Behind Closed Doors: Marriage, Control, and the Erosion of Justice
By: Samantha Syrnich TLC
Date: August 11, 2025
Marriage, as a religious sacrament, was not established in the earliest days of the Church. It was not originally a sacred rite instituted by Christ, but rather a civil and familial covenant — no more a sacrament than a priest’s blessing over a home. It was only on November 11, 1563, during Session XXIV of the Council of Trent, that the Church of Rome formally and dogmatically declared marriage to be one of the seven sacraments. This was less about divine origin and more about consolidating authority — a deliberate measure to rein in the “schismatics” and tighten control after the East–West divide of the Church.
From that moment forward, marriage became not only a personal union but also a tool of institutional power over the masses. In modern form, the marriage contract itself has too often become a legal security — a claim of ownership over another human being. In practice, it can serve as a mechanism of trafficking, forced servitude, and modern-day slavery.
The courts, far from upholding the sanctity or fairness of such unions, have exploited them for profit. In doing so, they routinely ignore constitutional protections, dismiss international and maritime law, and trample the guarantee of due process. Most judges preside under oaths of office that are, in truth, invalid — rendering their authority a façade and their judgments an affront to real justice. Filming proceedings is not allowed in these courtrooms — and why? Because they are well aware of the criminality taking place behind these closed doors, and they fear the exposure that truth would bring.
A Religious Ceremony or Sacrament of Marriage should never require a license from the State. Yet religious institutions have allowed the blending of Church and State into a single contractual bond, binding faith to government control.
In a society already eroded by the loss of morals and ethics, this entanglement has only deepened the collapse of marriage, family, and faith. What was once meant to be a covenant of love and divine blessing has been reduced to a legal transaction. And with each compromise, we draw closer to the collapse of the very values that hold civilization together.
— Samantha Syrnich TLC
writer, poet, artist, advocate, & survivor
The Phoenix Quill: Words Born of Fire, Inked in Truth 