Marriage and Family

Historically the family served as the most fundamental unit of government. The family in turn is based upon the sacred covenant relationship of marriage. Originally, marriage was a sacred covenant relationship entered into in the presence of God. A covenant is based upon trust and can never be broken.

In the late 1800s, governments began to sanction interracial marriages by issuing marriage licenses. When marriage became sanctioned by the state through marriage licenses, it was cheapened from a covenant relationship to a legal contract. Contracts are based on distrust among the parties and can be broken when either party becomes dissatisfied with the fulfillment of the contract. Eventually everyone was required to obtain a license for marriage. The licensing of marriage gave the state the privilege to grant divorces, and ultimately caused the disintegration of the family. The state has no more right to license or regulate marriage than it dose to license or regulate any other religious activity.

Marriage should once more be strictly a religious affair. The state should have nothing to do with marriage. Just as a church may decide who they baptize and a synagogue may decide who they bar mizva or bat mizva, religious leaders should be the ones to decide who gets married and who does not get married. It would be considered a direct violation of the First Amendment if the state started requiring a license for each bat mizva, bar mizva, or baptism.

The only way we can truly save the family, and ultimately our society, from further damage is to remove the state from the business of licensing or sanctioning marriage. Only when we have a separation of marriage and the state will we have strong families once again.