My sense is that a couple married exclusively in the church may be denied recognition of that marriage. Would the state do that?
I think they are vindictive. I think they would if they could.
In the Kentucky Marriage statute:
402.020 Other prohibited marriages.
(1) Marriage is prohibited and void:
(a) With a person who has been adjudged mentally disabled by a court of competent jurisdiction;
(b) Where there is a husband or wife living, from whom the person marrying has not been divorced;
(c) When not solemnized or contracted in the presence of an authorized person or society;
That underlined section suggests to me that a group such as the AMISH (a society?) can conduct their own marriages.
If so, then that kind of opening should also apply to other "societies". But I'm no lawyer, so my interpretation of that could be entirely wrong.
OK, trying to understand here. Thank you for taking the time.
“My sense is that a couple married exclusively in the church may be denied recognition of that marriage”
If there is no state involvement, I assumed that is the way it is now. What happens to a pastor that does it this way and is fine with not having any state recognition?
“Would the state do that?”
As punishment for not accepting whatever the latest impossible version of state marriage, some have speculated that pastors/clergy wouldn’t be authorized or marriage licenses issued. Some pastors/clergy have given up the civil side of it altogether as a protest and teaching tool about their belief about marriage, but I don’t know if the state they happened to be in has the same rule about having to have a license before ‘solemnizing’ a marriage, or if such a rule applies at all in the first place. I recall one Orthodox priest in particular stopped acting as a representative of the state. I don’t know if he required the couple to then get a license after or what.
I have read that some pastors/clergy refuse to perform a marriage with no state involvement, and the reason they give is the rule about having to have a marriage license before solemnizing a marriage, so it makes me think there is something to it. But I have never heard of a pastor being fined or prosecuted or what if any punishment there is for doing it.
Freegards