Beginning of Essay
iage? What is marriage? In Webster’s Dictionary marriage is defined as the institution whereby men and women are joined in special kind of social and legal dependence for the purpose of founding and maintaining a family. The definition states “a man and a woma ....

Middle of Essay
.... power, the Catholic Church institutionalized marriage, confirming it as a sacrament and requring that a priest officiate-a crucial step in the intrusion of organized religion into what had previously been a private transaction (266). So instead of just having any person marry a couple you now have to have a priests officiate the couple. This is another issue that makes a marriage more difficult besides the gender issue. To be an official marriage a couple must have a license and the right person to perform the wedding, like a justice of the peace or a priests. Throughout the U.S. same-gender marriages are illegal. The state of Hawaii tried recently t ....