Tuesday, March 02, 2010

In which I wonder if I'm married

Now, I've always* assumed that I was married, but then I got thinking about the notion of marriage being 'the union of one man and one woman in the sight of god' (I'd started out speculating about what 'Christian marriage' is, went onto 'gay marriage' & 'civil unions' and got here).

I got married in front of my friends and family and the laws of this country, but god wasn't an invitee**. Of course, if he was omnipresent he'd have gatecrashed anyway, haha, but I don't believe in that***.

Soooo, I was wondering, seeing as it was a non-religious wedding whether it counts as a marriage, if you subscribe to the 'union of one man and one woman before god'? It intrigues me strangely, whether I might be under the umbrella of marriage as approved by religion, whether I want to be or not. Have I been co-opted all unawares? Or have I, and others like me, pinched the word marriage for something that isn't? Does the word belong to the religious****? I wouldn't really mind using a different word, as long as it was snappy*****.

I'm not sure what the difference is between a secular registry office wedding and a civil union. Is there one? I suppose I could do some reading instead of rambling, hehe.



* Well, since I attended a registry office with my bloke and signed some forms and that. I didn't think I was before that, cos that would have been silly******.
** Not cos I dislike him or owt, I don't believe in him.
*** Atheist, see? Ticks box.
**** Although good luck with that, as it's very difficult to control language. Ask Hoover.
***** Not actually snappy, obviously. "I got snappied two years ago", "I'm a happily snappied woman" sounds a bit odd... But could work, I suppose.
****** Not that I'm adverse to being silly, as you can probably tell by these footnotes.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

I know from my priest friend that he considers my sister "not really married" (she got wed in a registry office) and would not hold it against her, in a ecclesiastical way, if she were to divorce her husband and then go on to marry in a church. It seems strange to me, that a civil ceremony can be considered null and void in the eyes of the church, cos I think of my sister as being married, but there you go, that's the official C of E priest line. Abster x

Mephitis said...

Aha, thanks for that. :) Funny it's never crossed my mind before.