Better yet, take vows in the Church and forget the state license.
That is what Christians should do in the U.S. now. The state doesn’t recognize our definition of marriage, then why buy into theirs? Especially given the punitive tax laws against married couples.
I asked a priest in the US several years ago if the state license could be refused and he claimed he was legally forbidden from marrying anyone without a license.
food for thought there!
Exactly. It will keep the state out of the family into which it has intruded far too much.
Mosques and gay churches and whatever other religions exist or can be dreamed up would also get to define marriage.
Actually they can already, anyone can and always could, it just wasn’t legal when it came time for divorce or death, child custody, inheritance etc, or in the military for instance, one of the countless places where the government has to decide which soldiers are legally “married”.
The federal military started making such marriage law in 1780, and kept it up in 1794 and 1798 and 1802 and on, this year they recognized the states creation of “gay marriage” for it’s personnel who were legally married in those states.
People could always make up whatever they wanted to, but at some point, the question of whether that union had been legal, usually arises.
There has not really ever been a time when marriage wasn’t legally defined, whether by Roman law, Greek law, Apache law, or Sharia law, or some powerful state like church law.
Do you think it will be that easy? If the IRS finds out you are cohabiting you will be "deemed married" and the extra taxes auto-deducted from your paycheck.
Christians gave away "marriage" to the Leviathan State a long time ago - returning to the traditional concept will require a new word.