I'd be all for completely seperating the religious ceremony of "marriage" with the legal granting of a civil union.
I know that in the eyes of the state, a priest has the legal power to grant a civil union. But I don't know if he was granted that power solely by virtue of his taking of the Holy Orders, or if he actually had to pass some other set of criteria as set by the state, similar to a justice of the peace??? I don't know. If the latter is the case, then I'm ok with just the one ceremony, because the Justice of the Peace just happens to also be a priest, rabbi, etc, and the two people have chosen a certain elaborate ritual as their civil union rite. > > Besides I think a good argument can be made that by having priests, > ministers, pastors, rabbis, imams etc conducting state sanction > marriage violates the premise of the separation of church and state, > and provides an unacceptable state sanction of a religion. Accordingly > if people want to get married, they can get a civil union from any JP > etc when they get their marriage license. If they want the religious > ceremony they can have that as well. > > larry > ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~| Find out how CFTicket can increase your company's customer support efficiency by 100% http://www.houseoffusion.com/banners/view.cfm?bannerid=49 Message: http://www.houseoffusion.com/lists.cfm/link=i:5:163344 Archives: http://www.houseoffusion.com/cf_lists/threads.cfm/5 Subscription: http://www.houseoffusion.com/lists.cfm/link=s:5 Unsubscribe: http://www.houseoffusion.com/cf_lists/unsubscribe.cfm?user=11502.10531.5 Donations & Support: http://www.houseoffusion.com/tiny.cfm/54
