February 13, 2024
By Alexis Goodman
February 15th will be an important day for the citizens of Greece. The nation’s parliament will be deciding if the merits to legalizing same-sex marriage are strong enough to oppose their heavily influential Orthodox church. If they acquiesce, they will be the first Orthodox Christian country to do so.
At the head of such progressive leaps is their prime minister, Kyriakos Mitsotakis. After being sworn in for his second term in June of 2023, he said, “I have committed to implement major, deeply-needed reforms over the next four years, (and) have a strong mandate to do that.” As we are seeing currently, he is making good on his pledge.
But is this ‘reform’ really what is best for Greece? Every country’s prerogative is to look out for Number One, themselves. But will the legalization of same-sex marriages strengthen Greece in the long-run? Mitsotakis thinks it can. Speaking on past issues of cremation, civil marriage, and religion being stated on Greek IDs and their correlation to same-sex marriage, he says, “They didn’t harm society or the collaboration between the State and the Church, and I am confident the same will apply now.” Additionally, he commented, “We are talking about something that is already in effect in 36 countries and on five continents. And nowhere does it appear to have damaged social cohesion,” which is a more than debatable statement.
Consequences to Same-Sex Marriage in Greece
One obvious way that Greece will be damaged is the splintering of its own people as they are pitted against each other due to different opinions on marriage rights. In 2018 Pew Research found that only 26% of the population desired same-sex marriage to be legalized, or, seven in ten Greeks opposed or strongly opposed same-sex marriage. Could six years really have so changed the Greek people that the majority now desires a change in the very definition of marriage? Or is Greek parliament merely bowing down to a powerful minority at the pressure of Western Europe?
Secondly, the Greek Orthodox Church claims up to 90% of Greek citizens, with 75% claiming that to be Orthodox is to be truly Greek. And the Church they all adhere to states, “The Orthodox Church teaches the sanctity of marriage as a fundamental and indisputable teaching of the Church. The free union between a man and a woman is a necessary condition.” So, despite the prime minister’s claim, “We are discussing the decisions of the Greek state, unrelated to theological beliefs”, this decision is irrevocably tied to the official religion of Greece and the people. By introducing this proposal of equality in marriage, Mitsotakis will be forcing the Greek population to choose between their beliefs and the State. Such a forced choice will surely damage the morale in Greece.
Third, unfortunately same-sex marriages damage the traditional family and more specifically the children that derive from it. The Ecumenical Patriarchate in Istanbul, the head of all Orthodox churches understands this, and writes:
“The current issue in society is marriage, which is the center of the Family and the Family justifies marriage. The pressure exerted in the modern world to recognize new forms of symbiosis is a real threat to Orthodox Christians. The crisis of the institution of marriage and the family in various forms deeply worries the Orthodox Church not only because of the negative consequences in the structure of society, but also because of the threat to the more peculiar relationships within the traditional family. The main victims of their tendencies are the couple and especially the children, because unfortunately they usually experience the torture from their childhood, even though no one is responsible for it.”
In their letter to the members of Greek Parliament addressing the upcoming bill, the Holy Synod of the Greek Orthodox Church wrote:
“The bill abolishes paternity and maternity, neutralizes gender in the context of the relationship between parents and children, transforms parents from father and mother to neutral guardians and places the rights of homosexual adults above the interests of future children, which will allow them to be parented by same-sex couples and grow up without a father or mother in an environment of confusing gender roles” (Emphasis added)
Same-sex Marriage is a Slippery Slope
When 1,500 Greek protestors gathered on February 11th at Athens to protest the legalization of same-sex marriages, they chanted, “hands off our children.” Because naturally what follows marriage is the procreation of children, and as same-sex couples cannot enter into such an act without a third party, they must choose between surrogacy or adoption. Marriage equality and the unaccounted-for consequences is only the beginning, as Greek families will see.
