- Joined
- Aug 27, 2005
- Messages
- 43,602
- Reaction score
- 26,256
- Location
- Houston, TX
- Gender
- Male
- Political Leaning
- Conservative
Archaic laws still exist, which provide criminal penalties for couples who live together without a marriage license. Although the laws are rarely enforced, they sometimes are, and with the religious right (neither truly religious nor right) pushing the political morality buttons to keep these laws on the books, and even make more laws to govern whether or not couples can live together without "getting married", we need to examine the need for these laws in the first place, and how misguided our so called Christian and secular leaders actually are.
Many who call themselves evangelical refer to "shacking up" as "living in sin", but is it? Since the dawn of time, up until the last half of the 19th century, people considered themselves married when they moved in together. Sometimes it was with a church ceremony, and sometimes not. In the Bible, when a man took a wife, she merely moved in with him, and it was recognized by God. Once the marriage was consummated, they were considered "married".
After the civil war, various state governments looked at the idea of regulating marriage by granting a license. In the South, this idea was spurred by the notion of maintining purity in the white race. In the North, it was an outgrowth of the eugenics movement. But whatever the motivation, states took it upon themselves to redefine "marriage" as something which does not exist without the government granting a "privilege".
Today, "marriage", as defined in the Bible, has been changed to an entity which is under control of the government, and no longer under control of God. And the so called Holy Roller evangelicals, who claim a higher moral authority from their higher than thou pedestals, shriek "You are living in sin", when the truth is that they are the acual sinners because they support the usurping of a God given right by godless governments.
I have been happily married for about 35 years now, and plan to stay that way "till death do us part". However, if my wife and I had known this issue back then as we do today, we would not have obtained the license, but instead, would have considered ourselves married, as God intended. We would have dared the government to do something about it, and I would have joyfully blackened the eye of the first hypocritical holy roller to tell us "we are going to hell".
Article is here.
Many who call themselves evangelical refer to "shacking up" as "living in sin", but is it? Since the dawn of time, up until the last half of the 19th century, people considered themselves married when they moved in together. Sometimes it was with a church ceremony, and sometimes not. In the Bible, when a man took a wife, she merely moved in with him, and it was recognized by God. Once the marriage was consummated, they were considered "married".
After the civil war, various state governments looked at the idea of regulating marriage by granting a license. In the South, this idea was spurred by the notion of maintining purity in the white race. In the North, it was an outgrowth of the eugenics movement. But whatever the motivation, states took it upon themselves to redefine "marriage" as something which does not exist without the government granting a "privilege".
Today, "marriage", as defined in the Bible, has been changed to an entity which is under control of the government, and no longer under control of God. And the so called Holy Roller evangelicals, who claim a higher moral authority from their higher than thou pedestals, shriek "You are living in sin", when the truth is that they are the acual sinners because they support the usurping of a God given right by godless governments.
I have been happily married for about 35 years now, and plan to stay that way "till death do us part". However, if my wife and I had known this issue back then as we do today, we would not have obtained the license, but instead, would have considered ourselves married, as God intended. We would have dared the government to do something about it, and I would have joyfully blackened the eye of the first hypocritical holy roller to tell us "we are going to hell".
Article is here.
Last edited: