Open Forum

Flak, Volume 1, Issue 7, 11 June 1943, Page 5

Open Forum

MORALS AND MARRIAGE “F'or this cause shall-a man leave father and mother and shall cleave to his wife, and they twain shall be one flesh. What x therefore God hath joined together let no man put asunder.” With this quotation the founder of the Christian religion opens his discussion on matrimony with his antagonists the Pharisees. There are three principles here which distinguish a genuine Christian marriage. “They twain shall be one flesh..” This sense of “oneness” implies an equality based on love. There is no room for the idea that marriage is a financial transaction by which the groom purchases the bride from her father irrespective of her opinions on the matter. While we have never gone to such extremes as, say, the Mohammedan in this direction, let us beware that financial and social considerations do not replace love as a basis of union. “Oneness” suggests a mutual agreement as well as physical union. What could be more destructive to a happy marriage than a “contrary” partner, who always objected toj everything just on principle. v ■ “What God hath joined together,” stresses the spiritual aspect of Christian marriage. That is why the couple, receive a blessing from the minister. They publicly confess their love for one another and make a covenant with their God to be faithful until death. But when any part of the above contract is absent in spirit, then the marriage is no longer a Christian one. For instance how can a man make such a vow to his God if he denies the existence of a supreme Being? Even if custom demands that he has a religious service, is it not a farce to make a vow to one in whom he does not believe?

Or again, in our land we must remember, that one quarter of those who marry do so to avoid a social scandal. Wherever mutual convenience or lust is the only basis of marriage, is it not a mockery to swear love and fidelity before God? << • “Let no man put asunder.” Now that we have eliminated so many formally religious marriages as sub-Christian, the problem of divorce

loses much of its significance. . This becomes a threat to any who deliberately attempt to disrupt a genuinely Christian marriage by slander, seduction or any other foul device of the Devil. A. H. LOWDEN, Padre.