The institution of marriage has become something of a political battlefield. How did marriage begin and why?

Through most of Western civilization, marriage has been more a matter of money, power and survival than of delicate sentiments. In medieval Europe, everyone from the lord of the manor to the village ...

There is no country, culture, religion or tradition that does not celebrate marriage. As I recount here a brief history of weddings I’ll confine it to our roots in Western civilization — I couldn’t ...

When Marcia Hams and Susan Shepherd cut into their wedding cake at city hall in Cambridge, Mass., on May 17, 2004, after becoming the first same-sex couple in the U.S. to complete a state-sanctioned ...

"Activist judges" are at it again. In a scene similar to that in Massachusetts just a year ago, last Friday a New York State Supreme Court ruled that same-sex couples cannot be denied a marriage ...