Unintended consequences: AL’s new marriage law
By Allan McConnell
Special to The Alabama Baptist
On Aug. 29 marriage law in Alabama changed drastically. No longer is a couple seeking to be legally married in the state of Alabama required to visit any of the county probate offices to get a wedding license. All they need is a notary to witness each of them signing a form. They don’t even have to be present together to sign the form.
More importantly no longer is the couple required to have some form of ceremony or solemnization to seal the marriage. Even if they do have a ceremony no longer is the one who performs it required to attest to the marriage at all.
Both individuals sign the form in front of a notary and then submit the form in person or by mail. A ceremony is optional; only the notarized form is required.
I own a small business that provides Christian wedding officiating and see my job as more about sharing the good news of Jesus Christ than about making money. This new law had an immediate negative impact on my business. But the fact that my business will suffer financially is a side issue for me.
In a Christ-centered wedding ceremony I get the opportunity to share the gospel with a captive audience. God has given me a platform with wedding ceremonies to speak about Jesus and it has borne much fruit over the years.
I’m concerned the new law will remove many of those opportunities.
Why did the Alabama Legislature pass this unneeded and inappropriate law? The answer is same-sex “marriage.” When the U.S. Supreme Court made same-sex “marriage” legal in all 50 states there were many state and local judges throughout the nation who reacted by denying wedding licenses and certificates to same-sex couples.
In Alabama there were eight county probate judges who refused to perform any wedding ceremonies or issue marriage licenses. That stance worked without denying the right to be married as ordered by the Supreme Court since a license could be purchased in any of the remaining Alabama counties with the state accepting and recording their marriage certificate.
There is no question Alabama’s new law was written and passed to counter same-sex “marriage.” As a conservative Southern Baptist, I cannot personally agree with the Supreme Court or any jurisdiction saying that same-sex “marriage” is equal to the union of one man and one woman. However, as a citizen I do recognize that same-sex couples have been given the right to be married in the eyes of the government.
Some in Montgomery, including Christian leaders, argue the new law is “just the state getting out of the wedding business” and “Christian girls are still going to want a wedding ceremony.” Unfortunately neither one of those positions is correct.
The county probate offices still require a fee be paid for recording a marriage certificate and a portion of that fee is sent to the state. So the state is still in the wedding business.
As for Christians continuing to want a traditional wedding ceremony performed by a pastor or Christian minister, I’m not so sure.
I do think “churched” couples will continue to desire traditional weddings for quite some time but unfortunately many Christians are no longer “churched” in the sense that I am using here.
For most people if something is legal it is looked at as being right and proper. Therefore this new law has great potential to damage the proper moral view for traditional marriage by removing the requirement of a ceremony.
The worst part of all of this is that a change in the law was unnecessary. Shame on us as Christian citizens for either not knowing or simply trusting that our interests are being supported or upheld in the halls of power in Montgomery.
EDITOR’S NOTE — Allan McConnell is the owner of Another Happy Couple Wedding Services, which provides officiants for Christian wedding ceremonies. He lives in McCalla. If you are a pastor, recently married couple or prospective bride or groom, TAB would like to hear how the new marriage law is affecting you. Please contact us at news@thealabamabaptist.org.
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Picking up the towel
In the 15 years since its inception the voluntary service-learning project at Judson has grown from a handful of students who trimmed hedges and installed a bathroom floor into Marion Matters, a program that annually involves more than 100 new Judson students, returning student leaders and employees reaching out to our community.
This year teams decorated graves, read to shut-ins, prepared bulletin boards and organized textbooks at the public high school, organized the Lincoln Normal School Museum, moved playground equipment and built a playground fence.
In our post-event debriefing each student paused to answer questions designed to connect the service activity with the student’s Christian worldview. I reminded the group that the reason Jesus washed the disciple’s feet was because of the dissension that arose over James and John wanting prominence over the other disciples.
Jesus said if you want to lead you must be willing to serve. And yet, despite Jesus’ words, no one picked up the towel and washed his brother’s dirty feet.
In a world so filled with the need for Christ, we must take the role of slave and pick up the towel.
—Mark Tew
EDITOR’S NOTE — Mark Tew is president of Judson College in Marion.
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Prayer does change things when our perspective becomes God’s perspective.
Lyle Dease
Associational missions director, Pickens Baptist Association
Your church address is by God’s design. It is His intent that you minister to it. If a church turns its back on its community, then I believe we are going to answer for that.
Daniel Edmonds
Alabama Baptist State Board of Missions
God has used backpacks, movie nights, crawfish boils and backyard VBS to help us connect with the 86% Anglo-Catholic community. We just did what the culture is doing and they responded.
Bo Smith
Pastor and church planter, Lakeshore Church, New Orleans
Your faith is great if it’s placed in the One who promises to deliver you safely home — no matter your failings or feelings.
Pastor Eugene Carver
Hillview Baptist Church, Birmingham
The qualities of the first church stood out where they had care, concern, compassion, love, generosity, etc., for each other.
Pastor Jeff Kendrick
Mt. Philadelphia Baptist Church, Cordova
Language learning is essential for the effectiveness of most cross-cultural mission efforts. So are things like a place to live, a means of transportation, a ministry budget and immunizations — all provided by the generosity of Southern Baptists who give their tithes and offerings to the Lord in a local church that is committed to cooperative missions.
President Paul Chitwood
International Mission Board
There will be times in our journey through life when we need a refuge from our enemies, a shelter from our storms or a sanctuary from our problems. Our desire to get away is more of a temporary reprieve than a permanent detachment. We need to renew our strength and restore our hope. David teaches us that in troubling times, there are no GPS coordinates for the haven we so desperately crave. God is our hiding place. Let us run to Him for protection.
Pastor Rick Patrick
FBC Sylacauga
Sometimes the word volunteer has the wrong connotation. I volunteer at the Red Cross or at the PTA. I serve in my church. Any discussion of overseeing lay people in the church starts by recognizing that distinction.
Sue Mallory
ChristianityToday.com
While Western aid organizations play an important role in providing emergency health, water and sanitation services to conflict-torn regions, these are short-term solutions to long-term problems. … The best use of resources is to effectively train and engage local churches to act. … Local churches by their nature tend to be involved for the long term. … When we empower the local church, we can break the vicious cycle of conflict and poverty that endangers the lives of millions of people.
Scott Arbeiter and Tim Breene
World Relief
Watch your thinking, for in the battle between the imagination and the will, the imagination usually wins.
Billy Graham
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From the Twitterverse
@Blackwell_Kevin
My recommendation to ministry students this week: Develop a deep reservoir of faith because the people you serve will constantly draw from it. I have learned through experience!
@SWBTS
The highlight of Global Missions Week will always be hearing our @IMB_SBC missionaries sharing how God is at work around the world. @SWBTSwmc
@NOBTS
“Sometimes in life, God leads you through the wilderness because he sees things you don’t.” — Jim Henry #NOBTSchapel
@NationalWMU
“I finally understood what it meant that people around the world worship the same God and one God hears every voice.” — Ashley Fan, 2019 National Acteens Panelist, as she reflects on her summer missions trip with Project Esperanza [in the Dominican Republic]
@shadesmtn
Every sin — all of it — has the potential to grow and demand more of our time, focus and energy, and displace our love and commitment to God.
@DrJohnCross
“If you’re filled with the Spirit, you’ll be wearing out the soles of your feet not the seat of your pants.” @OSHawkins @SWBTS
@codyhale
Youth pastor: Do you want to see God call out pastors from your ministry? Make it clear how much you love your work and how wonderful it is to walk with God.
@museumofBible
Johannes Kepler believed the study of science was “a sacred discourse” that demonstrated the wonder of creation and the Creator. … Kepler, it’s been said, would break out in song upon making a new scientific discovery. A quote from Kepler in his later days reflects his life credo and Psalm 19: “Now I see how God is, by my endeavors, also glorified in astronomy, for ‘the heavens declare the glory of God.’”
@SEBTS
“If we meet ‘Christians’ who are unloving, we have to consider if they’re really Christians. … A lack of sincere love calls lots of other things into question as well.” — @MarkDever
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