Gadrial writes: Why is the government involved in the marriage contract ? I don’t see the Devil here, however I see a revenue generator that never ends. First you get them married and make them pay, if they have problems and want a divorce they must pay again, and if they have children they are fighting over they must pay again to see who gets the brats. Marriage is nothing more than retail storefront for the STATE. Your right the church was in charge of this for at least 6,000 years, but the Church was also the government, so your argument that it would be any different seems more like fantasy than reality. The Church has proven itself over the centuries to be just as corrupt and slimy as all Governments today. A world with less or none of the other would be ideal.
Two problems with this theory. One, marriage has been around for all of recorded history, while the Church has been around for only 2,000 years. Nor was it the government for most of that time, except in the Papal States and in post-Henry VIII England where it was only a State agency. I agree that the Church has been seriously problematic at times, but I submit that this has primarily been when it assumed State responsibilities and was corrupted as the State always is and does.
Second, the State did not begin its interference with American marriage in pursuit of revenue, but information. Information – registration – is necessary for control, and control is required to exercise State power. Money is actually of little interest to the State, as long as it can create it out of thin air. This is nothing new, indeed, it was first discovered in the modern era by the colony of Massachusetts, and taken to an extreme by the colony of Rhode Island until the British government cracked down these financial shenanigans. State control of marriage and children is one of the many factors required for totalitarian rule, which is why it should be rejected by wise conservatives who understand the danger inherent in attempting to use the State to enforce any morality, traditional or otherwise.
What the State gives, the State can and will take away. What the State touches, it will destroy.