/johnny
“Why is government involved in a Holy Sacrament to begin with? “
When you mention “government” don’t think of Washington, DC and the festering morass that the Federal Government has become. Instead think of government at its earliest beginnings and smallest unit. Think of the village or the extended family.
To answer your question:
To keep Big Caveman from knocking you over the head because he wants your woman.
To cut down on the number of unsupported children running around. (original intent - this function of government abdicated several decades ago)
To publicly establish commitment between man & wife.
I read a SciFI novel back in the 60’s called “Earth Abides” (George R. Stewart - 1949) one of the early “after the Apocalypse” novels. The protagonist slowly accumulates a band of survivors and begins to reestablish a society. He has to deal with this issue of roving, uncommitted males looking to have their pleasure and move on, leaving the products thereof to be raised & supported by others.
The need for the larger community to establish, support & defend the institution of marriage was stated in the beginning by God. Man, in his infinite wisdom (/ sarc), continually tried to abandon “marriage”, only to find that God had a number of really good reasons for establishing it.
Strong evidence, multiple evidences support the idea that He REALLY does know what He is doing.
I don’t know, maybe encouraging stability and responsibility that started with the Mycenaeans from a Western Civilization standpoint. Marriage and government coincided with each other way back in those days and continued all the way to today. In America before the 16th Amendment and expansion thereof the people did not have to worry about tax credits and stuff like that because they policed themselves in that regard plus the tax liability was not an issue because they understood why the Mycenaeans did what they did.. Enter big government, with a resentful Libertarian view and ta-da, 4,000 years of correct stability down the drain. Also, was a nifty way at organizing society thus the tradition of the wife to take the husband’s last name, would not want incest to be a problem one example...
Government or authority generally has been for many, many centuries, even before Christianity.
It makes things like a Brad Pitt & Angie Jolie divorce easier.
So they can make a buck off of divorce
That’s what I wonder.