Approximately 150 students and faculty gathered in Crowell’s School of Business lecture hall to participate in a lecture and Q&A session regarding marriage and religious freedom. The discussion was held by Torrey’s Honors Institute.

Faith and Reason

The event began as associate professor of political science at Biola, Darren Guerra, introduced Ryan Anderson, a researcher at Heritage Foundation of four years and an editor of public discourse at Witherspoon Institute since 2008.

Anderson has already spoken on at Harvard University, Princeton University and Stanford University and appearing on CNN and MSNBC. He desires to communicate that redefining marriage legally has negative consequences for the community. He also believes Biola, as well as other Christian schools, present a unique opportunity since many Christian students already hold the same opinion as him.

“I think what it is is that people want to actually see is how faith and reason go together or are intentional,” Anderson said. “So they know what they believe but they’re like, ‘alright, let me see how I would think about this from a purely secular perspective.’”

Connecting Parallels

Students felt appreciative of how Anderson connected parallels between pro-life movements and how they apply to traditional marriage expectations.

“I really appreciated his parallel between the pro-life movement, the history of the pro-life movement, what’s worked what hasn't worked with that and what can work with applying the same principles to the traditional marriage,” said Garrett Eaglin, junior biblical studies major.

Anderson’s goal is to allow students to think outside the box and to remind them of a plausible explanation for marriage that includes only a man and a woman. It is not limited to only faith-based arguments.

A Rational Argument for Marriage

Ultimately, Anderson wants students to understand a rational argument for marriage between a man and woman and there can be consequences when the law is incorrect regarding marriage and there are things students can do to affect their surroundings.

“I thought that he provided a really winsome account of why the rulings aren’t revealing the truth about human nature and about marriage and I think that he also provided some really helpful ways about how to move forward from here,” said Ashley Evaro, senior political science major.