Licensing Love: How the State Claimed the Altar
By: Samantha Syrnich TLC
August 11, 2025
Marriage, in its origins, was not the sacred rite so many are led to believe. In the earliest days of the Church, it was neither instituted by Christ nor regarded as a divine sacrament. It was a civil and familial covenant — a binding agreement between families — no more inherently holy than the blessing a priest might offer over a home.
It was not until November 11, 1563, in Session XXIV of the Council of Trent, that the Church of Rome declared marriage to be one of the seven sacraments. This declaration was not born of divine revelation, but of strategy — a calculated step to tighten control over “schismatics” and reassert authority after the East–West division of the Church. What had been a personal and community-based union became an arm of institutional power.
Over time, marriage evolved into far more than a vow of love and fidelity. It became a legal instrument — a security over another human being — capable of functioning as a mechanism of control, forced servitude, and, in its darkest applications, a form of modern slavery. The state took its place beside the altar, turning sacred promises into enforceable contracts and binding the affairs of the heart to the machinery of government.
In the modern era, the marriage license is more than permission to wed — it is the entry point to a legal framework designed to regulate, profit from, and ultimately dissolve relationships. When divorce enters the picture, the courts do not serve as neutral arbiters of fairness. They are bound to statutes and incentive systems that place pecuniary interest above the preservation of families. Federal grants tied to child support enforcement give the state a direct financial stake in custody arrangements, making children themselves part of the contested assets.
Many judges presiding over these cases have not maintained the competence required within their jurisdiction to render truly valid orders. By violating rights without affording proper due process, they step outside the bounds of lawful authority. Yet these same judges, as the personification of the state in the courtroom, benefit from systems designed to maximize revenue from the very disputes they adjudicate.
Entering marriage under this structure is not merely a declaration of love — it is also an unspoken agreement to enter a potential battleground. If that union ends, each party may find themselves forced into a contest over assets, custody, and livelihood. The promise of “till death do us part” has been replaced by the reality of until the court divides what’s left of us.
Who, knowing this, would guide a loved one into such a system without warning them? Who would sign such a contract without fully understanding that, in the eyes of the law, they are agreeing to terms that may one day be weaponized against them?
A Religious Ceremony or Sacrament of Marriage should never require the permission of the State. Yet the union of Church and State in this matter has made such permission standard practice — blending faith with government control, and in doing so, eroding the spiritual foundation of the commitment itself.
In a society already strained by moral decline, this entanglement has deepened the collapse of marriage, family, and faith. What was once meant to be a covenant of love and blessing has been reduced to a legal transaction. And with every compromise, we drift further from the values that hold civilization together.
— Samantha Syrnich TLC
writer, poet, artist, advocate, & survivor
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