Oaths

The word oath is rather an old fashioned word and basically means 'a solemn promise'. There are some professions that require an oath before you start e.g. MPs, doctors, those in the armed forces, but on the whole the thought of making an oath for most of us is strange. Our society has changed over recent years; since the sixties things have moved on quite rapidly, and recently there has been a drive from our leaders to change almost everything. It seems to me that our Government and particularly the previous Government seemed to look at everything that happened in the past as bad. If you look at 'New Labours' record you will see that they tried to change Britain totally. With the influx of immigrants 'New Labour' tried and I think almost succeeded in destroying certain parts of our society. They tried to destroy Parliamentary traditions; one of the things Tony Blair did was change Prime Ministers question time from being a twice weekly affair to once a week. His Government changed the House of Lords and also brought in a 'Supreme Court', as if the old way of doing things was bad.

I have highlighted just a few things there but if we look at our history you will quickly find many, many things have changed. I am not against change, I just do not see the reason for changing things for changes sake, which is what I believe has happened in a lot of cases.

I believe it is very important that if we agree to something we shouldn't change our mind. I believe that as our society evolves we need to keep some absolutes and I believe one of these is marriage and the 'marriage vows or oath'. When I married Val I went into my marriage with the clear intention of being married to her until the day I die. I have been married for over 13 years and I love her to bits. Within our society many people no longer marry and many of those who do marry end up getting divorced. I believe that over recent years the marriage vows have been said without much thought as to what is being said. Here is a version of the marriage vows:

I, ____, take you, ____, to be my (husband/wife). I promise to be true to you in good times and in bad, in sickness and in health. I will love you and honour you all the days of my life. I, ____, take you, ____, for my lawful (husband/wife), to have and to hold, from this day forward, for better, for worse, for richer, for poorer, in sickness and in health, until death do us part.

Today for many people those words are just that, words, they do not consider what they are saying. Over recent times these words have been diluted to the point that people do not even consider them to be a vow or an oath. I am a Christian and unfortunately I know many Christian marriages which have ended in divorce; I know that sometimes there are irreconcilable differences, I know there can be severe problems within any marriage. I know that one partner can be abusive, a partner can commit adultery, there are many reasons people can divorce. I am not against divorce, and I do understand why some people get divorced. What I do not understand is why someone who makes a solemn oath does not commit to that oath, and what I do not understand is if someone commits adultery and divorces their wife, for example, how can they then remarry and repeat vows to the person they are marrying that they said to their previous wife!!!!

Think about it, you make an oath, a promise, a vow, a covenant, call it what you like to 'forsake all others until death us do part', think about those words and what they mean. And then after you have left your wife and run off with another woman you decide to get married to them and you repeat those same words, don't you think that is a bit perverse? As a Christian the marriage vows take on an added level because not only do you make an oath unto your wife but you make an oath unto God. To me this makes adultery and divorce even more repellent, then add to this repellent behaviour you then marry the person you have committed adultery with in a religious ceremony and repeat vows that you made in your previous marriage.

If you start to think about the oath and what is said during the marriage ceremony, and what you as the couple are saying it really is important. They are not 'just words', they are a covenant which, as is said within the marriage ceremony 'no-one should enter into lightly'.

Society has changed and is constantly changing but that does not mean that everything that went on in the past was bad or old fashioned or out of date. I believe God created marriage for a reason and I believe that in our modern day, ever changing world we need things which do not change. As society continues to change I believe marriage is something that can hold society together and bring stability into many peoples lives, especially children. The facts speak for themselves, more relationships break down from those who are co-habiting than those are married. Children need stability and marriage brings that. So if you are not married and are thinking about getting married, don't enter into into it lightly, because when you make those vows they are lifelong.