re when are two people married in god s eyes to recapitulate a bit the essence of marriage is two people s commitment to each other if two people claim to be married in their hearts but are not willing to have the marriage recognized by church and state that s prima facie evidence that the commitment isn t really there there are obvious situations in which christian marriage is possible without a civil or church wedding if you re stranded on a desert island or if your state forbids the marriage for an unjust reason e g laws against interracial marriage the legal concept of common law marriage is meant to ensure that the state will recognize marriages that did not start out with the usual ceremony and record keeping pastorally i m concerned that people should not use being married in god s eyes as an excuse for living together without a formal wedding one has a duty to have one s marriage properly recorded and witnessed but there are also people who have been through a wedding ceremony without making a genuine commitment and therefore are not married in god s eyes right michael a covington associate research scientist artificial intelligence programs mcovingt ai uga edu the university of georgia phone athens georgia u s a amateur radio n tmi i think the last statement is dangerous i believe as long as someone has formally undertaken the responsibility of marriage they have a moral obligation even if their intention was not right other people are involved in the marriage covenant if they believed in good faith that a marriage occurred then i think there are obligations created to them of course there are situations where intent can cause a marriage not to exist the classic example is when it s done as part of a play but these are exceptions and should be clear to all parties clh
