{"id":43997,"date":"2011-07-25T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2011-07-25T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/preaching\/sermon-illustrations\/contemporary-thinkers-attempt-to-define-marriage\/"},"modified":"2011-07-25T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2011-07-25T00:00:00","slug":"contemporary-thinkers-attempt-to-define-marriage","status":"publish","type":"sermon-illustrations","link":"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/preaching\/sermon-illustrations\/contemporary-thinkers-attempt-to-define-marriage\/","title":{"rendered":"Contemporary Thinkers Attempt to Define Marriage"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>In his book  <a href=\"http:\/\/www.christianbook.com\/Christian\/Books\/product?item_no=032410&amp;p=1022189\" target=\"_blank\" class=\"\"><em class=\"citation\">The Future of Marriage<\/em><\/a> , David Blankenhorn has culled the following contemporary attempts to define marriage:<\/p>\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n\t<li>&quot;Marriage is, more than anything else, the expression of love&quot; (George Easterbrook of the <em class=\"citation\">New Republic<\/em>).<\/li>\n\n\t<li>&quot;The essence of a good marriage is not breeding [i.e. having children] or even romantic love &hellip; [but] a unique and profound friendship&quot; (Andrew Sullivan).<\/li>\n\n\t<li>&quot;Now marriage is seen by most people as love, intimacy, happiness&quot; (Barbara Risman, professor of sociology at the University of Illinois Chicago).<\/li>\n\n\t<li>&quot;The real nature of marriage&quot; is a commitment &quot;between two people to take on special obligations to one another&quot; (from the editors of the <em class=\"citation\">Economist<\/em>).<\/li>\n\n\t<li>&quot;A marriage is a private arrangement between parties committed to love&quot; (Crispan Sartwell, syndicated columnist).<\/li>\n\n\t<li>&quot;To &#39;marry&#39; means to join together in a close personal commitment &hellip; [that] is intended to be permanent&quot; (Judge William L. Downing, superior court judge for the state of Washington).<\/li>\n\n\t<li>&quot;Marriage is at once a deeply personal commitment to another human being and a highly public celebration of the ideals of mutuality, companionship, intimacy, fidelity, and family&quot; (Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts).<\/li>\n\n\t<li>Marriage is &quot;a unique expression of a private bond between a couple&quot; (Justice Doris Ling-Cohen, Supreme Court of the State of New York).<\/li>\n\n<\/ul>\n\n<p>For a number of reasons, Blankenhorn calls these (and most contemporary definitions of marriage) &quot;radically insubstantial.&quot; First, they fail to clarify that marriage is between one man and one woman. Secondly, Blankenhorn also writes, &quot;One searches in vain for any recognition of the fact that marriage might be something more than a private close relationship between two people.&quot; Third. he also notes that there&#39;s something glaringly absent from these &quot;private&quot; and &quot;personal&quot; definitions of marriage&mdash;children. &quot;Marriage and children are now basically disconnected,&quot; he writes, &quot;with marriage as a close personal relationship over here and children&#39;s well-being as a social priority over there. Does any child out there really want to sign on to this proposition?&quot;<\/p>","protected":false},"author":30,"featured_media":0,"template":"","tax_ctp_audience":[],"tax_ctp_authors":[],"tax_ctp_categories":[165],"tax_ctp_format":[171],"tax_ctp_illustration_types":[405,409],"tax_ctp_multimedia":[],"tax_ctp_point_editor":[],"tax_publications":[140],"tax_ctp_tags":[3569,3726,3823,3988,4196,4425,4596,4597,4858,5068,5255,5270,5285],"tax_ctp_topics":[390],"class_list":["post-43997","sermon-illustrations","type-sermon-illustrations","status-publish","hentry","tax_publications-ct-pastors","tax_ctp_tags-children","tax_ctp_tags-culture","tax_ctp_tags-divorce","tax_ctp_tags-fidelity","tax_ctp_tags-husband","tax_ctp_tags-marriage","tax_ctp_tags-parenting","tax_ctp_tags-parents","tax_ctp_tags-romantic-love","tax_ctp_tags-spouse","tax_ctp_tags-vows","tax_ctp_tags-weddings","tax_ctp_tags-wives"],"acf":{"scripture_references":[{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null}]},"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v22.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Contemporary Thinkers Attempt to Define Marriage - CT Pastors<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/preaching\/sermon-illustrations\/contemporary-thinkers-attempt-to-define-marriage\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Contemporary Thinkers Attempt to Define Marriage - CT Pastors\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"In his book The Future of Marriage , David Blankenhorn has culled the following contemporary attempts to define marriage: For a number of reasons, Blankenhorn calls these (and most contemporary definitions of marriage) &quot;radically insubstantial.&quot; First, they fail to clarify that marriage is between one man and one woman. 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