- Martin Luther relegated the status of marriage to a secular adjudication, thereby removing it from the Church as a sacrament.
- Henry VIII was conferred by the pope, with the title of ‘Defender of the Faith’ for writing Defense of the Seven Sacraments in response to Martin Luther’s heresies. However, in time, this defender of the faith launched an assault on the Catholic Church in order to obtain a divorce from Catherine of Aragon and to marry Anne Boleyn because he wanted a son to succeed him. Henry VIII seceded from Rome in 1534 under the Act of Succession, making himself the head of the Church of England and the state. As it turns out, Anne Boleyn was not able to provide a male heir and Henry VIII murdered her.
- Until 1930, all Protestant denominations agreed with the Catholic Church’s teaching condemning contraception as sinful. At its 1930 Lambeth Conference, the Anglican church, swayed by growing social pressure, announced that contraception would be allowed in some circumstances. Soon the Anglican church completely caved in, allowing contraception across the board. Since then, all other Protestant denominations have followed suit.
- The widespread availability of contraception and the sexual revolution that started in the 1960s, led to increased adultery, divorce, sexually transmitted infections, and abortions which continue to pervade Western culture. Is it any wonder then that proponents of same-sex ‘marriage’ demand that marriage be extended to them as well? As this short historical account highlights, marriage has been compromised and diminished. Many Christians have participated in the compromise by their inaction to defend and uphold marriage. The relative ease to accept alternate views has placed same-sex ‘marriage’ in Parliament. The state may lay down the terms surrounding its celebration and its recording, but marriage does not get its validity from the state. Men and women were marrying long before any state, government or parliament ever existed.
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