Portland Legislator Tries To Ban Clergy From Marrying
Every now and then a piece of legislation is proposed that is so absurd, that it seems like it must certainly be one of those unsubstantiated, internet, urban legends. So when another pastor e-mailed something about L.D. 779 I laughed and thought, "That's ridiculous; that can't be for real." But sports fans, L.D. 779 is for real. It is titled, "An Act To Remove Clergy As Signatories On Marriage Licenses."
This legislation is being sponsored by Boyd Manley (D-Portland). I looked the legislation up and found that it simply takes the current law, which stipulates who may perform weddings in this grand state of ours, and removes any and all references to anyone with any kind of religious affiliation.
If this legislation were to somehow pass, the only people in
Now, getting real for a minute, I don't know if this is a publicity stunt by Representative Manley or if he is trying to throw some kind of political bone to his homosexual constituents. Either way, this legislation doesn't stand a chance of passing--my opinion--never-the-less, we must take it seriously because history shows us repeatedly that the unthinkable of today, becomes the doable of tomorrow. Remember there was a day when the thought of killing one's baby in-utero was so preposterous that it didn't even get mentioned.
It is never a safe practice to try and assign motive to one's actions but it is probably safe to assume that Manley figures that it is the religious community standing in the way of homosexual marriage (he's correct) and so one way of avoiding that is to remove the religious element from marriage altogether.
Again, I don't believe this Portland Representative is serious as far as thinking it will actually pass, but it is a trial balloon of sorts and if there isn't strong resistance, it will be reappear over and over again until, like so many other social issues that were once forbidden, this will be come the law of the land.
It would behoove the Christian community to let their legislators know what they think of such a godless idea.
posted by PB at 3:34 PM
1 Comments:
Technically, if this bill becomes law, then pastors, priests and ministers could still perform a marriage ceremony.
The marriage would not be recognized by the State until a judge, lawyer, or notary public solemnized (or validated) it, however.
Other than that technical distinction, I agree with Pastor Cripe's assessment of the bill itself, but remain uncertain about the motivation behind the bill.
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