Part 2 -- Gay Marriage Series

<.li>Marriage is a religious institution and STATE should never have gotten into the business of marriage.

Marriage is NOT an institution of religious origins. Marriage began as a secular institution and secular marriage predates holy matrimony's addition to religious doctrine by a period of centuries.

The purpose of "marriage" (in both its secular origin and its adaptation into religious doctrine) was not to form an equal partnership or create a familial and/or loving bond between any two people or to sanction physical relations in the eyes of the state or a prudish deity, but to provide a man with a deed to his wife, children and other marital assets (slaves, livestock, tools, home, etc.) and to provide men with legal recourse should those assets be stolen from them.

Church later "got into the business of marriage" for the same reasons State had created it.

You have to remember that Church either WAS State or held governing authority higher than that of State in various societies at different points in history and antiquity. Church was thus motivated to add marriage to its doctrine not in conjunction with its role as a spiritual institution, but in conjunction with its role as a political/governing institution.

Gay Marriage -- Table of Contents