Used to be, it was a method of controlling venereal disease. You had to have blood tests to prove you didn't have a dose of the clap or something to get a marriage license.
They don't do that anymore, so now it's just the state collecting a fee.
TCUFan
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I've been trying to google this, but I've been wading through a whole bunch of gay marriage and other irrelevant stuff.
Can anyone less ignorant than me explain why/how marriage became a government institution in the first place?
Marriage licenses originated in England in the 1500s and were originally a shortcut that simplified the marriage formality, as well as a revenue source for the church. Rather than arranging to have banns read (marriages announced) in one or more parishes for three weeks prior to the wedding, a couple went to church officers and paid for a license to be issued. The license required a statement that the couple knew of no reason why their wedding should not take place. As security that their statements were true, the couple was required to post a bond that would be forfeit if their statements were false. Signatures of bond guarantors were required.
...substitute state for church in the above bolded bit of history and wonder no longer...
After having gone over this issue in my mind back and forth, I'm all in favor of getting government OUT of the marriage business entirely. PROVIDED that all churches, nonprofits, etc lose their tax exempt status as well, and quite simultaneously.
You may wonder why I, one of the uberconservatives here, has taken such a stance...
...it's the ultimate in free market religious expression. Growing powerful churches like the Southern Baptists and Assemblies of God will still be in business, and marrying people. Dead wood like the Episcopalians and Methodists who would otherwise marry a man and his dog would collapse under their own weight and perish.
In our brave new world, gay marriage would cease to be an issue because the only forums for its promotion would become extinct. Instead, we'd now have to worry about a world in which all the mosques in america were trying to marry off teenage girls...
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Last edited by Old_Mil; November 4th, 2009 at 7:59 pm.
Nah, not at all. Just saying that's where it originated in government. Started with the Christians in the Roman empire when they banned same sex marriage.
Quote:
A law in the Theodosian Code (C. Th. 9.7.3) was issued in 342 AD by the Christian emperors Constantius II and Constans. This law prohibited same-sex marriage in ancient Rome and ordered that those who were so married were to be executed.
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There are two reasons relative to the Constitution and our rights derived under common law.
Article 4:Section 2:Clause 1 with respect to the several States.
The 9th Amendment with respect to the federal.
These require those respective entities to respect our Privileges and Immunities that existed under English common law at the time our nation gained it's freedom and, more specifically, at the time these Articles were framed and accepted.
The requirement, then, to respect marriage between a man and a woman, especially common law marriages, is a constitutional one.
There is no such privilege or immunity for same-sex marriage.
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The government both at the federal and state level needs to stay out of the marriage business. Why do I need a license to get married? Now defining what a marriage is is different and that should be left up to the state. There can still be definition and regulation at the state level to prevent people from marrying a horse or being married to two people at the same time.
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Marriage licenses originated in England in the 1500s and were originally a shortcut that simplified the marriage formality, as well as a revenue source for the church. Rather than arranging to have banns read (marriages announced) in one or more parishes for three weeks prior to the wedding, a couple went to church officers and paid for a license to be issued. The license required a statement that the couple knew of no reason why their wedding should not take place. As security that their statements were true, the couple was required to post a bond that would be forfeit if their statements were false. Signatures of bond guarantors were required.
...substitute state for church in the above bolded bit of history and wonder no longer...
Why do we have government recognized marriage in the first place?
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