Same Sex Marriage: Is There a Leg to Stand On?

Marriage is a bit like the sun in that no one owns it. If it had a patent it would be God's patent, one without an expiry date and not available for just anyone to tamper with. I argue that marriage is governed principally by a higher law, a divine one that gives it a transcendent and sacramental quality. It stands solidly on a sexual difference that mirrors God's image for its uniqueness and power. No philosophy or politics of "embracing difference" has greater meaning than the conjugal union of man and woman, the opposite sexes, enacting the teleological coupling of God with the cosmos, of God with Israel, and of God with his church, the bride of Christ. Marriage is the icon of God and his people.

Roseanne Kydd is an organist and choir director and an independent scholar with a passion for theology and the church. She has a PhD in musicology from York University that focused on feminism and the language of music criticism. Roseanne serves on several boards and committees within the Anglican Church of Canada.

The Rev. Dr. Ephraim Radner, Professor of Historical Theology, Wycliffe College at the University of Toronto: "Is the same sex marriage debate over?It shouldn't be. In vigorous but utterly serious prose, Kydd tracks the path along which the opponents of normative heterosexual marriage have moved over the past sixty years. She dissects the politics, rhetoric, and the depressing practical outcomes of their strategic successes. Finally, she carefully and fairly shows how the Church that follows this direction risks tumbling into the costly morass of dreadful social chaos these 'successes' have generated. This is a book that forcefully proclaims, 'Don't be fooled!' Learned, pointed, and frighteningly right: every Christian should read this and find their witness on this matter informed, focused, and strengthened."