Straight Australian couple pledges to divorce if gays are allowed to marry
Strange doins down under: A straight Australian couple has promised that they will get divorced if gay people win the right to marry in their country.
Nick and Sarah Jensen, of Canberra, have been married for just a tick over ten years. They are, by their own account, happy together. But they are also dedicated to the cause of traditional marriages in Australia–which is to say that they’re against the growing gay marriage movement. (As of last July, an extensive, nationwide poll found that two-thirds of Australians supported legalizing gay marriage.)
This Australian couple is so dedicated to their cause that they’ve just published a letter stating their intention to divorce if gay marriage is legalized. It’s a long letter, and you can read it in its entirety here; the following is an excerpt:
As Christians, we believe marriage is not a human invention. Our view is that marriage is a fundamental order of creation. Part of God’s intimate story for human history. Marriage is the union of a man and a woman before a community in the sight of God. And the marriage of any couple is important to God regardless of whether that couple recognises God’s involvement or authority in it. My wife and I, as a matter of conscience, refuse to recognise the government’s regulation of marriage if its definition includes the solemnisation of same sex couples….
If our federal parliament votes to change the timeless and organic definition of marriage later on this year, it will have moved against the fundamental and foundational building block of Australian society and, indeed, human culture everywhere. Indeed, it raises a red flag when a government decides it is not content only having sovereignty over land, taxes and the military – but “words” themselves. This is why we are willing to divorce. By changing the definition of marriage, “marriage” will, in years to come, have an altogether different sense and purpose.
It’s not clear how much sense such a decision makes, though. After all, many pro-gay marriage advocates have argued that divorce undermines the sanctity of marriage far more than gay people getting married, since more divorces make it easier for people to both believe they can get divorced for any reason and then to actually get divorced. An allegedly happy straight couple with just over ten years on the books would appear to be a great advertisement of how a healthy marriage could work, even during trying social times. Throwing all that away just because you’re afraid of two sets of bearded lips kissing at the altar could, possibly, be seen as a foolish, pyrrhic, tilting-at-windmills-type of decision, one that harms the Jensens without doing anything to strengthen their cause.
Of course, there is already a Facebook event page called “Celebrating Nick & Sarah Jensen’s DIVORCE!” which promises to do just that on September 1st. It’s got 4,700 members / attendees, most of which have joined in the last few days.
(Photo credits: Flags one, two, and three via Flickr)
