Why do we pretend that marriage is sacred?

[Correll]

ONe would be better advised to question, is the word "sacred" worthy to be used to define "marriage".

Marriage is what you make of it.

If you have children, their life is defined primarily by the environment created by your relationship with the other parent.


It can be a hell, or a heaven.


The role "marriage" plays is what makes it so important.

 

[LittleNipper]

GOD himself created marriage, and it exists to satisfy Him and His regard for a committed bond.

 

[Questioner]

GOD himself created marriage, and it exists to satisfy Him and His regard for a committed bond.

That's not the best historical argument; monogamy is a product of civilizations in general, such as Greek and Roman, Asian, and others, and generally a cultural evolution over other forms of institutions like polygamy, such as per the Common Law It isn't exclusively a "Biblical" thing (the Old Testament dating back to the Iron Age is a separate topic; many uneducated people of course take this out of historical context, or other verses as well, such as rules of war and civil life in ancient Israel or Iron age culture, not being conflatable), though there are themes favoring monogamy in the Bible, such as the account of Adam and Eve, as well as sayings by Jesus in the New Testament.

Monogamous marriage as a Sacrament does trace back to the Catholic church.

 

[Correll]

GOD himself created marriage, and it exists to satisfy Him and His regard for a committed bond.

That's not the best historical argument; monogamy is a product of civilizations in general, such as Greek and Roman, Asian, and others, and generally a cultural evolution over other forms of institutions like polygamy, such as per the Common Law It isn't exclusively a "Biblical" thing (the Old Testament dating back to the Iron Age is a separate topic; many uneducated people of course take this out of historical context, or other verses as well, such as rules of war and civil life in ancient Israel or Iron age culture, not being conflatable), though there are themes favoring monogamy in the Bible, such as the account of Adam and Eve, as well as sayings by Jesus in the New Testament.

Monogamous marriage as a Sacrament does trace back to the Catholic church.

Near as I can tell, all you said there was that "marriage" evolved in history, in a number of cultures.


a. Did I miss anything important? and b. how does that move the discussion forward?

 

[Questioner]

GOD himself created marriage, and it exists to satisfy Him and His regard for a committed bond.

That's not the best historical argument; monogamy is a product of civilizations in general, such as Greek and Roman, Asian, and others, and generally a cultural evolution over other forms of institutions like polygamy, such as per the Common Law It isn't exclusively a "Biblical" thing (the Old Testament dating back to the Iron Age is a separate topic; many uneducated people of course take this out of historical context, or other verses as well, such as rules of war and civil life in ancient Israel or Iron age culture, not being conflatable), though there are themes favoring monogamy in the Bible, such as the account of Adam and Eve, as well as sayings by Jesus in the New Testament.

Monogamous marriage as a Sacrament does trace back to the Catholic church.

Near as I can tell, all you said there was that "marriage" evolved in history, in a number of cultures.


a. Did I miss anything important? and b. how does that move the discussion forward?

Basically I believe overall that monogamy is a cultural evolution or improvement over polygamy and 3rd world practices like that.

 

[Correll]

GOD himself created marriage, and it exists to satisfy Him and His regard for a committed bond.

That's not the best historical argument; monogamy is a product of civilizations in general, such as Greek and Roman, Asian, and others, and generally a cultural evolution over other forms of institutions like polygamy, such as per the Common Law It isn't exclusively a "Biblical" thing (the Old Testament dating back to the Iron Age is a separate topic; many uneducated people of course take this out of historical context, or other verses as well, such as rules of war and civil life in ancient Israel or Iron age culture, not being conflatable), though there are themes favoring monogamy in the Bible, such as the account of Adam and Eve, as well as sayings by Jesus in the New Testament.

Monogamous marriage as a Sacrament does trace back to the Catholic church.

Near as I can tell, all you said there was that "marriage" evolved in history, in a number of cultures.


a. Did I miss anything important? and b. how does that move the discussion forward?

Basically I believe overall that monogamy is a cultural evolution or improvement over polygamy and 3rd world practices like that.

Considering the impact on the lives of children, why not call it "sacred"?

 

[petro]

Every Catholic I know has lied to the Church in order to get married within the institution. Usually whether the couple has lived together or had sex.
How sacred is that?

 

[Bob Blaylock]

The failure to recognize the sacredness of marriage, and to treat it accordingly, is one of the greatest root causes of social ills and human suffering in our society today.

 

[deorro 1]

Why? Because of the intercourse part.

 

[ding]

From a pragmatic, legal perspective, marriage as an institution is not "sacred", and not about love - for the worst types of couples, who would probably be better off not marrying or reproducing to begin with, marriage, legally speaking is just a step above the "law of the jungle" and expediting legal arrangements such as divorce proceedings, as opposed to whatever potentially bloody feuds might have otherwise resulted from the lack of a legal system.

This is not to say there are not happy marriages, where couples are in love, but in many cases, they simply aren't, and many individuals spend or waste their entire lives on miserable or less-than-satisfactory unions.

Only in the context of a church, is a marriage "sacred", not in context of the Law. (Even theologically speaking, and in the context of whatever vows a couple makes, putting love in marriage on par with other concepts, such as "love of God" would be erroneous to many theologians, such as CS Lewis, with many of the contemporary theories on marital and couples love being more in the vein of Rousseau and "pop romanticism" than anything historical or theological.)

(Some for example think that Romeo and Juliet is "ideal love", even though it was considered more akin to a "teen romance", like Twilight, than more mature notions of love).

Regardless, as an institution marriage and monogamy are still hallmarks of civilization and first world countries.

Here is what the catechism has to say on this subject.

I. MARRIAGE IN GOD'S PLAN

1602 Sacred Scripture begins with the creation of man and woman in the image and likeness of God and concludes with a vision of "the wedding-feast of the Lamb."85 Scripture speaks throughout of marriage and its "mystery," its institution and the meaning God has given it, its origin and its end, its various realizations throughout the history of salvation, the difficulties arising from sin and its renewal "in the Lord" in the New Covenant of Christ and the Church.86

Marriage in the order of creation

1603 "The intimate community of life and love which constitutes the married state has been established by the Creator and endowed by him with its own proper laws. . . . God himself is the author of marriage."87 The vocation to marriage is written in the very nature of man and woman as they came from the hand of the Creator. Marriage is not a purely human institution despite the many variations it may have undergone through the centuries in different cultures, social structures, and spiritual attitudes. These differences should not cause us to forget its common and permanent characteristics. Although the dignity of this institution is not transparent everywhere with the same clarity,88 some sense of the greatness of the matrimonial union exists in all cultures. "The well-being of the individual person and of both human and Christian society is closely bound up with the healthy state of conjugal and family life."89

1604 God who created man out of love also calls him to love the fundamental and innate vocation of every human being. For man is created in the image and likeness of God who is himself love.90 Since God created him man and woman, their mutual love becomes an image of the absolute and unfailing love with which God loves man. It is good, very good, in the Creator's eyes. And this love which God blesses is intended to be fruitful and to be realized in the common work of watching over creation: "And God blessed them, and God said to them: 'Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth and subdue it.'"91

1605 Holy Scripture affirms that man and woman were created for one another: "It is not good that the man should be alone."92 The woman, "flesh of his flesh," his equal, his nearest in all things, is given to him by God as a "helpmate"; she thus represents God from whom comes our help.93 "Therefore a man leaves his father and his mother and cleaves to his wife, and they become one flesh."94 The Lord himself shows that this signifies an unbreakable union of their two lives by recalling what the plan of the Creator had been "in the beginning": "So they are no longer two, but one flesh."95

Marriage under the regime of sin

1606 Every man experiences evil around him and within himself. This experience makes itself felt in the relationships between man and woman. Their union has always been threatened by discord, a spirit of domination, infidelity, jealousy, and conflicts that can escalate into hatred and separation. This disorder can manifest itself more or less acutely, and can be more or less overcome according to the circumstances of cultures, eras, and individuals, but it does seem to have a universal character.

1607 According to faith the disorder we notice so painfully does not stem from the nature of man and woman, nor from the nature of their relations, but from sin. As a break with God, the first sin had for its first consequence the rupture of the original communion between man and woman. Their relations were distorted by mutual recriminations;96 their mutual attraction, the Creator's own gift, changed into a relationship of domination and lust;97 and the beautiful vocation of man and woman to be fruitful, multiply, and subdue the earth was burdened by the pain of childbirth and the toil of work.98

1608 Nevertheless, the order of creation persists, though seriously disturbed. To heal the wounds of sin, man and woman need the help of the grace that God in his infinite mercy never refuses them.99 Without his help man and woman cannot achieve the union of their lives for which God created them "in the beginning."

 

[Blackrook]

Every Catholic I know has lied to the Church in order to get married within the institution. Usually whether the couple has lived together or had sex.
How sacred is that?

You're lying. You don't have to lie to the Catholic Church about these things to get married in the Catholic Church.

Why are you lying?

 

[AsherN]

Both marriage and divorce are in the Bible. And the original Biblical idea of marriage was polygamous.

 

[Vastator]

From a pragmatic, legal perspective, marriage as an institution is not "sacred", and not about love - for the worst types of couples, who would probably be better off not marrying or reproducing to begin with, marriage, legally speaking is just a step above the "law of the jungle" and expediting legal arrangements such as divorce proceedings, as opposed to whatever potentially bloody feuds might have otherwise resulted from the lack of a legal system.

This is not to say there are not happy marriages, where couples are in love, but in many cases, they simply aren't, and many individuals spend or waste their entire lives on miserable or less-than-satisfactory unions.

Only in the context of a church, is a marriage "sacred", not in context of the Law. (Even theologically speaking, and in the context of whatever vows a couple makes, putting love in marriage on par with other concepts, such as "love of God" would be erroneous to many theologians, such as CS Lewis, with many of the contemporary theories on marital and couples love being more in the vein of Rousseau and "pop romanticism" than anything historical or theological.)

(Some for example think that Romeo and Juliet is "ideal love", even though it was considered more akin to a "teen romance", like Twilight, than more mature notions of love).

Regardless, as an institution marriage and monogamy are still hallmarks of civilization and first world countries.

It isn't marriage that Lefft hold sacred; its the windfall of cash, prizes, and power the woman gains in the divorce. The marriage part is merely a necessary stepping stone.

 

[Blackrook]

From a pragmatic, legal perspective, marriage as an institution is not "sacred", and not about love - for the worst types of couples, who would probably be better off not marrying or reproducing to begin with, marriage, legally speaking is just a step above the "law of the jungle" and expediting legal arrangements such as divorce proceedings, as opposed to whatever potentially bloody feuds might have otherwise resulted from the lack of a legal system.

This is not to say there are not happy marriages, where couples are in love, but in many cases, they simply aren't, and many individuals spend or waste their entire lives on miserable or less-than-satisfactory unions.

Only in the context of a church, is a marriage "sacred", not in context of the Law. (Even theologically speaking, and in the context of whatever vows a couple makes, putting love in marriage on par with other concepts, such as "love of God" would be erroneous to many theologians, such as CS Lewis, with many of the contemporary theories on marital and couples love being more in the vein of Rousseau and "pop romanticism" than anything historical or theological.)

(Some for example think that Romeo and Juliet is "ideal love", even though it was considered more akin to a "teen romance", like Twilight, than more mature notions of love).

Regardless, as an institution marriage and monogamy are still hallmarks of civilization and first world countries.

It isn't marriage that Lefft hold sacred; its the windfall of cash, prizes, and power the woman gains in the divorce. The marriage part is merely a necessary stepping stone.

More great advice about women from Vastator.

 

[Vastator]

From a pragmatic, legal perspective, marriage as an institution is not "sacred", and not about love - for the worst types of couples, who would probably be better off not marrying or reproducing to begin with, marriage, legally speaking is just a step above the "law of the jungle" and expediting legal arrangements such as divorce proceedings, as opposed to whatever potentially bloody feuds might have otherwise resulted from the lack of a legal system.

This is not to say there are not happy marriages, where couples are in love, but in many cases, they simply aren't, and many individuals spend or waste their entire lives on miserable or less-than-satisfactory unions.

Only in the context of a church, is a marriage "sacred", not in context of the Law. (Even theologically speaking, and in the context of whatever vows a couple makes, putting love in marriage on par with other concepts, such as "love of God" would be erroneous to many theologians, such as CS Lewis, with many of the contemporary theories on marital and couples love being more in the vein of Rousseau and "pop romanticism" than anything historical or theological.)

(Some for example think that Romeo and Juliet is "ideal love", even though it was considered more akin to a "teen romance", like Twilight, than more mature notions of love).

Regardless, as an institution marriage and monogamy are still hallmarks of civilization and first world countries.

It isn't marriage that Lefft hold sacred; its the windfall of cash, prizes, and power the woman gains in the divorce. The marriage part is merely a necessary stepping stone.

More great advice about women from Vastator.

You're welcome...