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I Don't See One Single Reason Government Needs to Be in the Marriage Business...
Reaganite Republican ^ | 19 March 2013 | Reaganite Republican

Posted on 03/19/2013 3:23:54 AM PDT by Reaganite Republican

Privatization’s the only way to handle the issue 
and get this off the GOP’s back- we don’t need it.

My conservative/libertarian friends, imho it is time for government on both the federal and state levels to remove marriage from the tax-code and walk away from the term completely- two adults of any sort can register a household as legal entity for the purpose of benefits, hospital visitations, agreed inheritance contracts, etc, but let us be married by the church of our own choosing. Marriage was created as a religious ceremony/bond anyway- maybe that's where it belongs.

Being a church-going Catholic, I’m confident Rome will be defining it the same way I see ‘marriage’... hope you feel the same about yours.


Why not remove this issue from the political arena once-and-for-all while paring the statists' influence? And everybody gets what they want... libs can go marry their vacuum cleaner for all I care.

I myself used to know these kinda crazy twin sisters who lived their entire lives together, worked together, etc- there are probably many other non-traditional households, such as best friends who have chosen to live together over the long term in a non-sexual context- for all practices and purposes a Common Law marriage, which is still legal in 11 US states 
(between a man and a woman, anyway).

Shouldn't people like that -or anybody- be able to create a formal entity providing rights a spouse would enjoy, purely for legal purposes: you can't patrol the country's bedrooms, so why even try? But when government is no longer involved, we in the political sphere won't be talking about it anymore, either- and that's a good thing.

There's even a term for it: Marriage Privatization. Sounds great to me, thus the Left would be denied the club they've been pounding us over the head with- there'll never be a more practical, politically beneficial (for the GOP), and fiscally prudent way to do it.  

The Left only benefits from social issues when Big Government has it's tentacles in there, and they can frame conservatives as the enemy and grab a block of voters-  so why not pull the rug out from under 'em?

I doubt greatly that groups like GOProud would have a problem with such a policy, either- although with 'gay' no longer relevant politically, they don't really have a reason to organize as a separate faction of fiscal conservatives, do they? Don't ask/don't tell seems more sensible to me when their sexual practices are no longer something we need to be discussing.

Just one more area where we need to get government out of our lives, and where the statists' influence can be pared as well:
this issue needs to go-away, and handling it in this way serves to further the cause of Liberty in this country by ending 'gay marriage' as a political issue... just as school vouchers could largely remove government from the education business while getting American kids away from what have evolved into taxpayer-funded NEA indoctrination centers, cranking out
'lil Obots by the score... 




TOPICS: Government; Politics; Religion; Society
KEYWORDS: church; fifthcolumn; gay; government; historyofmarriage; homosesualagenda; homosexualagenda; libertarians; marriage; socialliberals
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To: Jacquerie

Support of the civil society? You are trusting the government to be on the right side of supporting civil society. We are long past the time when the government decided that civil society was an alternative power structure that was to be destroyed, and that includes the family.


101 posted on 03/19/2013 9:35:10 AM PDT by slowhandluke (It's hard to be cynical enough in this age.)
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To: tje

The issue of polygamy aside, most of the current argument is about the issue of various benefits, from the government or the employer. And most of that resolves around the income tax or SS tax. Kill them both, and much of the trouble goes away.


102 posted on 03/19/2013 9:36:57 AM PDT by slowhandluke (It's hard to be cynical enough in this age.)
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To: drbuzzard

If you assume handing government the power to replace sanctioned mariage
with government supplied SNAP,TANF and a million other nanny state and welfare powers somehow thwarts government’s power... I truly don’t know what to say!

A society where marriage is not enforced by law is a barbarous tyranny, with all power in the hands of the government and it’s mob.

Sure governments can and have misused their very ancient duty to protect the family- governments misuse all their powers and duties.


103 posted on 03/19/2013 9:37:29 AM PDT by mrsmith (Dumb sluts: Lifeblood of the Media, Backbone of the Democrat Party!)
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To: ClearCase_guy; St_Thomas_Aquinas

No kidding. I posted a thread recently on No-Fault Divorce.

Naturally I’m against it. I well remember a time when most FReepers were against it also.

But Holy Carp! You should have seen the anger, hostility and vitriol against the pro-marriage viewpoints.

I miss Free Republic.


104 posted on 03/19/2013 9:38:32 AM PDT by Responsibility2nd (NO LIBS. This Means Liberals and (L)libertarians! Same Thing. NO LIBS!!)
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To: theBuckwheat

Your #43 is perfectly stated.


105 posted on 03/19/2013 9:51:19 AM PDT by jimt (Fear is the darkroom where negatives are developed.)
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To: dead

#81 is well said.

One of the benefits of reading others’ posts is I usually find someone has already said what I’d like to say, and sometimes better than I would !


106 posted on 03/19/2013 10:03:19 AM PDT by jimt (Fear is the darkroom where negatives are developed.)
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To: mrsmith

Do you need to put straw men in my mouth to make an argument? When did I advocate any of those welfare programs?

As for the utter nonsense you follow that with, I almost find the incoherency amusing. A government which doesn’t enforce something is the tyrannical one. What? How exactly whether a government enforces marriage is the deciding factor in tyranny can be considered a logical conclusion makes no sense whatsoever.

You do seem to get it right in the last sentence, but the fact that you don’t understand why that undermines your own argument is pretty funny really. Governments can and will abuse their powers. Every time you expand the scope of that power, you open more areas to abuse.

Sure, if we had that government of angels, we could trust everything to them. However we don’t have those angels handy, and they surely don’t work for the government. Hence we have to deal with the reality as constituted and that means you set up institutions in such a way to to protect you from their abuse. Limiting the scope of government as much as possible is just a logical conclusion that one has to derive from watching the inherent corruption that accompanies its expansion.


107 posted on 03/19/2013 10:07:45 AM PDT by drbuzzard (All animals are created equal, but some are more equal than others.)
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To: ClearCase_guy

True, creating the idea that a couple of guys can “marry” each other is the ultimate “social engineering”, not the prevention of it.


108 posted on 03/19/2013 10:44:01 AM PDT by ansel12 (" I would not be in the United States Senate if it wasnÂ’t for Sarah Palin " Cruz said.)
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To: Responsibility2nd; Thomas Aquinas
I miss Free Republic.

More accurately, I suspect, is that you miss a time when our government was restrained by Judeo Christian values. I do too. But those days are over. Obama's reelection (and probably Romney's nomination as well) were a thump on the head to all of us who thought our government was salvageable.

109 posted on 03/19/2013 10:55:35 AM PDT by old and tired
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To: Reaganite Republican

The Mosque is a church, so is the gay marriage performing Episcopalians.


110 posted on 03/19/2013 11:05:37 AM PDT by ansel12 (" I would not be in the United States Senate if it wasnÂ’t for Sarah Palin " Cruz said.)
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To: Haiku Guy
If you have children, you should have a will that specifies who gets custody of the children in the event that both parents are dead. This can be written on a napkin, signed, dated and witnessed by the bartender. You can do it at the reception, and put it in the album along with the other souveniers!

There really is no excuse to not have a will. You're right that there is no excuse not to have a will (especially if you have children), but the bolded part is wrong, and dangerous advice, in many jurisdictions. Many states have extremely specific requirements concerning the execution of a will. It's well worth the money to have a lawyer draft, or at least look over, your will, and advise you about execution. You want to be 100% sure you get it right, since you (obviously) won't be there to settle any disputes.

111 posted on 03/19/2013 11:11:05 AM PDT by Conscience of a Conservative
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To: old and tired
I absolutely do. But that already happens on a wide scale among homosexuals in long time relationships (long time being a relative term obviously).

But it shouldn't. And if we legalize homosexual "marriage," then it becomes impossible to make a legal case against it.

112 posted on 03/19/2013 12:46:36 PM PDT by St_Thomas_Aquinas
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To: old and tired
Who's on the birth certificate? What's in the DNA? If the state weren't dealing with these very issues right now - all the time - from unmarried parents I'd say you were making a good point. But whether or not a marriage ever occurred between the parents is basically irrelevant in child custody cases.

Christians don't seem to realize that there are natural marriages and sacramental marriages. It falls within the competence of the State to legislate the former. In fact, it is the duty of the State to legislate natural marriages.

We all know that marriage has been recognized in all societies in all times (the few exceptions prove the rule). Natural marriage is the lifetime commitment between a man and a woman for the good of each other, and the begetting and raising of children.

A sacramental marriage is the lifetime commitment between a man and woman for the ultimate, salvific good of the other, and the begetting, raising and salvific good of children.

The State has a natural duty to promote natural marriage, and to punish divorce and adultery.

Homosexual "marriage" is a nonsensical term, worthy of nothing.

113 posted on 03/19/2013 12:55:39 PM PDT by St_Thomas_Aquinas
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To: old and tired

Make that, “and to discourage divorce and punish adultery.”


114 posted on 03/19/2013 12:59:22 PM PDT by St_Thomas_Aquinas
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To: Reaganite Republican

Perhaps we need to beat them at their own game. Why should two people who love each other need a license to have a union?

Let the dumb ass gay activists have state sponsored marriage and we will have Religious Union between a man and a woman. No need for a gubmint license then.

Drop the marriage word.


115 posted on 03/19/2013 1:15:24 PM PDT by dforest (I have now entered the Twilight Zone.)
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To: Reaganite Republican

Please excuse my earlier insult to you. It ws out of anger that I wrote what I wrote.


116 posted on 03/19/2013 1:35:11 PM PDT by frogjerk (Obama: Government by Freakout)
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To: old and tired
You are missing the point. The government has an obligation and a duty to protect the innocent. Laws against violence, rape, theft, murder are all based on preexisting moral laws. Marriage is one of them. All rights come from God as our Founders rightly believed and have limits. The freedom to marry has limits as well. They are not terribly burdensome but there are some basics that all people having commonsense have agreeded upon since forever. This is to enable a stable society to govern and to produce good citizens.

This so called "government intervention or recognition" of marriage is nothing more than a simple form with basic requirements and a tiny fee. If only the rest of government were so "intrusive"!

I believe if the government were to abdicate its responsibility to provide for even the most basic common welfare (there, I said it) we would regress into 1rst cousins procreating, freakish brother-sister couplings and worse. This is a big deal and a monumental mistake for our Nation to take this path.

117 posted on 03/19/2013 2:01:27 PM PDT by frogjerk (Obama: Government by Freakout)
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To: drbuzzard

“When did I advocate any of those welfare programs?”

When you advocate weakening marriage.
Government will take more power to replace what marriages lose,IE: with those and other welfare programs.

To pretend that will not happen is to ignore our recent history and all man’s history.

I see your view leading to more government power- to be abused more!

Removing government power in one instance, I’m sure you will agree, can lead to it getting even more power in other instances.
Here, my contention is that removing it’s power to defend marriage will lead to it getting much more ‘welfare’ powers.

Madison: “What is government itself but the greatest of all reflections on human nature? If men were angels, no government would be necessary. If angels were to govern men, neither external nor internal controls on government would be necessary. “


118 posted on 03/19/2013 2:54:37 PM PDT by mrsmith (Dumb sluts: Lifeblood of the Media, Backbone of the Democrat Party!)
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To: St_Thomas_Aquinas
We all know that marriage has been recognized in all societies in all times (the few exceptions prove the rule). Natural marriage is the lifetime commitment between a man and a woman for the good of each other, and the begetting and raising of children.

Social recognition does not equal state recognition. Pennsylvania, for instance, did not require a marriage license until 1885. Yet certainly everyone recognizes the marriages that occurred here in the colonial period. Eliminating state recognition of marriage does not mean marriage will go away. Christian and Jewish marriages will still occur. Even now, many people from the lower classes (who, unless religiously compelled) generally don't bother with civil marriage and will often refer to the "husband" as "my man" and the "wife" as "my lady." And society understands that to mean a long term relationship similar to a marriage. Yet the couples don't marry because that would cause them to forfeit whatever monetary gains are to be had from remaining single. I believe it's possible MORE religious marriages would occur with the monetary incentive to remain single removed.

I'm not an expert in history, but hasn't polygamy been widely recognized throughout history? Marriage has not historically always equalled one man and one woman.

I just don't understand why you are placing so much importance upon civil marriage. Since you've taken a CHurch Doctor as your screen name, I'm assuming you're Catholic. If one of your children had a civil only marriage, would you consider them married? Or would you believe them to be living in a sinful state?

119 posted on 03/19/2013 3:30:35 PM PDT by old and tired
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To: ClearCase_guy

“I’d say government has a role in guiding social standards.”

Then you’ll have no problem when that same government changes those social standards to meet current preferences. The government, after all, derives its power from the consent of the governed, and we are learning quite clearly that “the governed” as a whole are starting to support gay marriage.

This is why right-based social engineering is as dangerous as leftist social engineering. You won’t control a government forever, and you’ve already established some very bad precedents for when the Dems inevitably get their turn in charge.


120 posted on 03/19/2013 4:30:36 PM PDT by highball ("I never should have switched from scotch to martinis." -- the last words of Humphrey Bogart)
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