Not sure at all why we’re bring this up – it’s completely unrelated to anything at all – but do you remember that married couple who said they were going to get divorced if marriage equality was ever legalised in Australia?
For the sake of nostalgia alone and with no ulterior motive, we’re just wondering: do you recall Nick and Sarah Jensen, who in 2015 said that if the institution of marriage became tainted with gayness, they no longer wanted to be a part of it?
You remember Nick, right? He was director of the Lachlan Macquarie Institute, that partner of the Australian Christian Lobby? You might also remember that Nick wrote an article in the Canberra CityNews saying that he suspected they might be getting a divorce later in 2015 (extremely generous view of how quickly the government moves) because the sanctity of straight marriage would be fouled:
My wife and I just celebrated our 10-year anniversary. But later this year, we may be getting a divorce. The decision to divorce is not one we’ve taken lightly. And certainly, it’s not one that many will readily understand. And that’s because it’s not a traditional divorce.”
Our view is that marriage is a fundamental order of creation. Part of God’s human history. Marriage is the union of a man and a woman before a community in the sight of God. And marriage of any couple is important to God regardless of whether that couple recognises God’s involvement or authority in it.
If our federal parliament votes to change the timeless and organic definition of marriage later on this year, it will have moved against the fundamental and foundational building block of Australian society and, indeed, human culture everywhere.
You might also remember that he had it very quickly pointed out to him that, to have a divorce, you also need to have at least 12 months of separation, something he addressed in an article for the Bible Society:
Obviously the problem is that a judge would not grant us a State divorce because we would have to show our marriage is irreconcilably broken and be separated for a year. This is a minor problem however if a simple ‘annulment’ option was available in any legislation for conscientious objectors such as ourselves.
Obviously they’ve had a lot of time to think so they’ve probably found a way around that. Anyway, not even sure why we brought it up, just thinking out loud really.
Happy ‘Gay Is Legal Now’ Day, everyone.
