Is the institution defunct?

[hoosiermama]

As a person who has long held a view of marriage as a spiritual institution, I have to tell you that my experiences of the past year have left me completely disoriented and disillusioned in that regard. I thought I was married to someone who held the same view; I thought we belonged to churches that supported that ideology. However, none of those things turned out to be true, and I wonder if I am simply hopelessly idealistic. I see where you're coming from.