Marriage And The State

John Ball writes:
After much baloney and quite some acrimony, at last some politicians have made some sensible proposals about gay marriage and marriage in general. Both the Liberal Democrats and the United Kingdom Independence Party have suggested that in the matter of matrimony Church and State are divorced.
There was a time, not so long ago, when this country identified itself as a Christian country, more specifically a Protestant country, but this is no longer the case. Whereas fifty years ago marriage and a church wedding went together like a horse and carriage this is no longer the case. Huge amounts of people undergo no wedding, content to live as common law spouses. Most of those who marry officially do not get married in church. Not only do we now have an indigenous population that is largely agnostic, but we have a large population of English people who are Catholics, Jews, Hindus, Moslems, Buddhists, and many others.
Added to this mix we have the perfectly sensible introduction of civil partnerships where same sex couples can enjoy the same legal protections as heterosexual couples.
In reality, a civil wedding, a State wedding, is the same as a civil partnership.
Marriage is about making a public commitment, a declaration in the eyes of the community. Legal rights are a different matter.
So, for instance, a Moslem, or a South African traditionalist, may wish to be polygamous. In the eyes of the community to which he belongs, he wishes that four different women are acknowledged to be his wife, and they are happy with this arrangement, then who is to say that they are not married? Clearly, in law the state may only recognise one partner, but this might change in the future.
 A Christian marriage is a matter for the Church, not the State. A couple could chose to marry in the eyes of Church, but not sign up to the State version, though the State version is  only a declaration for legal purposes - next of kin, responsibility for children etc.
Hopefully, it would put an end to all the silly threats of persecutions of individuals who freely gather to share their faith, in the name of the Moloch of Equality.