# My mom, divorced 3 times, thinks gay marriage will "ruin" marriage.

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-mom-divorced-3-times-thinks-gay-marriage-will-ruin-marriage/587381>\
**Category:** Great Debates\
**Created:** [June 30, 2011, 1:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-mom-divorced-3-times-thinks-gay-marriage-will-ruin-marriage/587381 "2011-06-30T13:59:15Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 1\
**Showing post:** 13

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**Author:** ![BetsQ](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/fbc32d/32.png) [@BetsQ](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BetsQ)\
**Post date:** [June 30, 2011, 4:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-mom-divorced-3-times-thinks-gay-marriage-will-ruin-marriage/587381/13 "2011-06-30T16:30:07Z")

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> [@Bricker](#):
>
> The Church’s view of sacramental marriage is conditioned similarly: despite a putatively valid wedding, there must also be a real sacramental marriage, and an investigation after the fact reveals that there was not, then, despite the appearances, the time, and the children, it really wasn’t a marriage.

Apologies for the hijack, but I just don’t get this. **Bricker** , can you explain what a real sacramental marriage would consist of? How would one recognize whether the sacrament is real or not? Is it a tautological argument, that if the people in question split up, then clearly they didn’t have a sacramental marriage? Does the church ever refuse annulments, or is it just a formality?

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