Who Really Defines Marriage? 
By Troy Dobbs, Senior Pastor
This November, Minnesotans will have an opportunity to make a real difference by voting "YES" to the Marriage Amendment question that will appear on the ballot.
By voting "YES," we will take our existing law which states that marriage is between one man and one woman and codify it in our State constitution, thus assuring that no judge, court, or legislature can redefine marriage. This is a nonpartisan issue that affects us all.
Please remember that if you leave the marriage amendment blank on November 6th -- it will be counted as a "NO" vote. For more information on this important issue go to www.minnesotaformarriage.com.
"If you leave the marriage amendment blank on November 6,
it will be counted as a "NO" vote."
The Bible is clear that God designed marriage and has defined it as between one man and one woman. You see, God made humanity male and female, with their distinctive feminine and masculine natures and their distinctive roles, so that in marriage as husband and wife they could display Christ and the Church.
Now, in order to help equip you more effectively, I have included some KEY BELIEFS ABOUT MARRIAGE and some COMMON OBJECTIONS to protecting marriage as between one man and one woman.
KEY BELIEFS ABOUT MARRIAGE
- Marriage is a God-ordained covenant between a man and a woman, first described in Genesis 1 and 2 and affirmed by Jesus in Matthew 19. This covenant is reinforced by the image of the Church as the Bride of Christ.
- God instituted marriage as the natural context for the stability of families. Strong and stable marriages provide profound personal benefits, enrich families, serve the best interests of children, and contribute to the well-being of children, which sometimes means putting limitations on the choices of adults.
- The essential public purpose of marriage is to attach mothers and fathers to their children and to one another.
- Men and women provide unique gifts to each other and to their children. They are not interchangeable parts, either for marriage or child-rearing.
- The MN Marriage Protection Amendment is important to help ensure that politicians and judges don't change the meaning of marriage today and, most importantly, for our children in the future.
- People with same-sex attraction should be afforded their basic civil rights, but no one has a "right" to redefine marriage.
COMMON OBJECTIONS
AND RESPONSES TO PROTECTING MARRIAGE
Marriage is about love and commitment.
Marriage is more. If marriage is just a committed relationship for the benefit of adults, then there is no reason for the government to get involved. But marriage has an important public component. It ensures the well-being of children and society. Social trends continuously show that children deprived of married mothers and fathers don't' fare as well economically or emotionally as children with a married mother and father.
You and other Christians are just bigoted and hateful.
Do you really think that people who believe both mothers and fathers matter to kids are bigoted? Marriage is about uniting kids with both moms and dads. Two men or two women cannot produce a child. It's not bigotry to think this because it's not discrimination to treat different things differently.
My marriage doesn't affect your marriage, so what do you care?
How marriage is defined will not only affect how children view the importance of mothers and fathers in the future but also our community's religious freedoms right now -- I care about that. I'm not ready to say to any child, "Hey, it doesn't matter that you don't have a dad. You don't need him anyway." And really, that's what I would be saying if I supported redefining marriage. Those who share my beliefs are already facing lawsuits and penalties for following their consciences. Their rights matter too!
Marriage is a private matter, why should we care who gets married?
The purpose of marriage is to promote a complementary sexual and emotional union between men and women characterized by caretaking, sharing of resources, procreation, and long-term commitment in order to encourage the well-being of the man and woman who marry, and also the protection of children and the reproduction of society (www.marriagedebate.com). Like it or not, our public policy affects marriages and family formation, and because marriage is so foundational to a civil society, it is not just a private matter; it affects entire communities and cultures.
How does redefining marriage affect my marriage or family?
Same-sex marriage advocates want to force everyone to dramatically and permanently alter our definition of marriage and family. The great, historic, cross-cultural understanding of marriage as the union of husband and wife will be called bigotry in the public square. The law will teach your children and grandchildren that there is nothing special about mothers and fathers raising children together, and anyone who thinks otherwise is a bigot (www.nationformarriage.org). Redefining marriage so as to include same sex relationships will inevitably lead to calls for extending marriage to any group of consenting and affectionate adults -- including more than two adults. "Husband," "wife," "mother," and "father" would lose their meaning.
Wouldn't extending marriage benefits to more people be good for society?
No. The legal and financial benefits of marriage are not an entitlement to be distributed equally to all; if they were, single people would have as much reason to consider them "discriminatory" as same-sex couples. Society grants benefits to marriage because marriage has benefits for society.
Why should Christians care about the institution of marriage?
Christians must care about marriage because God cares about marriage. The marital relationship is the clearest image we can present to a watching world of how Christ loves His Church. (See Ephesians 5:21-33) Additionally, the Bible is clear that marriage is good for men and women and the children born into the married family.
Social science confirms this truth, and whether or not one is a Christian, there is no disputing the evidence that marriage has innumerable benefits for men, women, and their children (see FRC's Marriage and Religion Research Institute, www.marri.us, for hard science supporting this claim).
Conversely, the dissolution of marriage or the bearing of children out of wedlock is associated with numerous social pathologies, and is particularly devastating to children. By seeking to uphold and strengthen the institution of marriage, we are also working to reduce childhood poverty, truancy, domestic violence, and male incarceration rates. We have a culturally compelling interest in seeing marriages succeed and thrive.
Let's be in prayer for the upcoming election and let's be sure to participate by voting our values. | 
