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Woah there chief....

Praise them when/if they do the right thing. Not when/if they consider doing the right thing.

Else I will consider a devout life.
I will consider doing more charity work.
I will consider devoting all my financial resources to helping the poor and underprivlidged.

And then I will ask to be cannonized myself.. WHEE.. I'm a saint!

Actually I think over at http://www.ulc.org/ you can buy/donate your way to sainthood, but that's another story.

Yeah, but you get to answer the phone with: "Hello, Doctor Shajenko here." So I guess you can call yourself doctor as much as you want. Of course, instead of eight years in school, you can acomplish the same result by "buying" an inexpensive Doctor of Divinity from the Universal Life Church. $35.00 instead of eight years study. What a bargain!

Depending on your state, you should be able to have an online-ordained minister perform it, and their prices will vary, probably $100-$300.
I performed a wedding in Colorado in January, having been ordained by the Universal Life Church.

And yes, it is legal.

Oh, also I'm an ordained Priest of Universal Life Church but that ordination was probably done by the hand of Eris, nothing else. At least I can argue with a priest on the same level, both of us are the man of cloth, so to speak.

I'm also an ordained priest and the law never cut me any slack.

-a

It's a little harder in Minnesota. You have to actually be ordained by an actual church (which is easy and free thanks to ULC). You then have to get some official letterhead thinggie from the church and take it down to the licensing center, and pay $5.50.

They did do a very nice white dress/tux thing. I guess I was the only non-traditional thing there (and even I was in a suit which I surprisingly liked).

They didn't want some priest pushing them around, and she has something of a dislike for judges (for the exact opposite reason people would assume), so they asked some friends... and I was the only one who didn't back down when I realized that (A) They're serious, and (B) I'd have to speak in front of 200 people (:

I think it was April 26th, 1999, or shortly after. My fiancée and I were discussing when we should get married. My sister had a wedding coming up as well and we didn't want our weddings to conflict. I was thinking about this User Friendly comic and said "Well, we can eliminate May 19th, or none of our friends will be there."

My fiancée responded, "Well, we could have it May 19th, if we had it at the theater. . . ."

Went down and asked the local Edwards theater manager if we could have the wedding May 19th in the lobby. He had to check with Mr. Edwards himself, but we got the ok. People were already in line outside the theater.

I called the state for what was required to officiate a wedding. They referred me to the Universal Life Church, which I found offered on-line ordination. So I instant messaged a friend of mine at work and he went and got his ordination real quick, printing his certificate out at work (I think it still hangs in his cubicle). He agreed to dress as Qui Gon Gin and quote Yoda in the ceremony ("Do, or do not. There is no try.")

A friend of mine volunteered his for his wife, a very talented seamstress, to make our costumes. We set out to find the assorted props and such that we would need to complete the experience. I picked up a toy Han Solo blaster from Toys 'R Us. It was made of orange plastic. I used a black magic marker to color it black, adding a few highlights and scuffs.

We camped out overnight the last day, night and day before tickets went on sale. My boss gave me time off since he knew it was for getting hitched and all. We bought tickets for the first show after 5pm on the 19th (although a lot of the guests went to the midnight one too), so the most people could attend.

Everyone was in costume. I was Han Solo, she was Princess Leia and Darth Vader gave her away, Chewbaka was my best man while Boba Fett looked on. Jedis, with their lightsabers drawn, lined the isle. The ceremony music from the end of Episode 4 filled the lobby for the wedding march, and after the wedding we played the original celebration music from the end of Episode 6.

Then the manager let us all go straight to the theater to get good seats for the movie. No standing in line outside necessary (which some people had been doing all week). We lined up outside the theater while they finished cleaning it up. My wife and I walked down the line of guests and shook their hands. A reverse wedding line is much more efficient then a traditional one.

I ran to use the restroom before the movie started, and I ran into a guy who saw I was dressed up and said Did you hear someone got married out in the lobby?

I don't think The Reverend is a *real* Reverend though.

Many many people have ordinations they've obtained through groups like the Universal Life Church. They'll ordain anyone for the asking, and the title/rights/responsabilities are legal and "real" is most states. I'm an atheist, and I've performed 2 weddings with mine.

That said, I don't know if the The Rev. Brendan Powell Smith is really ordained, but there's no reason to think he hasn't.

You can even found an association with two people, upon which the other person leaves the association, and you have a single-member-association!

The moral is.. check out the law where you are, you might be surprised.

BTW, since organisations can register multiple domain names (any one see that changing? surely vericannfilias want to make money?) you could probably found a foundation with the sole purpose of registering domain names for individuals' use - with proper safeguards etc.

Come to think of it, the Universal Light Church (be ordained now! it's free) might be up for doing something like that ;-)

Seriously, I think there is NO incentive to make .org for (non-profit) organizations only..

Dr. Brown (Ph.D. in mechanical engineering, a discipline not noted for its rigorous requirements in evolutionary or for that matter any biology)

In any case, I don't just have a Ph.D.; I also am a Doctor of Divinity! Go visit the Universal Life Church -- for a mere $25 you could be one too! (It's free to become a regular "Reverend" -- and you can become one on the web site.)

You can become an ordained minister in 5 mins. Try this out. I did it! I now walk around secretly marrying people. Now, if only I could become a sea captain online, I could also marry people at sea!

Well, as an ordained minister in the Universal Life Church, I could go talk to him. I should probably get my certificate framed to get more credibility though. Wait, that's like a 15 hour drive from Kansas City... fuck it - I'm going to get thai food this afternoon. Can't go chat with some Russian fellow.

You don't need to pay anyone to become a minister, a fact that I'm sure the spammers didn't mention. In fact the Universal Life Church will ordain you over the internet for free!

They are extremely non-denominational. As far as I can tell, the only bit of required theology is to believe that spam is a sin. I was ordained two years ago and have had one email from them since.

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You don't need to pay anyone to become a minister, a fact that I'm sure the spammers didn't mention. In fact the Universal Life Church will ordain you over the internet for free!

They are extremely non-denominational. As far as I can tell, the only bit of required theology is to believe that spam is a sin. I was ordained two years ago and have had one email from them since.

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Ah, the catch is, you can't use 'no faith', you could use, for example, faith in not.

Here in the states, we don't have a nationalized sales tax, but non profits, including churches, most private schools, clubs, community org's, etc., don't have to pay any taxes at all, sales or otherwise. Of course if you get paid by one of these agencies, you still have to pay taxes, but if you are, chances are you're in a very low tax bracket [i.e., you make no money.]

There is a group already in existence called the Universal Life Church, that looks pretty interesting. Just reading up on them now.

"The church has two tenets: the absolute right of freedom of religion and to do that which is right. Anything else within the law is allowed."

If you accept atheism as religion, then this church accepts you as a member, and in fact a minister apparently (for free).

The founder seems to believe in "God", but apparently he's written something like Jefferson's Bible. I'm not saying it's the same, I haven't read it, but it's his own version.

Yes, Thomas Jefferson wrote his own version of the Bible that leaves out all the Son of God, miracles, and other mythology stuff, with the goal of providing a philosophical, non-religious look at Jesus's ethical teachings. It's actually the Bible used to swear in members of congress!

Seriously!

I think that the Universial Life Church still ordains just about anyone. For a donation of $1 at one time, they'd send you an official document. If you want to be a priest without the pesky theology, this is as good a way as any.

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Don't forget that you too can become a minsiter online for free and for life! Take part of marriges, tax exemptions, etc.! No questions asked, no one will be denied!

http://www.ulc.org/ This is not a joke!