re: #159 Wendell Zurkowitz ((slave to the waffle light))

Half of the Great Marriage Debate seems to stem from people’s inability to distinguish the sacrament of Holy Matrimony from the civil status of marriage. There was a time when the two were identical and completely overlapping.

That is no longer the case.

For the overwhelming majority of life in European nations (and for a while here), religious marriages were things that concerned only the wealthy and politically powerful. The average peon just got together (perhaps they might have a party) and that was it. (See common-law marriage today.)

Gradually, churches took on marriage, and claimed a moral high ground that “marriage must be sanctified by God.”

There seems to be an direct correlation to piety and the divorce rate (more pious, more divorces).