A denouncement of governmental interference in the act of marriage and a possible solution to a cohesive view of marriage in the Church.

Marriage is a hot topic within the American church and our nation at large. Citizens are bombarded with messages about marriage through the media and the body politik---Lou Dobbs, James Dobson, Chris Dodd and Chris Daughtry all have messages about the importance of marriage and love, and our culture is being brought (by of large movements of money, philosophy, religion and propaganda) toward a culminating definition of marriage in America. Candidates running for president are speaking carefully and walking the dotted line as they court religious citizens to vote for them on both Republican and Democratic sides. Democratic candidates have said they support gay marriage at large but do not support it personally, and Republicans are even more divided---some saying it is a state issue, one supporting it, and others against it in varies ways and schemes. The church, both the Religious Left and Religious Right have spent millions of dollars fighting for the definition of marriage in the political sphere.

Marriage is abstract and hypothetical on the national stage, with many different scenarios played out in the media to tug at the heartstrings of common folk to pull them this way and that on issues regarding marriage.

Marriage is a cultural institution, but first and foremost it is a community of two people dedicated to building and supporting a family. In Eden, God gave Man and Woman to one another that they be one flesh, and fill the earth with their procreation. So when we hear stories such as two people not being able to marry because of Social Security issues, we begin to question the definition of marriage, and if bold enough, try to change the definition of marriage within the government. Upon hearing stories of people remaining single for health or financial reasons, I agree with the sympathy for friends who can not marry lest they lose their Social Security benefits. The more I thought about it, the more it became apparent that this situation need not be, that they should marry and should keep their Social Security benefits as well. Specifically, why does a Christian couple need a certificate from a government entity to be married in the eyes of God? Should not the Church be the arbiter of such things?

The fighting over the definition of marriage has been (predominantly) happening in the wrong sphere, the sphere of politics and not the sphere of religion. For the Christian, marriage is a God-ordained institution, and thus do we need the government to say if we are married or not? The Church should protect the sanctity of marriage first and foremost by recovering the religious duty and devotion found in the sacramental view of marriage.

Marriage in America is void of spiritual significance---it is a contractual agreement between two people for tax, insurance, health, legal and family reasons. Only when brought under the auspices of the church does marriage gain any spiritual significance in our culture. For a long time marriage was conveniently viewed by the broad American culture the same way as orthodox Christianity, but no longer so. This has meant that many conservative watchdogs advocate political means of recovering the substance of marriage, but they have sought substance in the government, and their work is in vain. The substance of marriage was lost when the Church gave over the pronouncement of marriage to the American government when it should be under the wings of the Church.

In Christianity, marriage is theological, a crucial description that means nothing to average American. To regain the sanctity of marriage, the institution must be empowered by the Church and given substance and value within the Christian community---marriage must be amputated from the clenching grip of the American government which uses the definition for economical and political means of legal control. Marriage, in the government's eye, is a legal contract, nothing more, and for Christians to attempt to write a Christian definition of marriage into law when the American culture as a whole has rejected it is a wrong approach. Whenever various spokesmen for the Religious Right have attempted to solve the American people's marriage trauma through legislation, this has formed a long chain of thoroughly un-Christian responses, for it is the preaching of law (literally) and not the gospel of love. It is time for the American church to begin proclaiming the gospel of love through Christian marriage, not secular marriage given Christian rules but lacking substance, namely Christ as the center of marriage. The Church must take the torch of marriage away from the government and return it to its proper place---a sacrament of the Church that is witness to the Christ.

Viewed as a sacrament, the Church places spirituality at the center of a couple's marriage, for it becomes a witness of the gospel; it is good news to the world, which has rejected Christian marriage for idols and hollow variations of it. Divorce, under governmental laws, is personally hurtful, but in the big scheme of things nothing more than the dissolution of a contract. Under Christian marriage, a sacrament dedicated to the spiritual nourishment of the couple, divorce falls much more easily under the Pauline paradigms set forth in the New Testament. Marriage is practical theology---it is not talk and dogma about Christ's relationship with his Bride---it is that relationship played out before neighbors, co-workers, and the local community. When people see a Christian marriage, they should see Christ, not the auspices of the Great State of Whatever.

And this is the most crucial point of all, that legislating Christian marriage is like giving communion to an unbeliever---it is void of any meaning, hollow of any sanctification, a shadow of deep truth. Marriage, within the Christian community, is a beautiful and wondrous sacrament, an event that plants the gospel in the fertile ground of a family...and to believe for one second that the government can ever translate that profound theology into non-Christian, American families is simply to throw pearls before swine.