[ansel12]

My point is that the government (at any level) really never had any business getting itself involved in a religious institution like marriage in the first place. The whole idea of a "marriage license," for example, has no place in a free nation. People with strong religious convictions have known this for a very long time.

Government or controlling legal authority has always been involved in marriage, it has to be. As far as licenses, I wonder why no one thought of that during the days of Jefferson and Washington?

Jefferson was even involved in divorce law.

[Alberta's Child]

My point is that the involvement of a government or "controlling legal authority" in marriage basically begins and ends with the enforcement of a contract. That's it.

Ironically, the whole idea about government involving itself in a religious institution like marriage is tied to this country's roots as a Protestant nation. That's why the whole question of defining marriage was never a problem before. As these religious sects lose their minds and turn away from their own moral principles over time, and as this country becomes populated by people from more and more different religious/ethnic backgrounds, the natural result is absolute chaos.