Many Marriages are Performed Without Clergy

When the anti gay political effort was in full swing, it was often said marriage is about religion. Somehow marriage was said to be a gift from God. Nonsense.

It was said that the entire concept of marriage came out of the faith. From what we know of tribal societies, selection of the spouse was done by family or tribal leaders. The selection was based on the interests of the family or tribe and not was not what the individuals might have preferred. It was, then, government, not religion, that "invented" marriage.

Today we seem to be going back to a concept of marriage separate from the church. The link author looked at several days of weddings in the New York Times. It was noted that about 1/3 of the marriages were performed by non clergy. It is easy today to meet the legal requirements for conducting marriage on the internet. Couples are also choosing locations other than churches for the ceremony.

It seems to me various branches of Christianity pushed people away from using the church and its clergy for marriage. When political branches of the faith hammered away at gay marriage they implied they were judgmental about who was getting married. Many couples might be saying, "I believe my gay friends should have right to marry. Our ceremony will avoid any link to religion."

We all know marriage itself is not as popular as it once was. I have read that about a third of today's births are to women who are not married. The child may have an involved father but he often is not a married husband.

In the large building where I live the percentage of couples not married is growing rapidly. Some are older couples who do not want the financial entanglement of marriage. Younger couples are often divorced and are trying to escape entanglements of previous marriages.

Marriages without clergy is another sign of changing views toward religion.

Comments

  1. Matt NoahOctober 27, 2018 at 4:43 PM

    Gee, with all the so-called push to non-marriage in order to avoid financial entanglement, long-term commitment, etc. one would think homosexuals would avoid it like the plague. Truly, they probably do. But let's make a distinction between civil unions and actual religious marriage. The first is a business relationship. The latter is, hopefully, a sacramental union, blessed by God.

    Either way, children do much better in a stable marriage of loving parents rather than a business relationship recognized by an Internet pastor or a JP at a barn or bar.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Matt NoahOctober 27, 2018 at 4:44 PM

    I felt sorry for you since no one had posted a thing for about 5 days.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Jon LindgrenOctober 27, 2018 at 7:58 PM

    Matt Oct 27 "Either way, children do much better in a stable marriage of loving parents rather than ...an internet pastor or a JP at a barn or bar."

    Do you have data proving couples married in established churches by a church pastor have longer marriages and more successful children than those married by friends who meet the "pastor" requirement by an on-line application? All this is getting more difficult to sort out. In the evangelical world one can get a "degree" in theology on the internet in short order. I think you are making stuff up again.

    With a third of marriage ceremonies done by friends and relatives there should be data.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Matt NoahOctober 27, 2018 at 9:04 PM

      You are the king of "made up s***". Do research before you post your blogs. Hint: search for NFP marriage data, or weekly church attendance data. Apply the results to successful children, crime rates, etc. I shouldn't have to hold a Ph.D.'s hand.

      Delete
  4. Jon LindgrenOctober 28, 2018 at 7:12 AM

    I have no idea what "NFP" refers to other than National Family Planning. I've looked up your sources of data so many times I'm reluctant to spend time on it. Every time, I mean EVERY TIME, you have referred to data to make you point it has turned out not to reinforce your point. Sometimes it is disproven your point--apparently you do not read your sources always.

    I've seen data showing the children raised by parents who have been married a long time statistically do a little better than children not in these circumstances. But, I've never seen data comparing the children of parents who have been married by a professional clergy and stayed married for a long time do better than children married by a friend or relative and stayed married for a long time. Unless you have data showing the latter children do worse you are just making up stuff.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Matt NoahOctober 28, 2018 at 10:28 AM

      I've seen ...

      I've never seen ...

      Is that the extent of your academic training?

      Natural Family Planning.

      Delete
    2. Matt NoahOctober 28, 2018 at 11:22 AM

      https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4536625/

      https://chastity.com/qa/why-do-nfp-couples-have-such-low-divorce-rates/

      https://www.businessinsider.com/parents-determine-child-success-income-inequality-2014-1

      You've never looked up my references and read them. If you had, you would have become Catholic and Republican by now.

      Delete
    3. Jon LindgrenOctober 28, 2018 at 12:55 PM

      You've done it again, posted worthless sources. None of these address having a non professional clergy conduct the marriage ceremony. Please stop making bogus claims.

      Delete

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