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[[Image:Bride and groom signing the book.jpg|right|275px]]

[[Image:Bride and groom signing the book.jpg|right|275px]]

'''Marriage''' is the divinely ordained [[covenant]]<ref>Marriage between the sexes is a covenant, not a [[contract]]. Since time immemorial, some men disposed of a wife (woman) after her childbearing years to pursue a younger female consort. God, being a defender of women, ordained marriage by his perfect will to protect women's rights and not allow a man (male) to abandon them to homelessness and poverty with no marketable job skills other than homemaking or child rearing. This, however, is not the only reason the covenant of marriage evolved between the sexes.</ref>  between two consenting adults (as opposed to Muslim child marriages), and is intended to be for life. (Genesis 2:24)<ref>See also [[Perfect will of God]] vs [[Permissive will of God]].</ref> This is recognized by the majority of churches.<ref>[http://www.vatican.va/archive/ccc_css/archive/catechism/p2s2c3a7.htm Article 7, "The sacrament of matrimony"]</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.sbc.net/aboutus/basicbeliefs.asp|title="Basic Beliefs," Southern Baptist Convention|accessdate=March 11, 2020}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://ag.org/top/Beliefs/topics/relations_04_marriage.cfm|title="Marriage"}}</ref><ref>http://www.studylight.org/com/bnb/view.cgi?bk=39&ch=19 [[Albert Barnes]], Matthew 19]</ref><ref>[http://live.e-sword.net/app/ [[Matthew Henry]], Matthew 19]</ref>   

'''Marriage''' is the divinely ordained [[covenant]]<ref>Marriage between the sexes is a covenant, not a [[contract]]. Since time immemorial, some men disposed of a wife (woman) after her childbearing years to pursue a younger female consort. God, being a defender of women, ordained marriage by his perfect will to protect women's rights and not allow a man (male) to abandon them to homelessness and poverty with no marketable job skills other than homemaking or child rearing. This, however, is not the only reason the covenant of marriage evolved between the sexes.</ref>  between one man and one woman, and is intended to be for life. (Genesis 2:24)<ref>See also [[Perfect will of God]] vs [[Permissive will of God]].</ref> This is recognized by the majority of churches.<ref>[http://www.vatican.va/archive/ccc_css/archive/catechism/p2s2c3a7.htm Article 7, "The sacrament of matrimony"]</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.sbc.net/aboutus/basicbeliefs.asp|title="Basic Beliefs," Southern Baptist Convention|accessdate=March 11, 2020}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://ag.org/top/Beliefs/topics/relations_04_marriage.cfm|title="Marriage"}}</ref><ref>http://www.studylight.org/com/bnb/view.cgi?bk=39&ch=19 [[Albert Barnes]], Matthew 19]</ref><ref>[http://live.e-sword.net/app/ [[Matthew Henry]], Matthew 19]</ref>   

The unity between those two involved in marriage is an expression of the spiritual relationship that God desires His creation to realize with Him. The first marriage occurred nearly 6,000 years ago in the [[Garden of Eden]], in the area of the world that we now know as the Middle East. The first couple was Adam and Eve, and the Lord Jesus specified that it was husband and wife that God joined together in marriage for life. (Matthew 19:4-6)  See also: [[Christian marriage]]

The unity between a man and a woman in marriage is an expression of the spiritual relationship that God desires His creation to realize with Him. The first marriage occurred nearly 6,000 years ago in the [[Garden of Eden]], in the area of the world that we now know as the Middle East. The first couple was Adam and Eve, and the Lord Jesus specified that it was male and female that God joined together in marriage for life. (Matthew 19:4-6)  See also: [[Christian marriage]]

Marriage has been practiced as such in most cultures across geography and time.<ref>"Because there is a natural complementarity between men and women - sexual, emotional, temperamental, spiritual - marriage allows for a wholeness and a completeness that is one of the greatest of its kind. ([[Bill Bennett]], ''The Broken Hearth'', Page 197)</ref>

Marriage has been practiced as such in most cultures across geography and time.<ref>"Because there is a natural complementarity between men and women - sexual, emotional, temperamental, spiritual - marriage allows for a wholeness and a completeness that cannot be won in any other way. ([[Bill Bennett]], ''The Broken Hearth'', Page 197)</ref>

Marriage is a lifelong commitment, and typically this involves a public ceremony (a [[wedding]]) in which vows are exchanged by the parties and before God or a civil authority. Approximately half of all traditional marriages in America end in [[divorce]],<ref>Divorce is within the permissive will of God, Deut. 22:13; divorce however, is due to sin entering the world, which God is willing to redeem. God himself in fact is divorced from Israel ([http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Jeremiah%203:8-14&version=KJV Jer. 3:8-14]; see also [http://www.biblestudytools.com/kjv/isaiah/passage.aspx?q=isaiah+54:5-15 Is. 54:5]), or for that matter, all unredeemed sinners.</ref>  many due to [[Facebook]] and other [[liberal]] activities.

Marriage is a lifelong commitment, and typically this involves a public ceremony (a [[wedding]]) in which vows are exchanged by the parties and before God. Approximately half of all traditional marriages in America end in [[divorce]],<ref>Divorce is within the permissive will of God, Deut. 22:13; divorce however, is due to sin entering the world, which God is willing to redeem. God himself in fact is divorced from Israel ([http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Jeremiah%203:8-14&version=KJV Jer. 3:8-14]; see also [http://www.biblestudytools.com/kjv/isaiah/passage.aspx?q=isaiah+54:5-15 Is. 54:5]), or for that matter, all unredeemed sinners.</ref>  many due to [[Facebook]] and other [[liberal]] activities.

[[Dinesh D'Souza]] wrote:

[[Dinesh D'Souza]] wrote:

[[Bill Bennett]] wrote:

[[Bill Bennett]] wrote:

:Based as it is on the principle of [[complementarity]], marriage is also about a great deal more than love. That "great deal" encompasses, above all, [[procreation]]. The timeless function of marriage is childbearing, child-rearing, and happiness of those in the family, and the best arrangement ever developed to that end is the marital union between two people ...<ref>''The Broken Hearth'', Page 197)</ref>

:Based as it is on the principle of [[complementarity]], marriage is also about a great deal more than love. That "great deal" encompasses, above all, [[procreation]]. The timeless function of marriage is childbearing and child-rearing, and the best arrangement ever developed to that end is the marital union between one man and one woman ...<ref>''The Broken Hearth'', Page 197)</ref>

What Bennett's words ultimately imply is that, in terms of the value of marriage to anything which stands outside of it, marriage is most principally for the production of additional marriages, and, thus, is a progressive type of [[scale-invariance]] such as the Mandelbrot fractal.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.dectech.org/publications/LinksNick/FoundationsTheoryAndMethodology/Scale-invariance%20as%20a%20unifying%20psychological%20principle.pdf|title=Scale-invariance as a unifying psychological principle; 1999|accessdate=March 11, 2020}}</ref>

What Bennett's words ultimately imply is that, in terms of the value of marriage to anything which stands outside of it, marriage is most principally for the production of additional marriages, and, thus, is a progressive type of [[scale-invariance]] such as the Mandelbrot fractal.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.dectech.org/publications/LinksNick/FoundationsTheoryAndMethodology/Scale-invariance%20as%20a%20unifying%20psychological%20principle.pdf|title=Scale-invariance as a unifying psychological principle; 1999|accessdate=March 11, 2020}}</ref>

==Definition of marriage==

==Definition of marriage==

For Christians, marriage has traditionally been seen as "a union that takes its distinctive character from being founded, unlike other friendships, on bodily unity of the kind that sometimes generates new life."<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.catholiceducation.org/articles/marriage/mf0123.htm|title=Gay Marriage, Democracy, and the Courts|accessdate=March 11, 2020}}</ref> As such, marriage is respected as one of the most well-known ways that couples form.

For Christians, marriage has traditionally been seen as "a union that takes its distinctive character from being founded, unlike other friendships, on bodily unity of the kind that sometimes generates new life."<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.catholiceducation.org/articles/marriage/mf0123.htm|title=Gay Marriage, Democracy, and the Courts|accessdate=March 11, 2020}}</ref> As such, marriage is the one and only form of companionship from which all other forms spring: it is the single irreducible core of [[society]].

==Modern history of marriage law==

==Modern history of marriage law==

*1967 — interracial marriage legalized in all states

*1967 — interracial marriage legalized in all states

*1981 — rise of community property laws as men no longer seen as the sole owner of all marital assets

*1981 — rise of community property laws as men no longer seen as the sole owner of all marital assets

*2015 — same-sex marriage legalized as part of the civil rights movement

*2015 — same-sex "marriage" legalized

==Attacks on the institution of marriage==

==Attacks on the institution of marriage==

Any society which has lessened the sanctity of marriage has perished, whereas those that have upheld the sanctity of marriage have endured. It has been argued that Ancient Rome's decline and its eventual fall in A.D. 476 were due in no small part to a growing tolerance of extramarital sex, particularly of immoral acts, beginning in the Late Republic period ending in 27 B.C.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://english.pravda.ru/opinion/columnists/11-02-2011/116875-homosexuality-0/|title=Is there anyone left to defend traditional marriage?|accessdate=March 11, 2020}}</ref>. However, this historical conclusion is criticized widely, and there are many other potential reasons that Rome fell.

Any society which has lessened the sanctity of marriage has perished, whereas those that have upheld the sanctity of marriage have endured. It has been argued that Ancient Rome's decline and its eventual fall in A.D. 476 were due in no small part to a growing tolerance of extramarital sex, particularly of [[homosexual acts]], beginning in the Late Republic period ending in 27 B.C.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://english.pravda.ru/opinion/columnists/11-02-2011/116875-homosexuality-0/|title=Is there anyone left to defend traditional marriage?|accessdate=March 11, 2020}}</ref>

In the Judeo-Christian tradition, there is no approval of [[sexual intercourse]] other than between a married couple. Anything which tolerates or permits [[immorality]] weakens society.

In the Judeo-Christian tradition, there is no approval of [[sexual intercourse]] other than between man and wife. Anything which tolerates or permits [[promiscuity]] weakens society.

Since the middle of the 20th century, [[Liberalism]] has sought to dismantle the societal pressures that dissuade people from engaging in extramarital and [[premarital sex]]. Removing the stigma from these behaviors, creating no-fault [[divorce]] laws\, rejuvenating, and "stimulating", and especially the de-stigmatizing of [[homosexuality]] all have changed marriage.

Since the middle of the 20th century, [[Liberalism]] has sought to dismantle the societal pressures that dissuade people from engaging in extramarital and [[premarital sex]]. Removing the stigma from these behaviors, creating no-fault [[divorce]] laws, exalting adultery as liberating, rejuvenating, and "stimulating", and especially the de-stigmatizing of [[homosexuality]] all weaken the institution of marriage.

A recent ''Newsweek'' article complained that [[Biblical figures]] have not provided good historical examples of marriage, noting that [[Abraham]] begat [[Ishmael]] by a maidservant and [[Jacob]] had [[polygamy|two wives]] and had sons with both of their [[concubine|servants]]. The article also criticizes [[Jesus]] and [[St. Paul]] for remaining single.<ref>http://www.newsweek.com/id/172653/page/1</ref>

A recent ''Newsweek'' article complained that [[Biblical figures]] have not provided good historical examples of marriage, noting that [[Abraham]] begat [[Ishmael]] by a maidservant and [[Jacob]] had [[polygamy|two wives]] and had sons with both of their [[concubine|servants]]. The article also criticizes [[Jesus]] and [[St. Paul]] for remaining single.<ref>http://www.newsweek.com/id/172653/page/1</ref>