“Once you change the meaning of marriage it becomes meaningless.”
A Canberra couple say they are fully committed to getting divorced if marriage equality becomes legal in Australia.
Samuel Kubani / Getty Images
Nick Jensen and his wife Sarah have been happily married for 10 years, but say marriage equality will fundamentally change the nature of the institution into something they don't want to be part of.
Writing for CityNews, Nick said marriage is "part of God's intimate story for human history."
"Marriage is the union of a man and a woman before a community in the sight of God. And the marriage of any couple is important to God regardless of whether that couple recognises God's involvement or authority in it."
"My wife and I, as a matter of conscience, refuse to recognise the government's regulation of marriage if its definition includes the solemnisation of same sex couples," he wrote.
Nick told BuzzFeed News that the government would be breaking a contract by passing a marriage equality law.
Nick Jensen
"For us, fundamentally, when we got married we signed a contract with the state and that contract was around the current definition of marriage and all the things that comes with it. Man and woman for life, for the sake of children.
"If it came to be that the definition of the contract was changed, the contract is now null and void."