Marriage

Well, I would expect that there will be a lot of discussion this next week or so about marriage.  For me it is simple, the government should stay out of marriage...completely.  Marriage is a religious sacrament (or ordinance, depending on your faith).  It has occurred for millennia through many different religions regardless of the government.  The United States government did not create marriage.  To me that means that it does not have the authority to modify it.  State and federal governments have given benefits to married people, not because they are married, but because they believe that married people benefit our government.  Often reasons such as stability and building up of the next generation of our society are sited for such benefits.  That may be true, but for me marriage is further reaching than that.

In the LDS faith we believe that parenthood and the right to procreate are important parts of our Eternal growth.  That these are merely steps in a much longer path.  We believe that it is a privilege to join in marriage and then afterward to join together to become one flesh, figuratively as well as literally.  We understand that on Judgment Day we will stand accountable to God, the Father (and His son Jesus Christ) for how we choose to join with God in the experience of Creation (birthing/having children).  This is one of the main reasons why LDS people don't engage in premarital sex (I understand this is a struggle for many, and some are not successful in abstaining before marriage).

We also believe that all children are entitled to a father and a mother.  We believe that God designed  genetics this way (requiring a man and a woman) because this is the way that God set up the standard for marriage.  I honestly believe that before God told Adam and Eve to go forth and "multiply and replenish the earth" that he married them, right there in the Garden of Eden.

Now I have been asked if love should not be enough to justify marriage.  To this I say no.  I believe that it is a desirable element to have, but I believe marriage should require other things before even love.  I believe it should require the commitment of both as a minimum for the rest of their lives (within the LDS faith you can choose to be married for your life as well as for all eternity).  I believe that they should share their standards and have the same vision of life.  I believe that they should share a desire to raise up a family.  For me there were several men that I loved deeply that I decided not to marry because while we had much in common, I  knew that beyond love we did not have what it would take to be successful in marriage.