[noted on to be a blessing]

Why is it that it took homosexual couples' desire to equality (a legitimate desire) to make the church see just how holy and sacred this institution is? Why didn't we recognize this decades ago when people started to marry outside of the church and Las Vegas started to hand out marriage certificates to anyone with the desire to be wed? Where was the church then?

Where were we when people started to stomp on the holy union of marriage by living together without a marriage certificate first? Why didn't we speak up about this issue then? Oh that's right, I think we did. What did we say then? We said that people shouldn't live together without being married and applied pressure to couples to get married. Why? Why did we tell couples that they are living in sin? Why do we continue to insinuate this? Why do we put so much emphasis on marriage for people who don't even believe there is a God?

I've known so many couples who live together for years, even have kids together, then one day they get engaged and everyone applaudes them. Why? What's the point? They haven't changed their beliefs where God is concerned (but if they had there would definitely be a reason to go through the ceremony) so why do we celebrate that they are finally making "an honest woman of her" and so on? I think it's more of an affront to pressure people into marriage (especially since marriage is such a sacred thing) when they never felt the need for it before. I am actually a little disappointed with couples who have no beliefs religious-wise, live together for years, then suddenly decide they need to get married. Why?

Why? Because of this need we the church (or maybe more pointedly the people of the church) have to make everything appear clean and neat.

-- from this post, emphasis mine