Is anyone surprised marriages are done in a church?

Question

I know it seems like that is the only way it was ever done historically but to be married and the act of marriage is really a legal matter that binds two people legally and based on that it seems a justice of the peace is the proper way to be married.

Answer 1

i am surprised and FYI there is a high divorce rate

Answer 2

If it surprises you, perhaps it is because you don't have all of the pieces. This would explain why your conclusion is totally wrong.

If marriage was historically only done in a church, that suggests that there was once more to marriage than a mere "legal" status. If it is merely a legal status, then the "til death do us part" would have no meaning, somewhat like it does now, but the point is that it never would have been part of the ceremony in the first place.

The role of the government came later. There was a time when the equivalent of a JP couldn't perform marriages. The churches had a lock on the marriage business, and what's more, they had the power to refuse marriages for a variety of reasons, including one of the pair not being a catholic. Think they would have ever considered gay marriage? Not likely, but that's another debate anyway.

When marriage belonged to the church, there weren't really a whole lot of benefits. Other than being able to raise children without them bearing the label of "bastard", it was mostly responsibility. Governments later created certain benefits to marriage, such as one's status under Intestacy, tax credits, survivorship of Social Security benefits, and so on, and so on. The power of a JP or Mayor or a Judge to perform these ceremonies comes from the demand of a public that sees the legal benefits to marriage, but doesn't want the burden of having to belong to a church.

So, anyway, in short, while I'm not criticizing the power of JP's to perform marriages, they are no more the proper way to be married than grape jelly is the only thing to mix with peanut butter.

Answer 3

Historically weddings haven't always been done in a church.
Weddings took place long before Christianity. Long before there were churches. The pagans, celtics, and or druids had their own marriage rituals called hand fasts.

They often took place outside in a natural setting. The brides wore a circlet or a garland of natural flowers upon their head.

When the world was young & the human race was even younger though supposedly more primitive. There was still that longing or tug to belong to some special someone.

Native Americans were married in ceremonies or rituals of their own making & tradition long before America was discovered by Leif Erikson or Christopher Columbus.

Native Hawaiins & Polynesians & All the countries of the Orient had marriage ceremonies long before they were ever introduced to Christianity.

Depending on what part of the world you lived in polygamy was also practiced.

Why did men in those parts of the world have such a strong need to be married to more than one woman? Why couldn't they have just lived with them? Or why couldn't they have remained single and just been with whomever they wanted any time they wanted without any commitment?

Even then, people needed some form of commitment to another person or persons.

Marriage has always been & always will be, as long as there are people, who long to be together & belong to each other.

Answer 4

I am from a country where Roman Catholicism is very prominent, and here most of the marriages are done in churches.

In my country, marriage is defined as, a special contract, of permanent union between a man a woman entered into with accordance of law for the establishment of conjugal and family life. It is the foundation of the family and an inviolable social institution whose nature, consequences and instances are governed by law and not subject to stipulations.

True, marriages are of legal matters that binds two people, but those persons have the prerogative to choose where to publicly declare there intention of cohabitation as long as it meets the legal standards of the law of the place where they are going to be married. And marriage, from the law of my country, considers it as the foundation of the basic unit of the society, the Family.

Answer 5

In most places in Europe, church marriages aren't even legally recognized. While you can have a ceremony in a church if you want, you still have to go to a town hall to sign the legal papers and make it official.

Answer 6

True to a point but as you said historically( depends on one religion ) you can look at the law,as one handed down by the law of God..so if one is religious,you can argue, today's laws are nothing more than copies of the ten commandments !

Answer 7

Explains the divorce rate.