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“Not in any state that I’m aware of.”

I think you’re either having a great deal of difficulty understanding this concept or are intentionally being obtuse. I’m tending towards the latter. But on the off chance that you’re simply not understanding, I’ll try to explain it one more time.

There are really two forms of marriage. The first type is sacramental marriage is performed in a church or temple. It is a religious ceremony. For those of us who are religious, it is the important marriage. IT DOES NOT REQUIRE A MARRIAGE LICENSE. It is a religious ceremony, hard stop. You can get married in a church WITHOUT a license. With Sacramental marriage you are married in the eyes of God and that church, but it is not a state sanctioned marriage. From the point of view of the state, you are not married.

There is also civil marriage that is licensed by the state. This is the secular marriage that has become so popular with homosexuals. It is not sacramental marriage and need not be performed in a church. A judge can do it. You have to get a license to get a civil marriage. Civil marriage is also required for you to be considered married when dealing with taxes, inheritances, etc. From the point of view of a CHURCH you are not married if you have the civil marriage but not the religious marriage ceremony.

Most people are BOTH sacramentally AND civilly married. That is they get a marriage license to get state recognition and then they have their marriage performed in a church to do the sacramental marriage ceremony. Ministers can and usually do obtain authorization from the state to solemnize state marriages. So in effect they’re doing BOTH types of marriage at the same time. That’s the tradition in the US. It is NOT required to do both at the same time and some people choose do either SACRAMENTAL or CIVIL marriage but not both.

There is no legal requirement whatsoever to do a SACRAMENTAL marriage if you are civilly married, and conversely there is no legal requirement whatsoever to obtain a CIVIL marriage license if you are SACRAMENTALLY married.

In other countries you must do the civil and religious ceremony separately. The US merely simplifies the process for most people who want to do both.

The point that this article seeks to make is that the state should get out of the marriage business entirely, and I agree with that. There is nothing much to be gained by civil marriage at this point which cannot be obtained by carefully structuring your affairs. For those who are religious, the SACRAMENTAL marriage is what matters anyway.