In depth | Evangelicals Now

Respect and seeking to understand: A husband’s calling in 1 Peter 3v7

Tim Vasby-Burnie

How should husbands live if they are members of God’s chosen people, and living stones in His spiritual temple-house? This is the question Peter turns to in 1 Peter 3v7: "Husbands, in the same way be considerate as you live with your wives, and treat them with respect as the weaker partner and as heirs with you of the gracious gift of life, so that nothing will hinder your prayers" (NIV)

The phrase "be considerate" sounds a bit tame. "Being considerate" is often viewed as a matter of a few nice manners. But Peter wants husbands to consider their wives and understand them. The ESV has Peter telling husbands to "live with your wives in an understanding way".

Monogamy no longer ‘realistic’

Nicola Laver

One in three UK adults no longer believe monogamy is a realistic ideal, a report on marriage and traditional relationship structures has found. It also suggests younger people are particularly cynical of traditional marriage.

The Modern Marriage Report was published following a law firm’s survey of 1,000 respondents across the UK. It says a third of all respondents believe monogamy is no longer a realistic ideal in modern relationships – rising to 42% of respondents in the 18–24 age group.

Evangelical seminary ‘wishy washy’ claim

Emily Pollok

Fuller Seminary, one of the largest evangelical seminaries in the US, is making waves in the evangelical Christian community after reaffirming the school’s historic position on marriage while leaving room for Christians to have other beliefs.

“After several years of consultation, feedback and dialogue, the Board of Trustees reconfirmed the institution’s commitment to its historic theological understanding of marriage and human sexuality – a union between a man and a woman and sexual intimacy within the context of that union,” said Presidential Chair David Emmanuel Goatley in a statement on Fuller’s website. “At the same time, we acknowledge that faithful Christians – through prayerful study, spiritual discernment, and lived experience – have come to affirm other covenantal forms of relationship.”

Outrage as nine-year-old girls can marry in Iraq

Luke Randall

New legislation allowing girls as young as nine to be married in Iraq is a “grievous violation” of children’s rights and “perpetuates a cycle of oppression” against women in the country, an Open Doors source says.

New amendments to Iraq’s Personal Law, passed by an alliance of Shia Muslim parties, legislate that Islamic courts now have jurisdiction over family matters. This includes marriage, divorce, child custody and inheritance, scrapping safeguards which have protected women and girls in the Middle Eastern country since the original law’s passing in 1959, and making it home to the lowest age of consent in the world.

letter from Dublin

Traditional marriage teaching removed from curriculum

Lois McCrea

Of concern to evangelicals is the recently updated Social, Personal and Health Education (SPHE) curriculum which is taught in all secondary schools across the Republic of Ireland.

The new SPHE curriculum for junior cycle students (aged 12–15) was updated in September 2023. Students engage in 100 hours of SPHE teaching over three years and the first cohort of students is now in the second year of the programme. The senior cycle curriculum for students aged 16–19 was updated in September 2024 and covers 60 hours of teaching.

When church planting puts a marriage to the test

Dan Steel

There’s no doubt that church planting is personally costly.

Both the organised events and organic needs can be costly: whether it’s the ongoing reality of evening meetings and early mornings, the weighty mental ‘to-do lists’, or the growing number of pastoral burdens or stress and uncertainty about the future and the viability of the project. Will we have enough money? Somewhere to meet? Enough people? What will this thing look like in 12 months-time?

The CofE's 'trojan horse' changing the doctrine of marriage

David Shepherd

In June 2022, Aldershot Military Cemetery Chapel (not far from where I live) hosted a service of remembrance for Falklands veterans from the Parachute Regiment. That service is held every five years.

Baptist Union to remain orthodox on ministers’ marriages

Iain Taylor

Evangelicals are celebrating after the Baptist Union (BU) reaffirmed that its ministers cannot be in same-sex marriages.

The decision was taken by the 90-strong BU Council following extensive discussions of what it termed its ‘Ministerial Recognition Rules on Ministry and Marriage’. That process included a survey of Baptist Churches and ministers that was ‘designed to give Council a clearer picture of how our churches are engaging with issues of marriage and sexuality’ – including same-sex marriage.

Children and this wrong-headed idea of marriage

David Shepherd

In the light of the Church of England’s current situation, let us ask ourselves about the societal purpose of marriage.

When you think about it, the State does not regulate or require an official record any other type of personal relationship, except marriage. You’re not required to register yourself with the authorities as someone’s friend, or even as someone’s sibling. The latter is just inferred from the fact that two children have been born to the same couple.

legal eye

To have and to hold – and then bin?

Nicola Laver

A few days on from 6 April 2022, I was browsing on Facebook – and always being curious about people – clicked on the name of someone who had recently married. I didn’t know the couple and the wedding picture was, naturally, a beautiful image from a memorable day.

The bride captioned it with: ‘I promise to love you ’til I take my last breath and beyond’. But I have to confess that the cynic in me thought – how long will it last?

Tipping points: loveless marriages & abusive churches

Karen Soole

en continues to seek to provide a forum for us all to learn as broadly as possible from sinful and shameful abusive actions. Our foremost thoughts and prayers must be with the survivors and victims.

It is the straw that broke the camel’s back. The final straw is small; it barely weighs anything but, added to the burden already carried, it crushes.

politics & policy

Apologetic about marriage?

James Mildred

At the beginning of the year, the Archbishops of Canterbury and York apologised because of a Church of England document which said marriage is between one man and one woman.

There followed a strong backlash from the evangelical community. Given that the statement simply articulated the historic, orthodox, theological and Biblical position of the church on the question of God-honouring sex for the last 2,000 years, it did strike me as odd, if not downright absurd, that the Archbishops felt the need to say sorry.

Christian marriage

Anon

Date posted: 1 Jul 2020

Dear Editor,

I have been reading much of the June 2020 issue of en today, especially as I am ‘shut in’ by the issues surrounding the Covid-19 virus. I was interested to see how several letters and articles have provoked us to think again about matters that we have taken for granted. Many of these are matters that brothers and sisters in other countries have had to live with because of the environ-ment (physical and spiritual) in which they live. We should be able to pray for them more intelligently.

In Depth: marriage