Secular Ethos Episode # 12 Secular Sunday School
With all of the attacks on the LGBT community from politicians and religious leaders, it is not surprising that they can draw a straight line to a passage from their holy books to condemn them.
They especially seem to have a serious problem with gay marriage. Many of the laws contain the language of traditional marriage, and the proponents seems to want biblical marriage to be the only marriage legally recognized in the United States.
So what is biblical marriage exactly. It is often stated as a union between one man and one woman. Where does this idea come from? Is it in the bible? Is there a commandment, “thou shalt legally define marriage as between one man and one woman”? We need to dig a little deeper to see what is behind these ideas.
One of the strongest cases for this is found in Ephesians 5:25, 31. From the King James Version:
Ephesians 5:25
“Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ also loved the church, and gave himself for it;”
Ephesians 5:31
“For this cause shall a man leave his father and mother, and shall be joined unto his wife, and they two shall be one flesh.
This does make a strong case for the idea of biblical marriage as being one man and one woman. If we care about what the bible says about marriage what else does it say?
From 1 Samuel 18:17-27 King James Version:
17 And Saul said to David, Behold my elder daughter Merab, her will I give thee to wife: only be thou valiant for me, and fight the Lord's battles. For Saul said, Let not mine hand be upon him, but let the hand of the Philistines be upon him.
18 And David said unto Saul, Who am I? and what is my life, or my father's family in Israel, that I should be son in law to the king?
19 But it came to pass at the time when Merab Saul's daughter should have been given to David, that she was given unto Adriel the Meholathite to wife.
20 And Michal Saul's daughter loved David: and they told Saul, and the thing pleased him.
21 And Saul said, I will give him her, that she may be a snare to him, and that the hand of the Philistines may be against him. Wherefore Saul said to David, Thou shalt this day be my son in law in the one of the twain.
22 And Saul commanded his servants, saying, Commune with David secretly, and say, Behold, the king hath delight in thee, and all his servants love thee: now therefore be the king's son in law.
23 And Saul's servants spake those words in the ears of David. And David said, Seemeth it to you a light thing to be a king's son in law, seeing that I am a poor man, and lightly esteemed?
24 And the servants of Saul told him, saying, On this manner spake David.
25 And Saul said, Thus shall ye say to David, The king desireth not any dowry, but an hundred foreskins of the Philistines, to be avenged of the king's enemies. But Saul thought to make David fall by the hand of the Philistines.
26 And when his servants told David these words, it pleased David well to be the king's son in law: and the days were not expired.
27 Wherefore David arose and went, he and his men, and slew of the Philistines two hundred men; and David brought their foreskins, and they gave them in full tale to the king, that he might be the king's son in law. And Saul gave him Michal his daughter to wife.
This is another disturbing take on biblical marriage where there is an alternative form of payment for a wife.