Duet, Trio, Quartet, or More?

On today's blog, Dr. Al Mohler comments on the statement released by the Episcopal Bishops of California urging voters to defeat Proposition 8. This measure would add an amendment to the state's Constitution to clarify the definition of marriage as a union between heterosexual couples.

As usual, Dr. Mohler makes an insightful observation:

Society is strengthened," they argue, "when two people who love each other choose to enter into marriage, engaged in a lifetime of disciplined relationship building that serves as a witness to the importance of love and commitment."
Note that the bishops simply refer to "two people who love each other." Why two? Once marriage is transformed from the union of a man and a woman into a union without respect to gender -- and on the claim that marriage is a "fundamental right" -- how can the number two be anything but arbitrary

To appeal to Scripture and tradition as the basis of a "one-for-one-for-life" (or at least that's the intent), is rather hypocritical. As Mohler observes, why is marriage defined as a couple, regardless of gender? Why not a trio or a quartet?

Certainly, it is no stretch of the imagination to attempt to endorse polygamy from Scripture. And if homosexual unions can be blessed because they "engage in a lifetime of disciplined relationship," could not the same be said for polygamists who are disciplined within their own system? In fact, polygamist sects should jump on this confusion in the definition of marriage. Maybe the pluralistic postmodern culture is ripe for a reopening of that issue.

Don't misunderstand me. I do not endorse polygamy (For an insider's account of the misery of polygamy, read Shattered Dreams: My Life as a Polygamists Wife by Irene Spenser). However, by jettisoning Scripture and tradition, we leave ourselves no moral legs to stand upon.

Do we see a Pandora's box under construction? If same sex unions become the norm, then what is next? As Romans 1 indicates, sinful culture is usually not content to remain at a static level in its expression of depravity. Rather, culture spirals downward into further depths of sinful behavior.