Jerry Lee Lewis marries 13 year old in Mississippi
Posted on 04/05/2022 3:29:01 PM PDT by Ennis85
A Republican-proposed bill in Tennessee would remove the age limit for when couple's could exchange wedding vows and clear the way for 'common-law marriages' between 'one man and one woman.'
Representative Tom Leatherwood, 65, of Arlington, introduced the bill into the state's House that would eliminate the current age requirement of 17 and allow for 'alternative forms of marriage' to those who 'conscientiously object to the current pathway to marriage.'
'So, all this bill does is give an alternative form of marriage for those pastors and other individuals who have a conscientious objection to the current pathway to marriage in our law,' the Republican father-of-five said, according to WJHL. 'There is not an explicit age limit.'
Opponents are worried if the bill passes into law, it could be used to cover up child sex abuse and statutory rape.
Democratic Nashville Representative Mike Stewart, 57, called the bill a 'get-out-of-jail-free card for people who are basically committing statutory rape.'
'I mean it’s completely ridiculous, so that’s another reason why this terrible bill should be eliminated,' he said. 'I don’t think any normal person thinks we shouldn’t have an age requirement for marriage.'
Tennessee is currently the 13th largest state per capita for child marriages, trailing Texas, Alabama, Utah, Oklahoma, and Nevada, which is tops since 2018. Texas has married roughly 42,000 children, the biggest number of children per state, while California has married off roughly 24,000 and Tennessee almost 10,000.
Under the current Tennessee law, a person can get married as young as 17 as long as they have parental consent. It only became illegal for minors under the age of 17 to get married in 2018. Prior to that, Tennesseans could bypass the age requirement as long as a judge waived the age limit through parental consent.
(Excerpt) Read more at dailymail.co.uk ...
If that change in the law makes it okay for a priest/pastor to perform a common-law marriage between a man and woman as an alternative form of marriage, because they object to a licensed marriage which can also be performed for same sex couples-then I say hell yeah-the LGBT bunch wanted licensed marriage for same sex couples and got it over the objections of most normal people-so let common law marriage between only a man and woman be a form of protest by normal people-it is about time...
Texas has had common law marriage for a couple of centuries or so-my 1st hubby and I had one for 5 years before we finally got a license-we did not believe that the state should sell licenses or regulate marriage-that is for the church to do, but due to parental pleading-they wanted us to have a big wedding and reception, so we did-we did get a lot of great stuff for our house...
I disagree that “teens” are too young and fragile to marry-or assume other adult responsibilities at 16-17-it depends on the family they grew up in whether they are able to or not-kids are being coddled and spoiled far beyond the age they should be personally responsible-I think that is 16 for most-certainly by 17. I assumed adult responsibilities at age 16-not unusual in my family, even now-went to live with someone who was 19 and in college-I had a cub, etc-it didn’t work out well, but that was not due to either of us being irresponsible, not paying our bills, etc-his whole family were liberals from Miami-he did not want to be in a relationship or be a dad-he went back to Florida, never did much, died young of morbid obesity ...
Thank you for pointing that out-agree!
I have a feeling that’s a first-communion dress.
Jerry Lee Lewis marries 13 year old in Mississippi
This article is moot. The bill has already been amended by the original author to set the age limit at 18.
Nah, in my personal experience, one always makes an error just when getting on the grammatical high horse.
“Mind your pronoun cases,” I always say. “It’s what sets us apart from the savages.”
A dad and a daughter making her First Communion.
Totally.
But... what about cases like a 16 year old girl is with child with her 17 year old boyfriend? Does the current law prevent marriage in that case assuming all parties are willing?
I'm no fool, I know teen marriage nowadays is not the ideal option, but it does beat teen abortion.
Times are different, I know that. But not-close family members both came "with child" in high school, and both married the fathers. One marriage ended in divorce, and the other was death-til-us-part after 40 years. The odds are about the same for any marriage statistically.
I don't know what I think about the cases I describe - but neither are a 15 year old marrying a 30 year old either.
Take another look. It was put there as bait.
Eh, whatever. I don’t play dumb games. I just compulsively fix pronoun cases and noun-verb agreement.
Ah; awesome.
I also compulsively share nature facts on the slightest provocation.
Shortly before 11 September 2001, there was an investigation into the selling of hazmat driver’s licenses (?) in at least a few places, among them Pittsburgh, PA and somewhere in Tennessee. Many of the people buying the fake docs were Muslims... The story got lost after 9/11/01.
Child brides will be next
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.