Ditch the terms “marriage binds a man and a woman” and “marriage is to channel men and women into it for the sake of children and society.” They are illogical.
Common sense dictates that marriage as an institution has no power to do anything on its own. As Pope Pius XI wrote in Casti Connubii,
The sacred partnership of true marriage is constituted both by the will of God and the will of man (emphasis added).”[1]
Men and women freely choose to enter into marriage and, unfortunately more and more, freely choose to divorce. Increasingly more are choosing not to marry at all.
“Bind” has biblical (1 Corinthians 7) and legal connotations related to moral or contractual obligations related to the marriage covenant or contract. “Channel” is contingent on public policy incentives to encourage men and women to marry as the foundation of their family and to stay married. Those incentives don’t exist anymore. In fact new curricula and cultural influences teach that marriage has nothing to do with children and family, and that having more families (diversity) with children deprived of their mother and father united in marriage is a good thing.
Rebuilding a marriage culture must begin with reintroducing marriage so that people know what it is, and only then will the majority be able to make choices to enter into it for the right reason. Only when the reality of marriage is once again established as the institution that unites children with their mother and father, will we be able to promote the unique value of men and women marrying before having children. Today promoting this would be considered discriminatory and unlawful in many situations.
In a culture that has forgotten that the loss of one’s mother or father is a privation, we must also promote the human rights of children to be born and raised in a family with their mother and father united in marriage.
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[1] Pope Pius XI, Casti Connubii #9. 1930.