The English dictionary sees marriage as "the institution whereby men and women are joined in a special kind of social and legal dependence for the purpose of founding and maintaining a family". However, the working definition of marriage is being challenged, and many people feel that marriage should be changed to fit a "gay and lesbian lifestyle". This pressure to change the definition of marriage needs to be considered seriously. If the definition of marriage needs to be changed, what will be the consequences? The history and definition of marriages will now be explored and the recent developments of same sex marriages with the intention of pointing out any effort that will redefine marriage will destroy the institution and therefore should not be attempted.
Over time, within the last decade, our view of marriage has rapidly changed. A century ago, marriage was for life: only a very small percentage of people divorced. Authority over the woman was formally transferred from the father of the bride to the new husband at the marriage ceremony. Now, most committed couples in North America live together before marriage. Divorce terminates about 50 percent of all marriages. Women are having children outside of marriage. Some couples have decided to pursue their careers and not to have children. All of these trends have caused people to alter their perception of marriage, and broaden their definition of the term. The idea of same-sex marriages seems to be simply one more variation, yet until recently, same-sex couples could not marry anywhere in the world. .
In the Bible, specifically in the book of Leviticus, it states that homosexual behavior in unacceptable. Jesus declares the following points in the Bible. "Heterosexual gender is a divine creation. Heterosexual marriage is a divine institution. Heterosexual fidelity is the divine intention." A homosexual connection is a breach to all three of these divine purposes.