When we ministers perform a wedding we not only serve as an agent of God --we are a representative of the state. Though we all believe we are doing something in the sight of God, what we actually say is something like, "By the power vested in me by the State of Indiana, I pronounce…" Marriages are not only a moral matter--they are a legal transaction involving matters of inheritance, property and other economic issues more related to the courtroom than the church altar. Nowhere is this more obvious than the process of dissolving this legal bond--divorces are the domain of the courtroom, and are more about money than morals.

Of course, the Christian church was so slow to get into the wedding business. The early church had nothing to do with performing weddings--these were family matters not the church's business. But gradually the church was drawn into these legal arrangements between two families--especially as the Roman notion of marriage prevailed in the church. It became increasingly important to establish legal childhood to enable rightful inheritance. The local priest, being able to read and write, was then gradually pulled into recording marriage contracts as legal agreements.

At first these contracts occurred at the door of the church where many other legal transactions of the day occurred. Eventually, at the end of the ceremony the couple followed the priest indoors to the altar for Holy Communion. But it took 1000 years for Christians to move the entire marriage ceremony inside the church. In the process ministers and priests became agents of government in performing legal bonds which only government courts would be able to dissolve, leaving many ministers--especially in America--uncomfortably presiding over moral bonding with great legal consequences.

Few ministers give it a second thought. Until recently, that is. An increasing number of pastors and churches--especially charismatic churches--are performing "moral marriages," a marriage that is purely a church transaction "in the sight of God" but has no legal ramifications. In these churches, during a regular worship service, a couple publicly recites their vows for a lifetime together but they never get a secular marriage license. These "moral marriages" provide a moral canopy over the relationship but do not alter the legal relationship between the individuals--including rights of survivorship, inheritance, etc. Pastors who perform these unlicensed marriages defend their actions by saying the church's interest is primarily moral not legal or financial. Their opponents charge these ministers are performing nothing more than a sanctioned shack-up.

So, might we see a new category of marriage ceremony emerge? One where a couple is joined "in the sight of God and these witnesses" yet they are not legally joined in the sight of the courts and law? A "moral marriage" that is not necessarily a "legal marriage?" What should we be thinking about before we go down this road? So what do you think?

To contribute to the thinking on this issue e-mail your response to Tuesday@indwes.edu

By Keith Drury, March 2001. Revision suggestions invited. May be duplicated for free distribution provided these lines are included.

Other "Thinking Drafts" and writing by Keith Drury -- http://www.indwes.edu/tuesday