy, and I know you want to teach like a Christian, not just be a Christian who teaches.
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