Cutting out the Kardashians: Do we really value marriage?

Apparently, "Yes ... but for just over two months."

A 72-day marriage. Seriously?

Many now seem to believe that famous-for-nothing Kim Kardashian married NBA bench warmer Kris Humphries for nothing more than the attention their wedding would get. Many are condemning the sham wedding/marriage and rightfully so, but the Church should be at the forefront of speaking out against the way the Kardashians used marriage and the way so many others do, too.

For the Church to have an effective and consistent voice on the sanctity of marriage, we must speak clearly and forcefully against all of the dangers - not just those that get "Amens" on Sunday morning. We have to move from whole-heartedly condemning only the attempts to redefine marriage to include homosexual unions, to whole-heartedly condemning all of the behaviors and actions that lead to a devaluing of marriage. Divorce is at the top of the list.

The Christian concept of marriage is two-fold: a man and a woman until death. We have been clear (perhaps not loving, but clear) in our culture that marriage should only be between a man and a woman. We have been much less clear that marriage is to last until death.

This stance does not mean that we hate those who have been divorced anymore than our stance against gay marriage means we hate individuals who have same sex attractions. We must speak the truth in love to be an effective representation of Christ in our culture. The truth is that marriage is limited to one man and one woman, but also should be for life.

These truths are not popular in our culture, but they should be agreed upon by Christians. Unfortunately, only one of the truths are popular in Church, while divorce remains accepted by both the culture at large and the Church.

Again, my disagreement over this issue must not prevent me from showing the love of Christ to everyone, even, especially, those that disagree with me. I should love the gay individual who disagrees with me and wants to marry their same sex partner. I should love the straight individual who sees no problem with divorcing and remarrying as many times as you feel like it.

Until Christians recognize that our own cavalier attitude toward marriage, particularly our own, harms the institution as a whole, we can never speak truth into the culture. I have said this before, but it bears repeating, a healthy marriage between two Christians is the greatest apologetic for traditional marriage. When the Christians in the church pews live out Scripture's teaching on valuing marriage, then we will be able to speak boldly and truthfully about how important marriage is. Until then ... our words on marriage mean about as much as Kim Kardashian's.