A Tax On Reason

Suppose you have friends who wish to get married and they ask if you can perform the ceremony for them...

You can do just that.

Here in Santa Clara County California you have two options. You can hop online, and if your printer is warmed up, become a minister with all the power to perform weddings in less time than it will take to finish reading this.

A Google search for become a minister online for free yields 50,300,000 results. The top result is from The Universal Life Church Monastery claiming over 20 million ministers ordained worldwide. They've been around since before the internet, and ask very little in the way of faith or dogma of their ordained clergy. I recommend them, they do good work. When my wife and I were married, our minister was from the ULC, and we've lasted over 20 years! No troubles right?

Now suppose your friends are atheists...

Yes, atheists, as in not believing in theism. (If the word atheist bothers you, you might find it more comfortable if you think of it pronounced like the word asymmetrical.) Your friends simply don't believe things without evidence, they base their decisions on facts and reason. This doesn't mean that they are all logic and no emotion. You've seen them shed tears to Mozart, and tremble before a van Gogh, and stare in wonder at the milky way. They are happy and loving people, and they are asking you, a friend, to join them, and they just don't feel comfortable (and perhaps a bit militant) that such a joining should not require that the word church be affixed to their marriage certificate.

There is another way...

Here in Santa Clara (and many other locals around the nation) you can become a One-Time Deputy Marriage Commissioner!

Yes, you can present yourself to the Clerk-Recorder's Office during Marriage License business hours, show your government issued ID, and pay a fee of $80 (it varies by jurisdiction) so you can for a 6 day period perform one (1) ceremony.

Or you could become a minister with the ability to perform as many wedding ceremonies as you wish. Online. Now. Free.

To say it makes sense that a non-religious person must go through these additional steps and costs to perform a wedding ceremony is not only an attack on reason, it is a tax on reason.

Sun, 31 Jan 2010 17:11:02 PST - Link