The role of marriage in Church debates about sex, gender and sexuality

What is it about?

This article analyses debates among conservative protestants in the Netherlands about divorce/remarriage, women’s ordination, and homosexuality. It explores the hypothesis that a particular understanding of marriage steers these debates. This is a modern, romantic understanding of marriage, not a ‘biblical’ or early Christian one. This essay illustrates the problems of both the dominance of marriage within Christian communities and lived faith, as well as the modern, romantic aspects of this particular use of marriage.

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Why is it important?

This article provides an explanation of why Church debates about sex, gender and sexuality are often so heated, complex and paralysing. It does so by interrelating debates about divorce/remarriage, women ordination, and homosexuality. Although it takes the rhetorics of conservative protestants in the Netherlands as a case study, the argument could easily be applied to the rhetorics of evangelicals or presbyterians.