Christians: why do they think Marriage is theirs to define if Marriage itself predates Christianity?

Christianity can be very hypocritical at times. Marriage has changed greatly throughout Christianity's history.

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Polygynous Marriage

Probably the most common form of marriage in the bible, it is where a man has more than one wife.

Levirate Marriage

When a woman was widowed without a son, it became the responsibility of the brother-in-law or a close male relative to take her in and impregnate her. If the resulting child was a son, he would be considered the heir of her late husband. See Ruth, and the story of Onan (Gen. 38:6-10).

A man, a woman and her property — a female slave

The famous “handmaiden” sketch, as preformed by Abraham (Gen. 16:1-6) and Jacob (Gen. 30:4-5).

A man, one or more wives, and some concubines

The definition of a concubine varies from culture to culture, but they tended to be live-in mistresses. Concubines were tied to their “husband,” but had a lower status than a wife. Their children were not usually heirs, so they were safe outlets for sex without risking the line of succession. To see how badly a concubine could be treated, see the famous story of the Levite and his concubine (Judges 19:1-30).

A male soldier and a female prisoner of war

Women could be taken as booty from a successful campaign and forced to become wives or concubines. Deuteronomy 21:11-14 describes the process.

A male rapist and his victim

Deuteronomy 22:28-29 describes how an unmarried woman who had been raped must marry her attacker.

A male and female slave

A female slave could be married to a male slave without consent, presumably to produce more slaves.

and of course …

Monogamous, heterosexual marriage

What you might think of as the standard form of marriage, provided you think of arranged marriages as the standard. Also remember that inter-faith or cross-ethnic marriage were forbidden for large chunks of biblical history."

All these forms were viewed in positive light at one time, however only the last form of marriage is still excepted today.

But not all Christians think they own marriage. I think it's groups of Christian nutters that give all Christians a bad name.

And many of their holidays and other customs predates the religion. Unfortunately many of the people that celebrate or practice these traditions are unaware of that fact.

To the person that answered just before me:

You don't live here, so I don't blame you, but if you honestly think the church doesn't have power in our government you really know nothing about The US.

The words "I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America, and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all."

are in The Pledge of Allegiance recited by children in school. And religious belief is one of the larges points in many elections. This is a Christian nation, even though many of Its citizens do not belong to the Christan faith. It's just something we have to deal with.

The Christian Church doesnt "own" marriage and has never claimed to. Otherwise they would have beef acknowleding jewish, muslim and marriages from other religious traditions. But make no mistake about it, marriage has always been a religious institition. Everywhere in the world and always for all time. They were always presided over by a relgious figure, whether it was the HIgh Priest in the Mayan kingdom (the Americas) or a the Akamba (Africa). ALWAYS. What you are really just trying to say is that there was once a religious tradtion probably Roman that acknowledged a same sex marriage. No problem with a man marrying his ferret (or gerbil) just keep it far away from my place of worship. That is all, thank you. FYI I thought this was another case of revisionism, so I looked up your reference and the source is disputed. Find a collaborating source from that period and post it please.

Christians are at pains to point out that marriage is a universal institution that applies to all societies at all times. For all of recorded human history, marriage has been understood to be the union of a man with a woman, specifically for the purpose of rearing children. Even countries where religion is dismissed as irrelevant to society have still agreed about that.

Christians may define marriage as including God in "holy matrimony", but that has no bearing on the legal definition of marriage as being the union of a man to a woman, which is what has held good for millennia. That is why the tiny minority of people today who think people of the same sex ought to be included in marriage need to get governments to redefine the legal meaning of the word first. And once that is done, the door is opened to including many other groups with their own agendas. To change the legal definition of any word is a can of worms. That's why it's never been changed for centuries. Christians happen to agree that it should not be changed but they don't have a monopoly on this view and have never said they did.

Marriage does not predate Christianity.

There is a misconception that Christianity began with Christ, Christianity is a relationship with God and this relationship has been present since God created Adam.

Having said that, I personally have no problem with people marrying who ever they wish or what ever they wish.

However, if you don't want to get married in a manner that is required by a specific faith, then it would be disrespectful to want to hold that wedding in a building that is considered holly to them.

Seems everyone believes that marriage is their own to define.

From a Christian perspective though, we believe it is God's to define. Being a follower of Christ (allowing Jesus to be our Lord) means that we have returned to God the authority to define what is good and what is evil. That was the sin that Adam and Eve committed when they ate of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.

If I was a homosexual man, I would not want my name on a government list stating that fact. This country used to be run by Christians, who pursued their agenda. It is now run by liberals who are pursuing theirs. It will one day be run by Muslims - that will not be a good time for homosexuals to be on government lists.

Marriage is defined in Genesis 2:25 and that predates all mankind.

I don't think it's just Christians. It's most of the other religions as well. But we do live in a democracy they are entitled to an opinion on the matter. numbers should be the decider though.

God's people always had weddings (marriages) even before Christianity. The nation of Israel did and before then. God brought Eve to Adam and gave her to him. The same as fathers have been doing ever since in any marriage ceremony.

Do you think a person's required to have invented something to be able to define it? I'm sure you don't.

Why do you fault Christians for defending something sacred between a man and woman?

@Barbara: If you live in the US (I don't) then you also live in a republic, with a constitution, which limit the ability of the majority to take rights away from the minority. The people of the US cannot oppress gays simply because a majority of voters are in favour of it. I thought separation of church and state would make a gay marriage ban unconstitutional?