There are no pedophiles in the church that this author is an ordained Minister of, so we are we being denied our rights?
Because Catholics. Anglicans, Orthodox and Baptists run the western world, that’s why.
F**k them and f**k oppressive monopolies.
Equal rights for all religions.
That’s what I say.
We will see what the court does.
Hello friends, the time has finally come. For more than four years, the state of Tennessee has used just about every legal trick in the book to delay justice, but we’re excited and nervous to announce that our trial finally begins tomorrow in Nashville.
As a reminder, in June of 2019, the state legislature of Tennessee passed a law that was specifically designed to prohibit ministers who were ordained by the Universal Life Church from solemnizing legal marriages. We immediately took them into federal court, and were successful in temporarily blocking the law while we awaited a decision.
Since then, we’ve been whipped back-n-forth and up-n-down by state and county attorneys seemingly desperate to avoid accountability on this issue.
We believe the anti-ULC law is blatantly unconstitutional in its mechanism of specifically ripping rights away from ministers of the Universal Life Church while maintaining them for ministers of more “traditional” churches.
We could theorize day-and-night why the state legislature took this action in the first place, but should the law be upheld, the ultimate effect – and ultimate fear – is that apart from ministers like you, the people who will end up suffering the most are those who are already the most marginalized in our communities: people in interfaith relationships, interracial relationships, same-sex relationships, and people who are struggling through poverty while trying to build their families.
These are congregants you have a constitutional right to serve, and we know how many of you have been living in fear that one day this law could take effect and deny you the ability to help them – or anyone else, for that matter.
We’ve been working extremely hard on this, we believe we have a strong case, and we have no choice but to hope that the court system will see this law for what it is and bury it once and for all.
We also wanted to thank all of you for your support through this painful process, and we are asking for your thoughts, prayers, good vibes… whatever you have to offer as we head into the courtroom.
