Ending church marriages:

Ending church marriages: "Comments: [...] 12. Early New England puritans banned church  marriage ceremonies as a relic of Romanism. Government is the proper arbiter of earthly relationships. The government's main interest is to minimize later legal bickering over inheritance by registering marriages (and births). http://bit.ly/mUMrL0
"The process of publishing intended marriages and being open to objections enables the community to give consent (through silence generally). It is important to all that family, friends, and neighbors consent to the union and thereby consent to properly support that union and the children it produces. ibid. http://bit.ly/mUMrL0
"The custom of church marriages may be particularly hurtful to divorced persons wishing to re-marry. There are deep and involved divisions on the interpretation of scripture in this area. I believe that these are best resolved by the consciences of those getting married. Church ceremonies may injure the consciences of some congregants unnecessarily. And having both church-married and civil-married in a congregation is troublesome." ibid. http://bit.ly/mUMrL0