I need to get some numbers to back this, but IIRC, around 75% of marriages in the U.S. today are civil marriages ONLY. No religious ceremony to accompany them.
That means that TODAY, marriage is more likely to mean civil marriage than religious marriage.
For much of history, church=state. There was no distinction. They were the same. If your church didn't like it, you couldn't do it/ Catholic marrying protestant. I don't think so.
We as a society have moved away from that. (Past that in my mind, but you might disagree). The rights conferred on you by your church do not mean much in a larger societal context. If you want the societal priveledges of marriage, you need to apply to the state, not the church. We have seperated them.
So, I think it is clear that marriage in today's world is MORE of a civil thing than a religious thing.
Otherwise, more people would be getting married by their church, and not bothering to file for a marriage LICENSE.
Jerry Johnson
>>> [EMAIL PROTECTED] 07/16/04 03:50PM >>>
So Jerry,
on the one hand you admit that Marriage as a religious isntistution between a
Man and a Woman has existed for the last 2000 years.
And you have also gone on to point out that for centuries Marriage has been tied
to several Religious connotations.
However in your final analysis you posit that Marriage today is nothing more
than a civil union.
I'm having difficulty resolving the evidence you present, with the conclusion
which you draw.
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