It this point I think that it is time that the US have civil unions performed by city or county clerks. Then those of us that believe in marriage can have a second service of our choosing at a church. If the union is blessed by a church official it will then be called a marriage.
This will also further the divide between church and state. Then the churches will be allowed to openly speak from the pulpit about social issues since they are no longer licensed to perform weddings. Many problems loved in one swoop.
Yes, I understand what you’re saying, but at the same time, and at this juncture, I think people have become used to both church and state being involved in marriage.
As the piece points out:
“Both Church and state do, however, have an interest in regulating marriage. It is not that religious marriage is private and civil marriage public; rather, marriage is a public institution in both Church and state. The state regulates marriage to assure stability in society and for the proper protection and raising of the next generation of citizens. The state has a vested interest in knowing who is married and who is not and in fostering good marriages and strong families for the sake of society.”
You miss the Cardinal’s point. Marriage is not a religious institution, nor is it a civil or state institution. While your suggestion is marginally better than what the left proposes, it, too changed the nature of marriage, which predates not only our nation, but the very concept of nation-state, and predates if not the Church (there is a strain of thought that says the Church is the first creature as the bodiless angels have been in the Church from before the creation of Man) certainly its manifestation, and predates the writing of the Scriptures.
You propose to remake marriage as a religious institution, the left proposes to remake it as a state institution (and use the power of the state to change its nature). Neither should be done. Marriage is a natural institution, and as the Cardinal argues, neither state nor Church is competent to redefine its nature.