The point I think most people miss about the definition of marriage.

What I think most people are missing about "marriage" requiring the state to issue a license granting permission, is that it puts the state at the head of the relationship and you and your spouse are immediately under contract with the state. Unlike most contracts the rules governing marriage and divorce vary from state to state so your liabilities and agreements are subject to change according to your residency. This gives the state the right to determine who gets what and also puts children under the jurisdiction of the state. Other than the Federal government gives better income tax rates to couples, what is the advantage? Here, I might add that with the new Obamacare laws, having a federal tax advantage may no longer apply depending on your income bracket and selected insurance plan.

Having a contract that subjugates the terms of a relationship to the jurisdiction of a state and calling it marriage is not my understood definition of marriage as the definition passed down through the spiritual history of mankind. However, I'm not discrediting any contract verbal or written that is meaningful between people and legally binding according to the earthly laws governing the contract. Besides giving authority to rule over the relationship to the state, state sanctioned marriage partners may also have a pre-nuptual agreement that would follow them where ever they may reside in the event of the dissolution of the partnership. There may be other agreements that the partnership licensed by the state as a marriage is also limited to or defined by such as living wills, medical directives granting other than the spouse the right to make decisions on behalf of a patient and so forth. We can't control what people want to agree to or if they want to enter into legal contracts with the state and/or each other.

But, something quite different is a Holy Matrimony agreement between a man, a woman and God. This is IMHO indisputably the natural order of a spiritual union for the propagation of bringing children into this world.  If people think marriage exists as an agreement between other than that then I think they are missing the primary purpose and definition of marriage.

What do you think?