{"id":3733,"date":"2011-09-13T12:01:51","date_gmt":"2011-09-13T17:01:51","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/tonyjones\/?p=3733"},"modified":"2015-03-13T16:56:59","modified_gmt":"2015-03-13T21:56:59","slug":"there-are-two-marriages-part-five","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/tonyjones\/2011\/09\/13\/there-are-two-marriages-part-five\/","title":{"rendered":"There Are Two Marriages – Part Five"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

The Problem for Clergy<\/strong><\/p>\n

Whether one has a high view of ordained clergy, as many of my friends do, or a low view, as I do, performing marriage ceremonies that result in a legally binding contract is an extremely\u00a0problematic role for a clergyperson to be in. \u00a0When I was talking to Doug Pagitt about this last week, something became clear to us: there\u2019s a higher bar to being a notary public<\/a> than there is to being a member of the clergy<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

To wit, a notary must pass and exam, take an oath, and renew her license annually. \u00a0As a result, a notary is able:<\/p>\n

to administer\u00a0oaths and affirmations, take\u00a0affidavits and\u00a0statutory declarations,\u00a0witness and authenticate the execution of certain classes of documents, take acknowledgments of deeds and other conveyances, protest notes and bills of exchange, provide notice of foreign drafts, prepare marine or ship\u2019s protests in cases of damage, provide exemplifications and notarial copies, and perform certain other official acts.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

What a notary cannot do is bind two persons in marriage.<\/strong> That\u2019s left to a clergyperson who, in many states, is not even required to prove his ordination or his standing in an ecclesial community.<\/p>\n

Secondly, it is profoundly problematic that a legal marriage can be initiated by a clergyperson, but it cannot be undone by a clergyperson.<\/strong> In my own marriage, a clergyman bound me in marriage at the stroke of a pen, but it took lawyers, judges, and guardians ad litem to extricate me from that legal arrangement. \u00a0I\u2019m not saying that it should be easy to get divorced. \u00a0I\u2019m just saying that religious professionals should have no part of this civil function.<\/p>\n

If anything, we should let notaries public start performing marriages.<\/p>\n

There has been lots of criticism, voiced especially by the Hauerwasian Mafia<\/a>, that\u00a0mainline Protestantism of the mid-20th century became a \u201cchaplain to the culture.\u201d \u00a0That\u2019s a valid critique, and we\u2019ve largely changed that. \u00a0But the regular\u00a0occurrence\u00a0of clergy voluntarily acting as agents of the state is a strange vestige of a bygone era.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s time for clergy to take a stand and tell couples, \u201cI\u2019ll happily perform your wedding ceremony, but I will not sign your state-issued marriage license.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n

That\u2019s what I told my brother and his\u00a0fianc\u00e9e, and they took it fine.<\/p>\n

See all the posts in this series\u00a0here<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Problem for Clergy Whether one has a high view of ordained clergy, as many of my friends do, or a low view, as I do, performing marriage ceremonies that result in a legally binding contract is an extremely\u00a0problematic role for a clergyperson to be in. \u00a0When I was talking to Doug Pagitt about this […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6,32],"tags":[711,781],"class_list":["post-3733","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-christianity-in-america","category-same-sex-marriage","tag-marriage","tag-two-marriages"],"yoast_head":"\nThere Are Two Marriages - Part Five<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"The Problem for Clergy Whether one has a high view of ordained clergy, as many of my friends do, or a low view, as I do, performing marriage ceremonies\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/tonyjones\/2011\/09\/13\/there-are-two-marriages-part-five\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"There Are Two Marriages - 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