The Christian Coalition document (posted earlier by Lola) contains not merely a plethora of illogical arguments, but too, a robust helping of falsehoods, which we have seen repeated on this thread, and which we will hear many more times in the near future.
"Marriage has been a religious institution everywhere, always". That is such a compound fracture of fact that one wonders what unusual sort of mental disorder might allow the notion a happy perch.
So, what was going on in 12th century Japan? Or Micronesia? Or, say, in Thebes at 600BC? Or even presently, among the Haida Gwaii?
Or even, in early colonial America? The following took a two minute search on google...
Quote:Marriage ?- the ceremony and the customs surrounding it ?- took on a variety of forms in Colonial America. While the English were the largest group in early America, other ethnic groups exerted their influence, particularly in some localities: the Dutch in New York and New Jersey, the Swedes along the Delaware, and the Germans in Pennsylvania, for example.
Of course, some of our ancestors adhered to old English customs ?- negotiating a dowry, which was then followed by a betrothal (engagement) and finally a wedding. However, soon after the early European settlements of early America began to thrive, the wedding ceremony itself began to change, partly due to ethnicity and religion and partly due to geographic factors.
The Dutch and Germans performed ceremonies in their native languages along with some of the customs from their homelands. The Quakers held weddings in their meetinghouses. There a couple could marry themselves with vows often of their own devising, without the benefit of any clergyman...
People in New England soon began to forsake their old English wedding customs. The Congregationalists held that nothing in the Bible designated marriage as a religious rite, so they made it a civil affair officiated by a magistrate, but without the festivities that were part of Southern weddings.
http://www.rootsweb.com/~rwguide/marry_colonies.htm
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