Gettin' hitched

Getting government out of the marriage business has long been a libertarian idea. Unless you hold the state in much higher regard than it deserves, there's no reason to have government officials endorsing some relationships, and denying their sanction to others. Really, marriage, in my opinion, should be a personal matter between the people getting married, the people with whom they want to celebrate, and the representatives of their faiths -- or lack thereof.

That would certainly bypass all of the debate over gay marriage, polygamy, and whatever other variations people might come up with out of their fertile imaginations.

All of the legal and financial accretia that make civil marriage so "necessary" in some people's eyes could be handled by contract.

Now it looks like the idea of getting government out of the marriage business is gaining some mainstream momentum. Seattle Times staff columnist Danny Westneat raised the idea in a recent column.

I have long thought the solution to the marriage fight is to get government out of the marriage business. Let churches marry — or refuse to marry — whomever they choose. Have the state support families through civil contracts. For the most part, families are what they define themselves to be.

That's exactly my view, and it's a rare thing for me to be able to say that about anything written by a newspaper staffer.

I don't expect government to leave marriage alone as a private matter anytime soon, but it's nice to see the idea in play.