FAMILIAR IDOLATRY AND THE CHRISTIAN CASE AGAINST MARRIAGE

• Published in: Authorizing Marriage? pp. 17 - 40
• Main Author: Martin, Dale B
• Format: Book Chapter
• Language: English
• Published: Princeton Princeton University Press 10.01.2009
• Subjects: Applied sociology; Behavioral sciences; Celibacy; Christian history; Christian philosophy; Christianity; Churches; Divorce; Ecclesiology; Families; Family members; Fathers; Households; Human behavior; Human populations; Human sexual behavior; Human societies; Marriage; Men; Persons; Population studies; Religion; Sexual abstinence; Social institutions; Social sciences; Sociology; Sociology of religion; Spiritual belief systems; Spouses; Wives
• DOI: 10.1515/9781400827138.17
• ISBN: 0691123462; 9780691123462

Contemporary Christianity in the United States—whether Protestant or Catholic, liberal or conservative—has so closely aligned the basic message of Christianity with the family and “traditional family values” that it is currently in a state of idolatry.¹ Increasingly, whether they are religious or not, people in America tend to equate Christianity with the family and “family values.” It is not just that gay and lesbian people have largely left their churches; single people in general often feel out of place in churches. And other people in non-“traditional” family structures—whether divorced, cohabiting, or in partial nuclear families—tend to