“marriage is an institution of society.”
Bullshit.
Marriage is a religious ceremony. The law intruded into it so it could impose fines and levy taxes. The fact that happened doesn’t make it any more right than taking my money and using it to kill babies. It has become what it has become through the constant usurpation of our rights to worship as we see fit. We established this country on freedom of religion. The statists want to make it freedom from religion. Marriage is a religious ceremony. Screw what the left does, or what the “trap” is. You can’t change fact. Marriage is not “an institution of society” no matter how much you might prefer it that way. It is a religious ceremony. Period.
there is no religion test for marraige.
there is no love test for marriage.
society only rewards the behaviors that promote the institution and by extension the future of society.
we USED to have wide spread common law marriage which was by mere public presentation and cohabitation. That has gone away and at present only 8 states even have some semblance of it.
It is a matter of statutory construction. You want to have the common law which predates written law giving the broadest protection as to what marriage should be. One man one woman. You do not want the narrow statutory construction to take constrol because it means the government will define what is or is not marriage and what is or is not part of marriage. Remember the ABA is pushing that children are NOT legal parts of marriage and are just “accessories” to marriage. (this is to allow a door for homosexuals since it is physically impossible to produce children without a member of the opposit sex and/or medical intervention)
If there was a religion test then mixed marriages could not happen. Atheists would not be allowed to marry.
It may upset the religious purists but that is the way it has been for several millenia.
Marriage is a religious ceremony.
Actually, it's both. It's a societal institution in as much as society has an obligation to recognize the religious ceremony and commitments involved.
Who would enforce the promises made in this bond of marriage otherwise? The Church? Only by its authority to ex-communicate and otherwise discipline its adherents. As far as the real-world ramifications of marriage: spousal and child support, parental rights, property rights and the rights to inheritance, the state MUST be involved in officiating any conflict when they arise. Otherwise you have unlimited, harmful, deadly family feuds with children much of the time in the middle. It would inevitably be bloodbath.
Judeo-Christian tradition came a long way in terms of determining marriage. Marriages of society weren’t as stringent or as mutually beneficial when you look historically, as were the Israelite and later Jewish marriages. In most cultures, it was not wrong to have sex with some prostitute for the sake of worshipping a nature/fertility goddess, while you were married. Whereas if some woman were not ceremoniously your wife by religion (singular or plural) it was considered adultery for sexual relations with her, it was also wrong to have pre-marital sex too. Well, in case you wondered, religious marriage deserves to be above society’s standard, and this is made all the more true with today’s trends.