The final view about male and female relationships is that the old way of looking at it, the male dominance, the female being the worker, is far outdated, and that males and females are both equally important in a household. This mood was started when the suffragettes were making changes all over the country, helping gives the same rights to women as men have. This view is generally thought to be in place all over, but there is still an air of authority from many men. Some women have one wish, to be independent, and to be able to care for themselves, to do a job normally only men do, just to prove that they are equal.
The bible teaches parents to be authoritative to their children and for children to respect their parents, or even just their elders. This view is carried out throughout nearly every family on the planet, your parents ask you to do something; you do it, within reason. This was also derived from the Commandments, ‘thou shalt respect thy mother and thy father’, and is accepted as the rule.
The overall Christian view is that the male is the breadwinner and that the woman is the home carer/someone who looks after the home life. This is not meant in any derogatory form whatsoever; purely the way things work best.
Christian marriage ceremonies – and the way in which these reflect and emphasise Christian teaching about marriage.
The ideal Christian marriage is a life settlement, where a man and woman who are in love are joined together and stay that way ‘until death do us part’. Unfortunately it is not like this very much any more. People are getting divorced very much more nowadays than when they were much more religious. The marriage ceremony is usually held in a church or a registry office, hosted by a priest, or a vicar, it is started by the host outlining the reasons for marriage, and the ideas behind it, such as the fact that God created marriage to symbolise the unity of two people, and that God is their witness. It then proceeds to ask the couple if they are willing to go ahead with the ceremony with the relatives and friends as their witnesses. They make promises to each other in the name of God that they will honour and protect each other until they die, and that they will be faithful, no matter what happens. The marriage is eventually blessed by the priest in the name of God, and the marriage is sealed.
The traditional ‘uniform’ for a wedding is very unique, the bride wearing a very large beautiful white dress, and also a veil over her head. She will probably have bridesmaids behind her all in the same style dress as each other, carrying flowers. The bride is led up the aisle by her father, who is essentially ‘giving away’ his daughter. The groom will be in a smart suit, maybe a top hat, and generally wearing a rose, white or red on his jacket.
Marriage is often stopped; a divorce takes place, the couple separate and it can sometimes cause a very messy split in the family. Divorce settlements can cause long court cases, and can be very traumatic, both for the couple, and, more extensively, the couple’s child (ren). I believe that marriage should be a single unifying ceremony, which never breaks, no matter what the circumstances, however it is sometimes understandable why people have divorces, such as domestic violence. A person is generally not allowed to be married in a church if they have been married previously, so have to have the ceremony in a registry office.
Christian beliefs about the Ethics of Divorce
It used to be the case that when a couple were married, they had to stay married, that was until big Henry VIII came along and invented a whole new religious sect. he was originally a Roman Catholic but when he wanted to divorce his first wife, the Pope disallowed it, so he invented his own separate cut off, the Church of England, and decided that he would be able to divorce his wife if he deemed it suitable. Roman Catholics are still not allowed to divorce, but are allowed to live apart for as long as they like.
Both views; that of the ‘pro-divorce’ and the ‘anti-divorce’, are widely accepted in the Christian community, some may re-marry, some may not. Maybe people think it is sacrilege to get divorce, and that it is going against a promise made in the name of God. However, if this promise was made forcively, i.e. one of the partners was forced into the marriage, the marriage does not count as good, and so the marriage never existed, and is null and void.
A couple married in the Church of England would say that if both parties are unhappy, and there is no point in the marriage continuing, them there is really no point in keeping it, and divorce is perfectly justified.
Issues related to sexual relationships and contraception.
As with the marriage issue, the Roman Catholics are much stricter with their views about sex and contraception. They believe that any form of contraception is against God’s will; that sexual intercourse is only for reproduction purposes, and that stopping this would be against God’s wishes. They can, however, have sex at the time of month when the woman is least likely to become pregnant, as this is completely natural.
Any form of Christianity will say that sex before marriage, homosexual relationships, and relationships with someone other than your spouse is wrong. These are also reflected in most other religions around the world, each saying that all of these things are wrong.
Most Christians believe that the human body is a holy temple, an amazing creation, which of course it is, it is incredible that such a complex structure can possible be formed, so it can have feelings, pain, pleasure, hate, love. They believe that we must treat it with the most respect we have for anything and that to spoil it in any way, would be distasteful and wrong. We must preserve our bodies and use them solely for what they were designed.
Some Christians, however, believe that if there is truly love in a relationship, then the acts of a married couple can be carried out, and that they are essentially, already married in their heads. This belief is based on the fact that the main belief of Christianity, love, and its importance.
