Quote:
Originally Posted by WillowTheWhisp
For example, the Catholic church will not perform marriages of divorced people. Our church has no problem with that. The law of this land says that divorced people are permitted to remarry but doesn't go to the point of insisting that the Catholic church must perform such marriages.
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The basic difference is that marriages can have a religious component, which is in addition to the civil component set up under law. Adoptions don't. If memory serves, the Catholic Church regards marriage as a sacrament. Adoption is not a sacrament. While religions may have adoption agencies, they do not have legal or religious jurisdiction over the adoption. It's a comparison of apples and oranges.
Marriages can happen in a church. Adoptions cannot (at least, not in the USA - I'm assuming that the UK is the same?).