Stephanie Koontz put out an interesting article on the history of marriage, which seems to suggest we could just stop allowing the state to define it. It wasn't state business for most of human history, and I don't think it should be now.
This may seem, on the surface, some sort of pro-gay marriage position, but it is not. If crazy people want to claim they can marry a tree, well it's not okay, but the damage is limited. If the same people want to use the offices of the states in order to "legalize" their strange relationships- well, I'd like them not to have that power.
Marriage, taken as structure, is one of those structures that must pre-exist in order for any social structure of more complexity to exist. Remove marriage from a society, and that society will die. When a state inteferes with marriage it is similar to a man interfering with his own breathing.
Anyway, if we don't start learning, we will find more of our Christian life appropriated by the state. What happens, for instance, when the state decides it has an interest in confession? There was a time when state regulation of marriage was considered wrong; now, to most people, it seems right. Could Rev. Christian Von Wernich's betrayal of both God and man someday seem right to most people? I'd imagine so since the state still runs the schools.
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