2011-01-18, 05:19 PM
Shidoshi Wrote:Question, how does it work if you want to marry but you don't belong to the most widespread religion in the US? Do you just take it with your religion and with the government?
So could you simply pretend that you belong to a religion you created in which gay marriage is possible and then file papers with the city hall? (this would mainly be for couples that are not thoroughly religious).
I mean, say there is a certain religion that's fine with gay marriage, can you marriage under it on the US currently or do you have to abide by the official religion?
The USA does not have an official religion, but it does have a list of recognized ones. You can't just make up a religion and expect it to have all the rights of the existing ones.
Also, the state is not required to accept religious marriages that contradict state laws. For example, some religions allow 13 year olds to get married, or first cousins, or people who are already married to others (polygamy). The state can't tell the church what ceremonies it can perform (unless someone is getting raped or something), but it can easily refuse to register such marriages.
BTW, this might be the right place to point out that the state also doesn't dictate to clergy which ceremonies they are required to perform. An Orthodox Jewish Rabbi, for example, would never officiate at a wedding of a Jew with a non-Jew. Nor would he marry a man named Cohen to a woman who is a divorcee. His religion forbids it, and while the state allows these marriages, it doesn't require any Rabbi (or other clergyman) to perform them.
Some anti-gay-marriage activists would have you believe that if gay marriage were legalized, churches would somehow be required to perform them or suffer government censure. This is absurd.