While I’m sure Republican Mike Turner and his cohorts didn’t intend it, their recent submission to the legal calendar is likely to backfire on their plans to shut down marital unions between homosexual couples.
The plan, which Republicans state will get Oklahoma out of the business of marriage altogether, leaves the marital rite as a simple matter of…well…faith. It would forgo the traditional marriage license and allow any church to perform any marriage rite it saw fit (within certain boundaries I’m sure).
I actually think that’s a good idea. I think that’s a great idea in fact. As an ordained member of the clergy for a number of years (different state, but similar rules), I have only been able to perform marriages legally if a state issued license was present. If my state were to adopt legislation like this, I’d be free to marry any couple that met the specifications I set forth; consenting, mature adults who love one another. The Southern Baptist Convention can continue denying the marriage rite to anyone they want to, and I can provide it to whomever I wish to.
I’d bet that these lawmakers have forgotten that even their state contains a certain contingency of liberal believers and churches that would be overjoyed by the ability to freely practice their religious rites, which are currently outlawed by the current law. I’d also bet that they aren’t thinking about the fact that would open up the flood gates for ordained ministers for the Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster, Dudism, and various other mock religions full of tolerance and love for our LGBTQI friends to begin performing ceremonies at will.
So, good luck Oklahoma. You have my undying support on the passage of this bill. This may be exactly what it takes for OK to become the GO TO place to get married if you live in a place that won’t recognize your union. Tourism is about to pick up big time, and the Oklahoma ban on marriage will make this state?a beacon of marriage equality.
