how political or holy is your marriage? ...and if you're married, do you see your marriage as either political or holy?

Since you're not legally married until you sign a bunch of paperwork and obtain a license, I'd say at the end of the day marriage is political/legal. Sure, you can say you're married if you only get married by a priest, but that's not legally actionable in court (if you did NOT also get a license), and you wouldn't even have to file for divorce if you decided to break up - you'd just break up. (However, your priest may have something else to say on the matter...)

Though there are usually a lot of religious trappings surrounding marriage, it's always been a political/legal move. People married (and still marry) for wealth, status, and to cement alliances, and in some countries they still practice arranged marriage. That's why even though Henry VIII was the religious head of his country, he still had to legally divorce (or out-live...) his wives before he could marry again.

nice one DavidCommaGeek thanks. so you mean the "element" of its holiness comes in if one get married by a priest?
LOL!

The act of getting married is a mutual agreement largely for the benefit of securing rights for any offspring from the arrangement.

The public display is to have witnesses to ratify the contract.

To what extent any government choses to recognize the agreement for the purposes of executing of estates, or taxation benefits, accordingly, can very.

The fact of the matter is that there are 'other' mutual arrangements in-which two or more people may be living together that should probably be recognised, but all-too-often aren't.

Take for example, two brothers, or two sisters, or a brother and a sister, or an aunt and a niece.

(The Combinations Are Unending, Not Exempt The Gay Community)

So, why should a government care to know who is married and who isn't? Maybe, the very act of 'asking that' is a loaded-question, fraught with contention.