Well . . . he did it. On Tuesday, President George W. Bush called for an amendment to the U.S. Constitution that would defend marriage as a union of a man and a woman. Ending weeks of expectation, the President put his case before the American people and called upon Congress to act swiftly, sending the proposed amendment to the states for ratification.

San Francisco’s City Hall is one of the city’s landmarks–even if it is a bit pretentious for a city its size. The building resembles something like an imperial palace, and San Francisco’s new mayor, Gavin Newsom must suffer under a delusion that he holds imperial power. Last week, Mayor Newsom acted in violation of California law to grant same-sex marriage licenses in the name of gay liberation. By the end of the weekend, over six hundred homosexual couples had received marriage licenses in San Francisco and had been “married” in hastily arranged ceremonies.

Are we witnessing the end of marriage? In a fascinating study, researcher Stanley Kurtz of the Hoover Institution indicates that marriage is already dying in Scandinavia, and his evidence demands attention. In Sweden and Norway, a majority of children are now born out of wedlock. A full 60-percent of first-born children in Denmark have unmarried parents.

The question of homosexual marriage presents the American people with an inescapable moral challenge. The words homosexual and marriage are inherently contradictory. The very fact that these terms are in public conflict demonstrates the radical character of the social revolutionaries that now demand the legalization of homosexual marriage.

“Western civilization at the present day is passing through a crisis which is essentially different from anything that has been previously experienced.” Christopher Dawson, the late Harvard historian, made that observation as he looked at the sexual revolution in its earliest stages.

The battle over homosexual marriage has taken a number of interesting turns, and one of the most fascinating of these has landed on the opinion pages of The Wall Street Journal. Commentators Andrew Sullivan and David Frum, both well known to readers of the Journal, presented articles taking opposite sides on the issue of homosexual marriage. Both argued from secular premises–and this presents Christians with an important lesson on the issue of marriage.

Sociologist Pitirim Sorokin prophetically noted that the stability of marriage eventually determines the welfare of the culture. Marriage is highly valued because it alone serves as a stable platform for regulating sexual behavior and provides the necessary support for the nurture and care of children. Indeed, it is the only social institution that accomplishes these functions.

Never underestimate the power of a dictionary. As every dictator knows, to control the meaning of words is to control how we use them–and eventually even to control thought. Given our dependence on words for communication, the power to control definitions is the power to change the world.

The institution of marriage is in big trouble, and on multiple fronts. The movement to legalize homosexual marriage looms as one undeniable threat, but even if this were to pass from the scene [which it will not], marriage would still be in trouble.