Observations and inanities by a second-shift assistant supervisor in the Puppy-Grinding division of the Evil Atheist Conspiracy® (our motto: "Sure it's cruel, but think of the jobs!"), your host, Brent Rasmussen.
Move over, Elvis.
Atheist seeks same access to altar as fake Liberaces, Elvises
LAS VEGAS - In a city launched by shotgun weddings and quickie divorces, which offers the chance to be wed by faux Liberaces, King Tuts and Grim Reapers, there remains at least one nuptial taboo: you can't be married by an atheist.
Michael Jacobson, a 64-year-old retiree who calls himself a lifelong atheist, tried this year to get a license to perform weddings. Clark County rejected his application because he had no ties to a congregation, as state law requires. So Jacobson and attorneys from two national secular groups — the American Humanist Association and the Center for Inquiry — are trying to change things. If they can't persuade the state Legislature to rework the law, they plan to sue.
Jacobson, who spends most afternoons reading online or dining at a nearby buffet, is an admittedly reluctant plaintiff. But he's willing to fight on principle, recalling one time he couldn't: In the 1960s, the Army demanded that his dogtags note his religion. He reluctantly chose Judaism, which reflected his ancestry if not his beliefs.
"One of the things I like to do is stand up and say I'm a non-believer, so you know you're not alone," he said recently.
Amen! (Er, you know what I mean.)
Read the whole article, but this seems to be a pretty clear-cut case of discrimination against those who profess no religion. Evidently the original law was enacted to limit those who wanted to cash-in on the Vegas reputation for quickie marriages, saying that ministers could conduct marriage ceremonies only as part of their incidental duties to their congregation. Not that it worked, of course. So now you have what can only be characterized as a mockery of religion in the form of goofy, gimmicky wedding "chapels" - but you can't be married by someone who is honest about their lack of god-belief. Because that would be "wrong".
Jim Downey
(HT to ML.)
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Stop mocking religion!!
How is Las Vegas not a mockery of religion? SRSLY, if you want to get married, it must be done by a representative of a TRUE religion! Like when I was wed. By Cardinal Sinnius Vice. An ordained, um, something, in the church of whatchamacallit. But all legal-pegal, in Maryland no less. You can tell it's a real church he represents because hey, no crappy wine as sacrament; he brings 15-year-old single-malt scotch. And if that ain't proper religion, then nothing is.
First Church of Elvis
It would be nice to think that this could be the beginning of the end of the unholy entanglement of church and state that is marriage today, but I won't hold my breath.
BTW, I say "amen" all the time. It's just an affirmation; nothing intrinsically religious about it. Let's take it back!