THE RELIGIONIZATION OF MARRIAGE

Marriage is both a physiology and a psychology, not a spiritual matter. It’s a physiology because it can only be consummated physically, and it’s always done physically.

It is a psychology because the participants are from a specific sociological. Although there were gods and belief systems in this civilization, individual marriages were not religious sacraments but cultural ceremonies. While there was a thin line between culture and belief in gods in ancient times, the rites performed for each specialised function always made that distinction clear. Marriage was not a religious business psychologically unless it was a marriage for a cult leader or in the mythologies of the gods.

In terms of marriage, what we find in the Old Testament of the Bible is a religionisation (baptising culture with God) of a particular culture but not religious marriages.

MARRIAGE AND THE REVELATION

People married long before they knew who God was or even knew this God as we know him today. Marriages were culturally organised, and the gods of the day played a minor role.

The marriage partners and parents were the main players. These are the kinds of marriages we see in the Old Testament, and while they are religionized (baptised with God by Judaism), they are cultural marriages, or what Ugandans term “customary marriages.”

It’s worth noting that when God first began to reveal himself to humans in the Old Testament, he found them married, and he never went through their marriages with them. Apart from the symbolic marriage of Adam and Eve, the first historical person to whom God showed himself was Abraham, who was married to Sarah.

There was no temple or church to officiate the Abrahamic marriage, and no religious leader to initiate it; it was a culturally choreographed union, as were the marriages of his son Isaac, Rebecca, Jacob, Boaz, and many others. Nearly 97% of marriages in the Old Testament occur before the creation of Judaism (the religion of Jews and other Israelites), but God had revealed Himself to the Patriarchs for all of these days and had nothing to do with marriage.

RELIGIONIZING MARRIAGE

Customary weddings were practised in Israel until the time of Judaism when the Torah was written and regulations for various matters, including marriage, were enacted.

For example, under Jewish law, marriage begins with the signing of a legal document known as the ketuba (marriage contract). The groom outlines the material conditions he promises to provide for the bride in this marital legal declaration. The signing is done in the presence of two witnesses. This legality must have been applied to the wedding that Jesus attended in the New Testament.

In modern history, Roman Catholicism has imposed Churchianity on marriage, something the protestants have never questioned.

So that’s how the concept of church marriage came about; otherwise, marriage wasn’t and shouldn’t be dictated by the church. It’s one thing to celebrate marriage in a church; it’s quite another to have the church as the deciding factor.

IN CONCLUSION

MARRIAGE is a family affair, and the parties involved are:

1. The soon-to-be-married couple and
2. Their parents

The rest of the guests are optional and may include religious leaders and other family members.