By Richard Engle

As reported in the Tulsa World on January 14, 2014, U.S. Senior District Judge Terence Kern ruled that Oklahoma's ban on marriage equality is unconstitutional. He described Oklahoma's law as "an arbitrary, irrational exclusion of just one class of Oklahoma citizens from a governmental benefit."

There is a single sure fire way to prevent legal gay marriages in Oklahoma. Indeed, while it will seem extreme, it is something God fearing Oklahomans should have done long ago.

End all "legal" marriage!

Government must acknowledge private contracts and allow access to civil courts for disputes. Our state government must also advocate for the interests of children from time to time, as needed. A marriage license is not a prerequisite to either of these.

Marriage is a private relationship, endorsed by God, and it should not be subject to licensing by the state. For most of human history, government did not grant marriage licenses and it never should have gotten into the business of licensing it. When government licenses a thing it is taking on the power to regulate it. When regulating something, government defines it.

Words mean things, and laws must be made of words that preexist the laws. Government is not, and must not be in the business of writing a dictionary!

Today many civil libertarians want to expand the definition to create "marriage equality" and allow persons of the same sex to marry. The definition of words should never have become a political debate. It was the very interference of government into a sacred institution that created this debate. If government never licensed marriage, and was granting no special privileges to those who fulfilled the requirements of legal marriage (including common law) and instead treated individuals as exactly that -- individuals, then we would not be facing any political consideration whatsoever.

Indeed, the words of the federal judge betray him on the issue of individuality stating that, "Equal protection is at the very heart of our legal system… It is not a scarce commodity to be meted out begrudgingly or in short portions. Therefore, the majority view in Oklahoma must give way to individual constitutional rights."

America's founding fathers created a government that recognized the rights of individuals, not groups, not even the smallest of groups, a couple.

The best resolve, and the only one that will prevent government from recognizing gay marriage, is to get government out of the marriage business altogether.

Oklahoma law should be revised to remove special privileges and special responsibilities for marriage, including ending the marriage license.

Family law, which applies to persons not married, would need no revision. Parental rights and responsibilities would not change as laws have long ago been adapted to deal with the prevalence of unmarried parentage.

More importantly, the social institution of marriage could return to the church where it should have been left all along. Persons of faith who do not wish to participate in a relationship that is equivalent to the relationship of two persons of the same sex would not find themselves in a moral quandary when considering their marital plans.

As a minister of the gospel (my degree is in theology and I spent several years as a Pastor), I have been asked to officiate a marriage ceremony without a license as the young couple finds the premise to be a usurpation of God's authority, and they believe it would be interpreted as an acquiescence with gay marriage which they find errant. I fully agree and will gladly perform the ceremony.