There is only one way to deal with this and that is to remove Government from the situation entirely. It’s none of their business how consenting adults chose to order their lives. There’s no good reason for it in the tax code or anywhere else for that matter.
Marriage should be between the participants and the church of their choice. Anything else can be handled by contract lawyers.
Nice in theory, but it would turn the simple question "Is Bob married" into a complicated examination of the contracts to which Bob was subject, and could easily lead to a situation in which some people would regard Bob as married while other people did not. A total mess. To be sure, such situations can also arise in states with Common Law marriage, but having everyone draft up their own "marriage contracts" would make things even worse.
Agreed and seconded. The government getting involved with it only gives it more power, and makes it larger.