[Star Traveler]

What I don’t get here is “Why bother with a church?”

By that I mean, if one doesn’t get a marriage legally registered, then as far as the legal mechanisms of the state, the couple is not married. And since the “church marriage” doesn’t change that state’s position on it (without being duly registered and recorded), why bother with a church marriage, when people THEMSELVES can do the same thing, totally apart from any church.

I really don’t know why someone “needs” a church to do that, unless it’s just for a picture album.

[cripplecreek]

And I don’t understand this desperate clinging to the state.

People living in frontier states often got married by traveling preachers and went for years without getting marriage licenses if they got them at all.

If I get married I will forego the license hand have an attorney draw up a contract to lay out ownership of property and division of wealth etc.

[Steve_Seattle]

"I really don’t know why someone “needs” a church to do that, unless it’s just for a picture album."

For the Catholic and Orthodox churches, marriage is considered to be a sacrament ordained by God; a marriage before a justice of the peace is not considered to be a valid marriage in the eyes of the church.

Protestants have tended to have a more secular attitude towards marriage even if they accept so-called "biblical" principles concerning marriage. I don't think most Protestants are required by church law to be married before a clergyman. Correct me if I'm wrong.