Why I refuse to marry couples under state license

Many couples marry under the authority of a state license rather than exercising common law rights. (Photo Ginger Sumerlin photography, Chattanooga)

By Matt Trewhella

Every year thousands of Christians amble down to their local county courthouse and obtain a marriage license to marry their future spouse. The file their paperwork with the state unquestioningly. They do so because their pastors tell them to go get one, and besides, “Everybody else gets one.” This essay answers the question — should we get one?

1. The definition of a “license” demands that we refuse obtain one to marry. Black’s Law Dictionary defines license as, “The permission by competent authority to do an act which without such permission, would be illegal.” We need to ask ourselves a — why should it be illegal to marry without the state’s permission? More importantly, why should we need the state’s permission to participate in something which God instituted (Gen. 2:18-24)? We should not need the state’s permission to marry nor should we grovel before state officials to seek it. What if you apply and the State says “no”? You must understand that the authority to license implies the power to prohibit. A license by definition “confers a right” to do something. The state cannot grant the right to marry. It is a God-given right.

2. When you marry with a marriage license, you grant the State jurisdiction over your marriage. When you marry with a marriage license, your marriage is a creature of the State. It is a corporation of the State. Therefore, it has jurisdiction over your marriage including the fruit of your marriage. What is the fruit of your marriage? Your children and every piece of property you own. There is plenty of case law in American jurisprudence which declares this claim to be true.

Married — and in state jurisdiction

In 1993, parents were upset here in Wisconsin because a test was being administered to their children in the government schools which was very invasive of the family’s privacy. When parents complained, they were shocked by the school bureaucrats who informed them that their children were required to take the test by law and that they would have to take the test because they (the government school) had jurisdiction over their children. When parents asked the bureaucrats what gave them jurisdiction, the bureaucrats answered, “your marriage license and their birth certificates.” Judicially and practically, your state marriage license has far-reaching implications.

3. When you marry with a marriage license, you place yourself under the jurisdiction of family court. Under its unbiblical and immoral laws, you can divorce for any reason. Often, the courts side with a spouse who is in rebellion to God, and castigates the spouse who remains faithful by ordering him or her not to speak about the Bible or other matters of faith when present with the children.

As a gospel minister, I cannot in good conscience perform a marriage which would place people under this immoral body of laws. I also cannot marry someone with a marriage license because to do so requires me to act as an agent of the state. I would have to sign the marriage license, and I would have to mail it into the state. Given the state’s demand that usurps the place of God and family regarding marriage, and given its unbiblical, immoral laws governing marriage, it would be an act of treason to a sovereign God for me to do so.

Parental authority abused

4. The marriage license invades and removes God-given parental authority.

When you read the Bible, you see that God intended for children to have their father’s blessing regarding whom they married. Daughters were to be given in marriage by their fathers (Deut. 22:16; Exodus 22:17; I Cor. 7:38). We have a vestige of this in our culture today in that the father takes his daughter to the front of the altar and the minister asks, “Who gives this woman to be married to this man?”

Historically, there was no requirement to obtain a marriage license in colonial America. When you read the laws of the colonies and then the states, you see only two requirements for marriage. First, you had to obtain your parents’ permission to marry, and second, you had to post public notice of the marriage five to 15 days before the public ceremony.

Notice you had to obtain your parents’ permission. Back then you saw godly government displayed in that the State recognized the parents authority by demanding that the parents permission be obtained. Today, the all-encompassing ungodly state demands that its permission be obtained to marry.

By issuing marriage licenses, the state is saying, “You don’t need your parents’ permission; you need our permission.” If parents are opposed to a child’s marrying a certain person and refuse to give permission, the child can do an end run around parental authority by obtaining the state’s permission — and marry anyway. This is an invasion and removal of God-given parental authority by the state.

5. When you marry with a marriage license, you become an unwitting polygamist.

From the state’s point of view, when you marry with a marriage license, you are not just marrying your spouse, but you are also marrying the state.

The most blatant declaration of this fact that I have ever found is a brochure entitled “With This Ring I Thee Wed.” It is found in courthouses across Ohio where people go to obtain their marriage licenses. It is published by the Ohio State Bar Association. The opening paragraph under the subtitle “marriage vows” states,

Actually, when you repeat your marriage vows you enter into a legal contract. There are three parties to that contract. 1. You; 2. Your husband or wife, as the case may be; and 3. the State of Ohio.

See, the state and the lawyers know that when you marry with a marriage license, you are not just marrying your spouse, you are marrying the state. The state is the operative partner in the union, the enabling power uniting the man and woman. You are like a polygamist. You are not just making a vow to your spouse. You are making a vow to the state and your spouse. You are giving undue jurisdiction to the state.

When does state have lawful authority?

God intended the state to have jurisdiction over a marriage for two reasons. (1) In the case of divorce, and (2) When crimes are committed such as adultery or bigamy. Unfortunately, the state allows divorce for any reason, and it does not prosecute for adultery.

In either case, divorce or crime, a marriage license is not necessary for the courts to determine whether a marriage existed or not. What is needed are witnesses. This is why you have a best man and a maid of honor. They should sign the marriage certificate in your family Bible, and the wedding day guest book should be kept.

Marriage was instituted by God, therefore it is a God-given right. According to scripture, it is to be governed by the family, and the state has jurisdiction only in cases of divorce or crime.

Marriage licenses in America

George Washington was married without a marriage license. So, how did we come to this place in America where marriage licenses are issued?

Historically, all the states in America had laws outlawing the marriage of blacks and whites. In the mid-1800s, certain states began allowing interracial marriages or miscegenation as long as those marrying received a license from the state. In other words, the couple had to receive permission to do an act which without such permission would have been illegal.

Black’s Law Dictionary points to this historical fact when it defines marriage license as, “A license or permission granted by public authority to persons who intend to intermarry.” “Intermarry” is defined in Black’s as, “miscegenation; mixed or interracial marriages.”

Give the state an inch and it will take a 100 miles (or as one elderly woman once said to me “10,000 miles.”) Not long after these licenses were issued, some states began requiring all people who marry to obtain a marriage license. In 1923, the federal government established the Uniform Marriage and Marriage License Act (it later established the Uniform Marriage and Divorce Act). By 1929, every state in the union had adopted marriage license laws.

What should we do?

Christian couples should not be marrying with state marriage licenses, nor should ministers be marrying people with state marriage licenses. Some have said to me, “If someone is married without a marriage license, then they aren’t really married.” Given the fact that states may soon be forced to legalize same-sex marriages, we need to ask ourselves, “If a man and a man marry with a state marriage license, and a man and woman marry without a state marriage license — who’s really married? Is it the two men with a marriage license, or the man and woman without a marriage license? In reality, this contention that people are not really married unless they obtain a marriage license simply reveals how statist we are in our thinking. We need to think biblically. (As for homosexuals marrying, outlaw sodomy as God’s law demands, and there will be no threat of sodomites’ marrying.)

You should not have to obtain a license from the state to marry someone anymore than you should have to obtain a license from the state to be a parent, which some in academic and legislative circles are currently pushing to be made law.

When I marry a couple, I always buy them a family Bible which contains birth and death records, and a marriage certificate. We record the marriage in the family Bible. What’s recorded in a family Bible will stand up as legal evidence in any court of law in America. Early Americans were married without a marriage license. They simply recorded their marriages in their family Bibles. So should we.

Matt Trewhella has been uniting couples in marriage without marriage licenses for 20 years. Many other pastors also refuse to marry couples with state marriage licenses. If you would like an audio sermon regarding biblical marriage, send a gift of at least F$5 dollars in cash to: Mercy Seat Christian Church 10240 W. National Ave. PMB #129 Milwaukee, Wisc. 53227. Pastor Trewhella is the pastor of Mercy Seat Christian Church in Milwaukee and the founder of Missionaries to the Preborn. He and his wife, Clara, have four sons and five daughters.