By Jenna Ellis for THE CHRISTIAN POST
The current debate over marriage, surrogacy and even the commodification of children has exposed a deeper problem that many churches have been reluctant to confront directly: we no longer agree on what a family actually is.
For too long, Christians have argued individual issues in isolation. We debate same-sex “marriage.” We debate surrogacy. We debate donor conception, IVF ethics, adoption policy, and the rights of biological parents versus intended parents. But underneath every one of these controversies lies the same foundational question: What is the family?
Until the Church recovers a coherent, biblical, natural definition of family, we will continue losing these debates because we are arguing downstream consequences without addressing the upstream premise.
The modern world defines family primarily through adult desire and emotional attachment. If adults love each other, desire companionship or wish to raise a child together, society calls that a family. Your “fam” is whomever you choose, not whom you’re actually related to. Biology becomes secondary. Marriage becomes flexible. Parenthood becomes transferable. Children become products of intention rather than the natural fruit of a covenantal marriage.
