Children and this wrong-headed idea of marriage

In the light of the Church of England’s current situation, let us ask ourselves about the societal purpose of marriage.

When you think about it, the State does not regulate or require an official record any other type of personal relationship, except marriage. You’re not required to register yourself with the authorities as someone’s friend, or even as someone’s sibling. The latter is just inferred from the fact that two children have been born to the same couple.

Certainly, there are a multitude of private and informal reasons for getting married. However, from time immemorial, the State’s societal reason for regulating and registering all marriage is the welfare of children. Marriage remains the most effective and least intrusive legal basis for automatic assignment of parental recognition to couples whose sexual union can be reasonably presumed to have produced the child.