Postby Arkaeon » Tue Apr 12, 2011 1:46 pm
In most jurisdictions, you can officiate at a religious ceremony if you are a clergyperson of a legally filed/recognized religious organization (somewhere). The already available ministers may be able to simply send you a Certificate of Ordination under their own authority and/or filing. When I did my last wedding, my church was filed with the state here, which subsequently expired about the same time that the marriage I performed did, ironically enough. We decided that legal recognition as a religion was, in that case, not worth the few bucks a year filing/retention fee or filling out the annual renewal form. For about a dollar you can be a reverend or equivalent of the Universal Life Church, which is a total hokey-pokey but works, and you don't necessarily have to admit they are your source of "religious authority" on the wedding documents. You are all now Popes of the Erisian/Discordian Church, because I just appointed you as such, which (since you read this) neither requires your consent nor your participation, although I don't know if that church is filed officially anywhere these days. FSM-bless the eternal global-electromagnetic-quantum-matriculation of St. John the Blasphemer, who was here before my time!
If you want to do wedding ceremonies in USA as a Pastafarian, just file your chapter of CotFSM as a religious organization/corporation with your state, and all states pretty much have to respect any marriage you perform, unless they have unresolved sodomy-law precedents that are relevant to that marriage, in which case you'd have to appeal any denial. You'll probably need a president, vice president, and treasurer (looter?) or similar trivial requirements to qualify as such, and a few dollars. Your state cannot really ask questions or pass judgement on whether your theology is "legitimate" enough to be a "real" religion due to the 1st Amendment to the Constitution. They literally cannot judge in any way, unless you include criminal intentions in your charter.
If CotFSM/Pastafarianism is copyrighted or already filed by Bobby in USA, you may have to either get his permission to use the name, or file yourself as a "reformed" version of CotFSM (just claim that the primal sauce contained bleu cheese or something like that) and not infringe on any trademarks he legally holds, although I kinda doubt he'd sue you for using them anyway. Personally, I bet he'd love it.
I think you would have to file your petition for recognition as a religious organization in the state in which you reside legally, but your other officers might be able to be in other states. I'm in Illinois right now, but I'd help as best I can if you really mean to make a go of it. I have a few religious titles already, some recognized, some not. (Ironically, the ones I value most are in fact illegal as hell due to the nature of some of the oaths I took to potentially fulfill my obligations in dire circumstances, but others are still legal, I think.) At any rate, you can probably find a few Pastafarians near enough who would be game to play along. The Open Letter and Loose Canon prove that this is an overtly religious organization, wacky as it may be.
"If any here can show just cause that this marriage should not occur... piss off and have another bowl of fish 'ead stew and a mighty tankard of grogg!"
In case you didn't realize it, I DO have a sense of humor. How about you?
"I will not fear. Fear is the mind-killer... I will face my fear. I will let it pass over and through me, and when it has gone, only I will remain." --The Bene Gesserit
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"I'm not in the ship. I am the ship." -- River Tam
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