Alasdair -

What is proposed is, in fact, how it works in most states. To obtain the "civil/legal benefits of union" you get a marriage license and have a suitable witness attest that both parties to the union have agreed to the civil terms of the agreement. In most cases the person authenticating the civil contract does so by signing off on the license and returning it to the civil office that issued the license.

The execution of the license gets you the civil status of "married." In most states, the licensed civil contract is the only way to obtain these civil (legal) benefits, although some states may recognize a "common law marriage" - if you act married you are, in matters of civil law.

To observe and make vows in accordance with ones faith, it is permitted that the agreement to be married may be made in the presence of appropriate representatives of one's faith, and whatever rituals prescribed by one's belief may be observed. By doing so one enters into "holy matrimony."

For the state to prescribe any religious ritual associated with the marriage license would be a violation of the First Amendment to the Constitution, since it would amount to establishing a religious rule. The license only makes you legally obligated to fulfill a civil contract, and makes it a public record so that the rest of the civil community can know your legal status in the community.

In principle, the state could not object if you chose to observe the sacraments of your faith, by entering into a "sacred marriage" without benefit of the civil contract. Unfortunately, prior attempts to insert religious doctrine in civil law have made cohabitation and other "activities" associated with it illegal if done without the license in many places.

To assert that a "civil license" is required to observe a sacrament of one's faith is an insult to my faith. Apparently some aren't so faithful.

John