Posted by jonvon on November 12, 2001 at 22:12:58:
In Reply to: Re: verses- help me find one or more posted by John on November 10, 2001 at 22:55:55:
: But as Cindi was saying it leads to wondering what exactly qualifies as marriage. Of course if we were Catholic this would be easy because legal and church authority have a human agent.
i'm wondering what other agent there is other than a human agent? there are plenty of scriptures that basically tell us that we are responsible to nurture God in one another. when you did it to the least of these you did it to me...
we are vessels of God's blessing to and for one another, right? i guess you could go into the woods and have a ceremony just between you and your spouse, it sounds good to me on some levels. paula and it actually did something pretty similar. but i think that the church has a place in our lives that can be very good. i really don't have a problem with the institutionalization of the priesthood / ministry / whatever-you-want-to-call-it. i think it is a really good thing. like anything it can be abused but i think it serves a real purpose in a lot of people's lives. i think that it is true that God isn't concerned with a license or a piece of paper, but on the other hand Jesus seemed awfully concerned that we reach out to one another in love. marriage is a thing not to take lightly, so i wouldn't just walk up to anyone and say, "hey could you marry me and this woman? that would be COOL". ok, maybe i am that weird, but anyway, for most NORMAL people like medieval steve and bill rogers types, we'd want someone who seems to at least pretend that he knows what he is doing! right? i mean, i think that would be prudent. prudence seems to be what we are kind of getting around to in this thread methinks.
john as always you make some really good points, most of which i'm just too busy (or lazy) to respond to, and i feel like i've taken your comment a bit out of context. but i wanted to say that as burned out as i am on certain aspects of the christian subculture as i have experienced it in my neighborhood i really do believe in the church very much, and i believe in the sacraments as well, including marriage. in other words, i believe that the church moving through people to minister to members of the body in certain sacramental acts like marriage is a very wonderful and healthy thing.