The Marriage Contract

Marriage in the United States is a business contract. Our government has made that clear by taxing married couples like a business partnership. For purposes of fair taxation all a gay couple needs to do is form a corporation or partnership. Even DOMA doesn't stop that.

No, the problem is marriage. Marriage is a failing institution. More than half of the marriages in America now end in divorce. Part of the problem seems to be that increasingly both members of the partnership are in business but not with each other. When the business was the family farm or the corner grocery they worked together and shared the fate of the business. Now they each work in separate office buildings with different co-workers, perhaps with different work hours. Often the marriage is a second or third try and the children may be "assorted" and/or "part-time".

The marriage contract has always been a problem. It is presumed to be the start of a family relationship but that often is not the case. I learned that the hard way when my brother pointed out to me that our parents were married only six months before I was born. My mother was a teacher and back in those days marriage and/or pregnancy were grounds for immediate dismissal, so my parents waited a bit before making it official. Big whup! Jesus' parents weren't officially married either.

That brings me to the question of whether it makes any sense to treat marriage as a religious matter. Aren't churches simply trying to coopt something that is really a legal matter? How did churches come to be in the business of writing marriage contracts? A contract with God I can understand, but that isn't filed in a government office. What I strongly suspect is financial motive. Marriage ceremonies are good business. And so we have come full circle.