"It's just a piece of paper," a teenaged girl says to her father, referring to a marriage license. "What difference does a piece of paper make?"

Recent surveys indicate that a disturbing number of young adults in our society are living together without benefit of wedlock. "It's just a ceremony," they say. "What has a ceremony got to do with love?" Such is the spirit of our times.

We all know former president Jimmy Carter's commitment to marriage. He is reported to have sent a memo to his aides suggesting that any who were "living in sin" should become formally attached. Even he, however, had some fun with the wedding vows. When his former speech writer, Rick Hertzberg, married Michele Slung, Mr. Carter edited the vows in the marriage service as if it were a speech Hertzberg had written. …