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Religion is the body that must cease sanctioning marriage, as religions of the west have so
politicized marriage that they have made marriage is now a social issue that must be handled by
secular leaders. |
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Married couples have many rights, though. For example, the right not to have to testify against each
other in court. There're hundreds of others.
What if atheists want to get married? Should they have to go to a Christian church? No, they
shouldn't.
If there's no government regulation, how will you prove that someone's having an affair? You don't
have any license to prove you and the defendant were even in a relationship in the first place! Yes,
you can pull witnesses. So can they.
If governments didn't regulate marriage, then people could go around marrying off twelve year old
and five year old, or marrying their pets.
Marriage hasn't been a purely religious affair ever. Yes, is some areas it has been. But not all. It
isn't, or shouldn't be, today, anywhere. Ya, religion should play a part, but shouldn't control or
dominate it. |
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There are certain aspects of a partnership between two people which the government needs to get
involved with. First, it needs to be sure that the marriage is not morally abhorrent. Examples of
morally abhorrent marriages include incestuous partnerships and partnerships between adults and
children.
Second, because partners have certain legal rights in relation to one another which differ from
those of random citizens, partnerships need to be certified in some way. For example, in the matter
of property inheritance or visiting rights in prison or hospital.
These issues make it necessary for the government to be involved at some level in recording the
existence of intimate partnerships between two people. Whether that relationship is called marriage
or not is not supremely important.
I have some sympathy with the view that religion belongs to the private sphere and governments
should not be involved in it. However, the basic framework of legal rights and responsibilities
pertaining to partnership requires government involvement of some sort. |
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No, actually marriage is a governmental affair, it stopped being about religion long, long ago. You
can walk down all the aisles in all the churches you want, you're not married until you get that
piece of paper from the state. A religious ceremony is something you can do to CELEBRATE a
marriage, it certainly isn't something you do that gets you married in the first place. |
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15 May 2008 17:07
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