Christian couple threatens to divorce if same-sex marriage becomes legal

An Australian couple claims they can't participate in a "new definition" of marriage. Sounds great for their kids!

Published June 10, 2015 7:45PM (EDT)

            (<a href='http://www.shutterstock.com/gallery-452158p1.html'>Mincemeat</a> via <a href='http://www.shutterstock.com/'>Shutterstock</a>)
(Mincemeat via Shutterstock)

A man and woman who are currently married to each other -- happily, it seems -- announced on Wednesday that they plan to get divorced if Australia ever legalizes same-sex marriage. This means, essentially, that they've made a public threat against no one else's welfare except their own and that of their children, but we'll entertain their lashing out anyway.

Nick Jensen, director of the conservative christian Lachlan Macquarie Institute, wrote an op-ed for the Canberra CityNews explaining that he and his wife of ten years, Sarah, will get divorced as a protest against legalized marriage equality, which they believe would redefine the state of their union in an unsuitable way. From Jensen's editorial:

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. [...]

The truth is, “marriage” is simply too important. It is a sacred institution, ordained by God. It has always been understood to be that exclusive relationship where one man and one woman become “one flesh”. Any attempt to change the definition of marriage by law is not something in which we are able to partake.

The Jensens, who already have children, say they plan to have more kids (assuming they can stay married), which is interesting given why they're threatening to divorce. As the Sydney Morning Herald points out, the pair believes that anything undermining the institution of marriage will "have serious consequences for children," and that "when [marriage] becomes detached to the child's right to a mother and a father and the sacred institution that it is, then suddenly it becomes meaningless and those boundaries can't be put back in place."

Maybe this is a stretch, but: Wouldn't dissolving a marriage undermine the institution, and have serious consequences for children? Perhaps even the Jensens' children? Just a thought.

Of course, the Jensens are not the first people to threaten an anti-marriage equality protest that only really affects themselves. A Utah man gave up on a hunger strike he started over a judge's ruling to invalidate the state's ban on same-sex marriage, and -- according to Glenn Beck -- there are about 10,000 pastors willing to die in the fight against "Christian persecution" in the U.S. So I guess the Jensens, who claim they'll put their own marriage on the chopping block, are in good enough company.


By Jenny Kutner

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