In our western world the church officiates at such ceremonies, while the state passes laws governing the official status of marriage, divorce, common-law marriages, and illegal abuses of marriage, such as polygamy. The Bible is clear one man, one woman, for life. The laws of our nation and individual states governing marriage are for the protection of both partners, as well as any children that are born because of this union, the greater family of both partners and children, and ultimately the state and nation itself.
Marriage is a basic building block of society and culture.
The most widely known experiment in abolishing marriage came in Russia, just after the communist revolution a little over 80 years ago. It is a matter of scientific fact and documentation that men and women simply living together did not work i.e., the havoc caused by juvenile crime and gangs, the immorality and breakdown of values and order all caused the Russian communist rulers to re-institute marriage.