I struggled to find the right word, and "sanctify" was as close as I could come.

Unless I'm mistaken, clerics are currently given power to make marriages legal. Maybe it's just that they act as a witness or something and I'm wrong. But my understanding is that they work as an extension of the government. ("By the power vested in me by the state of Texas" and so forth.) And that they get that power simply by being a cleric in a recognized church. (Maybe there's some simple paperwork or something, but a layperson couldn't just go down and do it the same way.)

If you require that a direct governmental representative be the person to authorize the marriage and not allow clerics to be such a person (unless they also happen to be employed by the government for that purpose), then that would help ameliorate my concerns. Of course, that's all contingent on the term "marriage" being stricken from the law books, too, which, again, isn't going to happen.