Introduction:
In today's world, the States generally own everything. And by everything I mean that as it sounds. They own your labor, they own you, they own your house, they own your property; or at least they think they do, and depending on your endorsement of them you may give them the right as well. If you think I'm being a little extreme, they have the "right" to take your paycheck, remove a percentage, then give you the remaining. Try removing that "right" from them and see what happens. Same with property taxes, if you actually owned your house, then couldn't you just not pay property taxes? But if you don't pay your tax/rent, then you lose the house. As for owning you, well that's a topic for another day, but what other entity can jail, kill, hospitalize your body without any consent from you? Generally only entities that have more of a right to your body than you.
Stance Summary:
If the government owns everything then, why give them the right to your marriage? My stance on this matter is that a marriage license gives the government authoritative right to your marriage. The Marriage License is a request by two parties (bride and groom) to be married under the authority of the local state. Even looking over my in-law's marriage license says in plain English something akin to "This certificate authorizes this marriage". Though the referenced statement may have been longer, the term authorized was used. As such, under God I can not give authority over to the State in my marriage.
Personal Actions Based on Stance:
I do believe in unalienable rights established by God through his Natural and Eternal Law, and as such I used those rights to establish my marriage without giving over any authority to the State. I crafted my own Marital document, available in the sources section. Generally on this site I speak for myself, but in this case I will make the distinction that my wife was fully agreeable on our mutual actions for this.
Expansion:
I understand that the State will probably assume some authority anyways over my marriage as time goes on. However, with a clear conscience on the matter I can continue knowing that I did not sign over authority to someone or something else besides God.
I also understand that there are certain benefits to having a licensed marriage that my wife and I will not have, and many of these may make future activities difficult. That being said, I recognize that no entity or person is required to recognize my marriage, even the State of Washington. They do not recognize common law, and as far as I understand it they do not recognize my marriage. That is their prerogative. As such, it is also their prerogative to not supply benefits generally reserved for couples under their jurisdiction. Tax benefits being an obvious one. Other than that, I recognize that I will have to make other arrangements to make sure my wife and I are protected.
Sources:
Personal Marriage document: Link
Closing:
Luckily my Stance was arrived at prior to the need for any actions. So I do not regret any actions I've taken on the matter.
Showing posts with label Relationships. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Relationships. Show all posts
Tuesday, September 7, 2010
Tuesday, August 24, 2010
Marriage
Introduction:
Marriage in the present time is an interesting concept to me. It is generally something done between two people and an intermediary who acts with the authority given to him by that which can instill marriage. In older societies that intermediary was generally someone of local authority, be it a pastor, a ships captain, or just the animals and spirits around if two people were married privately. In this article I would like to address a wide number of things, but primarily I want to look at where the authority for marriage comes from in modern society and where I think it should, has and can come from again.
Stance Summary
The authority for marriage stems from our God given human natures. For those of you who do not believe in a God given human nature, well then it stems from your plain ol human nature. It is essentially the same thing, and the differences are for another post. Being that the authority is derived from our human nature, a marriage is not required to have an intermediary with the authority to bestow "marriage" on a couple. If the authority is from our nature, then no other things are required assuming both parties of the marriage each use their authority to marry the other.
The rest of this Stance is also that if the authority isn't derived from anyone or anything else except our natures, then why does the State get involved in the business of actually granting marriages? Actually, to hell with "why" that's a long story that I don't care to write about, the question should be "should the State get involved?" My response, No. Especially not because the State becomes the authority over the marriage rather than friends, family, society and God.
Personal Actions based on my Stance:
Now, to be frank: I am married to Heather Lynne Jolly, her maiden name being Johnson. I had a public wedding with a few hundred friends and family. We exchanged vows and had a friend and pastor marry us. We even signed a document, however the document we signed is not one that is commonly done in Western society marriages, specifically American ones. The text of what we signed is available for viewing here: http://jollystance.blogspot.com/2010/08/text-of-marriage-document.html. The document has been put into the public record in King County (the county where the wedding was performed) as a way of making the marriage public and transparent, and making search-able for vital statistics.
Expansion
When I married Heather I did not do so under the pretext of having a Washington State recognized marriage. Washington State's official policy is that they do not recognize common law marriage. Which I'm okay with. To do so could put us in the troublesome spot of having our marriage under the authority of the State where as right now our marriage is governed by friends, family and God. Our vows were made in front of God. Friends and family signed into our agreement. Family signed in to be our mediators and arbitrators should a need ever arise.
Sources:
Closing:
Marriage in the present time is an interesting concept to me. It is generally something done between two people and an intermediary who acts with the authority given to him by that which can instill marriage. In older societies that intermediary was generally someone of local authority, be it a pastor, a ships captain, or just the animals and spirits around if two people were married privately. In this article I would like to address a wide number of things, but primarily I want to look at where the authority for marriage comes from in modern society and where I think it should, has and can come from again.
Stance Summary
The authority for marriage stems from our God given human natures. For those of you who do not believe in a God given human nature, well then it stems from your plain ol human nature. It is essentially the same thing, and the differences are for another post. Being that the authority is derived from our human nature, a marriage is not required to have an intermediary with the authority to bestow "marriage" on a couple. If the authority is from our nature, then no other things are required assuming both parties of the marriage each use their authority to marry the other.
The rest of this Stance is also that if the authority isn't derived from anyone or anything else except our natures, then why does the State get involved in the business of actually granting marriages? Actually, to hell with "why" that's a long story that I don't care to write about, the question should be "should the State get involved?" My response, No. Especially not because the State becomes the authority over the marriage rather than friends, family, society and God.
Personal Actions based on my Stance:
Now, to be frank: I am married to Heather Lynne Jolly, her maiden name being Johnson. I had a public wedding with a few hundred friends and family. We exchanged vows and had a friend and pastor marry us. We even signed a document, however the document we signed is not one that is commonly done in Western society marriages, specifically American ones. The text of what we signed is available for viewing here: http://jollystance.blogspot.com/2010/08/text-of-marriage-document.html. The document has been put into the public record in King County (the county where the wedding was performed) as a way of making the marriage public and transparent, and making search-able for vital statistics.
Expansion
When I married Heather I did not do so under the pretext of having a Washington State recognized marriage. Washington State's official policy is that they do not recognize common law marriage. Which I'm okay with. To do so could put us in the troublesome spot of having our marriage under the authority of the State where as right now our marriage is governed by friends, family and God. Our vows were made in front of God. Friends and family signed into our agreement. Family signed in to be our mediators and arbitrators should a need ever arise.
Does any one of you, when he has a case against his neighbor, dare to go to law before the unrighteous and not before the saints?If we take such important and spiritual agreements before the authority of the secular court as our very Marriages, why would we not take every other brother and sister in Christ before the courts?
Apostle Paul, 1st Corinthians 6:1
Sources:
Closing:
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