Except, I didn't say they were a 'matchmaker,. I said they've been 'involved in'. Often under the same reasons you cite for 'regulation' - taxes, property, and inheritance.

You dismiss the earliest involvements because they aren't as destructive or intrusive as the West has been in the last 50 to 100 years. You even ignore the church's long secular regulation of marriages - including "proper" ways to have your marriage officiated, how to divide your estate to your heirs (only recognized if you were in the church, otherwise your assets were seized), and how much tithing you should render based on how much if God's blessing you received via sons.

Any of that sound familiar? It sounds like property, inheritance, and taxes to me. By a secular and (eventually) supranational government of corrupt men seeking power, money, and control no less.

We have been so far separated from the original natural, Godly concept of marriage that many "religious marriage only" notions still consider it only valid if a man pretending to be holy tells you it's so.