[NutCrackerBoy]

Since when did marriage become a government-sanctioned event instead of a church-sanctioned event?

Oh, right around the Middle Ages. Wherever there has been a secular state, it has created laws to protect young women from abandonment. Stable coupling, i.e. family units being the building blocks of civilization, requires us to point guns at the heads of men to do the right thing by their wives and children.

[Henrietta]

"requires us to point guns at the heads of men to do the right thing by their wives and children."

Yes, but why can't the relatives of the wives and children do that, instead of the government?