Responding to last week's NY Times op/ed by Stephanie Coontz, who suggested that marriages shouldn't recognized by the state, FRC's Michael Fragoso argues that marriage should be kept public:
Coontz misstates the historical record to give the impression that marriage has typically not been a province of law and only became such in an effort to preserve the narrow interests of certain powerful sects of society: wealthy parents in requiring parental consent, Catholic authoritarians in proscribing divorce, and Southern racists in preventing miscegenation. This could not be further from the truth. As a rule, the more marriage was enshrined in law, the more freedom under the law was given to men and women who sought marriage. This was often the case in the ancient world, and emphatically the case in the medieval world.
Comments (3)
What I was taught in my Catholic and Protestant upbringing, is that a marriage is between man and a woman as blessed by God. With the emphasis on "blessed" AKA a holy union. What God as put together etc.
Without the presence of God, a marriage by definition, (or at least this definition) cannot exist.
In this context, the State cannot therefore have the ability to recognize a marriage. It can only recognize and enforce a contract. Unless of course, you want the State to also be able to validate the God that has blessed your marriage. Is that really the route you want to toddle on down to? Why turn Christianity into Wahabbism?
December 6, 2007 9:12 PM | Comment Permalink
It amuses me that the people who constantly speak about how much they hate the government are some of the same individuals who desire the most to keep government recognition of their romantic relationships (which is exactly what marriage is) in place.
December 8, 2007 2:05 AM | Comment Permalink
It is the word of God and references to one man one woman several times in the Bible. Anyone can get together today so why change the law. Is it the ultimate goal of the liberals to destroy traditions, laws and history?
December 10, 2007 1:50 PM | Comment Permalink