Wake Up, Look Up

Hello everyone and thanks for listening to Wake Up, Look Up, a podcast where we connect events happening in real time to the gospel of Jesus Christ. I'm Zach Weihrauch and today we're asking who defines family? Now, this is prompted by an article I read in the New York Times about the rise of polyamory. relationships in which multiple people would define themselves as being romantically connected. two men and one woman, three women and one man, you know, whatever that looks like. All being in romantic relationships with each other, sleeping with each other, living with each other, defining themselves as a family. And in cities in the Pacific Northwest, cities like Olympia, Portland, Astoria, the push now is not just for people to live this way. I've covered this before. This is the next sexual revolution. It's the logical next step of the secular way of thinking. All that matters is what I feel. And if I feel I need multiple people, then that's what I need. What's happening here in the Northwest that's so important is that they're pushing for legal protection. In other words, all the things that would be afforded to a heterosexual couple that's married or a homosexual couple that's married to, should be, at least according to polyamorous people, should be given to them. they should be seen by the law as a family. Employment rights, housing rights, et cetera, et cetera. A 2016 study, by the way, said that one in five Americans are in a consensually non monogamous relationship. Meaning we're dating each other, but we're sleeping with other people. That is the first step towards polyamorous. 20% of Americans headed in the direction of redefining family. Now, as you might imagine, a lot of people are pushing back against this, and rightfully so. Critics like the Heritage foundation are arguing that legal protection is a backdoor to normalizing polygamy, which, would be complicated and, difficult for a number of reasons. So the question is, how, as we, as Christians, should we think about this? Well, first, I just want you to see this is coming. I know that you might think that's crazy. That would never. You live in Ohio like me, think that would never happen in Ohio. Listen, things start in the Pacific Northwest or in New York or in la. They become the most extreme version, and then a modified, slightly tamped down version makes its way into the rest of the country. Polygamy, polyamory, these things are coming. So how should we think about these? Well, Hebrews 13:4 says this. Let marriage be held in honor among all Listen and let the marriage bed be undefiled. actually, as Christians, not only do we do this by how we practice marriage, but also by how we talk about it and defend it in our work in the law, in education, in government, in society. Because here's what the Bible teaches. Healthy marriages are in many ways the cellular level of a healthy civilization. marriage is designed to produce a number of things. Safety, security, protection, care for one another. And in the absence of that, as marriage begins to erode, a society begins to fall apart. you can see that in America, by the way, once we legitimize no fault divorce and marriages began crumbling. Look at the art we create and think about how much art is created by children who grew up in divorced homes, processing the difficulty of their experience. That's a second generational untethering, right? The society fracturing. Because marriage has, taken a turn for the worse. So this matters. But it also matters because what's really going on here is a fundamental misunderstanding or disagreement between the Bible and secular society. The Bible tells us that one of the chief ends of marriage is the glory of God. That as a husband and wife love each other, they model to each other the love of God and the, reality of the gospel. This is Ephesians 5, that in my love and care for Amy, I represent a God who is working ultimately to make her holy. In her love and care for me, she represents that same God to me. And that the trick with polygamy or polyamory is on the one hand, what it's saying is, no one person is enough for, for you. And that's true in some ways, because only God, only relationship with God is fully satisfying. Humans will let you down. They will lack some of the things you think you need. But the polygamous answer to that is to add another person to the equation. It's to say to someone, you are flawed and you'll always be flawed. So, I'm gonna substitute someone else that makes up for those flaws. And. But what the Bible says is that I'm to roll up my sleeves. Amy's to roll up her sleeves and to participate in the sanctification. Amy doesn't say to me, hey, Zach, you're kind of selfish. So I'm going to add another guy to our relationship or another woman to our relationship who won't be so selfish. That way I can balance you out. Amy's to roll up her sleeves and to help me see the ugliness and difficulty of my selfishness and to cast A vision for a new, born again version of me. I say that all that to say this. The way we're going to push back against polygamy and polyamory is not in the courtroom. I think recent history has taught us we're gonna lose, that the secular worldview of individual rights is so baked into our society that eventually the courts are gonna say, hey, if being married to two or three people makes you happy, who are we to stop you? If a man can marry a man, for example, I don't see why he can't marry two men. What is the difference, really? the way we're going to push back against this is by showing a different and better version of marriage. If Christians want to save our country from polygamy and polyamory, the way we're going to do that is by elevating our own marriages, by showing a picture of marriage that is bigger than individual, happiness and liberty. A picture of marriage that actually comes alongside a person and makes them the. The best version of themselves that turns families into the best versions of themselves. And the truth is, if we want to focus on that, there's a lot of work to do. We have not modeled marriage very well in the church. So the time to get serious about your marriage is now. For God's glory, for your joy, for your spouse's joy, for your family, and for the world that is so confused, they're marrying multiple people now. Your marriage matters. And it might matter now more than ever. Hey, thanks for watching this episode of Wake Up, Look Up. If you enjoyed it, please help us get the word out by sharing it with someone you think might benefit from it. 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