Just more ramblings. Example *”Just about every society that sold licenses for marriage ended up issuing them to just about anyone who had the price-do you know how many bigamists never get caught, even today?”*, you have no idea of those numbers or statistics over the time of man, yet you pretend to.
For marriage to survive in America, then it has to be defined.
That means a common definition, not the definition of the Muslim church, or the FLDS church, or the definition of the liberal arm of the Episcopal church, or of the San Fran gay chapel church.
I’m not a statistician, but I did (and do) study history rather extensively-my favorite subject ever. The anecdotal evidence is there, if you care to research it, over the years in all of human folly-check it out.
In my capacity as a casemanager, I’ve been acquainted with more than one bigamist, by the way.
At the risk of being redundant, let the churches define the fine points of marriage, with the common thread that it is a religious ceremony. Those ministers who perform non-traditional ceremonies can call it what they want-I know what the Bible says marriage is, and no amount of posturing by any liberal/rogue arm of a church changes that-and the constitution does not provide for meddling in church affairs.
Let a civil contract be just that-call it that-no different than any other business partnership. Let the churches own marriage-it seems very natural and right to me.
ansel, if we debate again, please look up the stats you want before you pounce-if I were to post stats with every reference I posted, I’d be Spock instead of just someone who enjoys debating...
Hey, thanks-I’ve really enjoyed debating with you both. Another time, perhaps...