Do You have to be a "Rev. Dr." to start a Wedding Chapel?

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Its great to be proud of a legitimate credential, ain't it Barry?

Russell

 

Wonderful threads. I enjoyed the very honest confrontation of the person with degree mill credentials.

A few comments:

If someone runs around with milled credentials what other purpose is there except for deception (self or others). It is the epitomy of unchristian behavior to criticize someone holding someone else accountable for their statements. Good job John!

I met an enlisted Rev. Dr. in the military with who told us that after training if we wanted to get a hold of him he would give us both his military (E-4) and civilian title. With some pride he said his civilian title was Rev. Dr. I asked where his Dr. came from and it turned out it was a D.D. from a church. The dude had no academic credentials outside of his high school diploma. However, the Rev. Dr. wanted to write a book on family and child rearing.

Some army chaplains were joking about a meeting they went to that was filled with Rev. Dr.'s who did not really hold doctorates.

One of the things I have noticed (not universally) is that pastors in mainline denominations do not seem to use Rev. & Dr. in the same title. Most frequently they are introduced as Dr. So & So pastor of 1st such and such church. It sounds like so much less of an affectation to say Dr. Jones rather than The Reverend Dr. Jones. The exception is that Episcoplians (of whom I was once one until I could't take the political shift in the church to unitarianism) enjoy titles. Not uncommon to see the Right Reverend Dr. Philip Exceter Moncreith Jones III. Many Bishops seem to have the D.D. (otherwise know as *donated dignity*). Even with Episcoplains, I noticed on the sign of a very large church in an up scale neighborhood, the pastor was listed as Dr. Smith. Presumably he had an earned doctorate and the congregation was proud of the fact.

North

 

I couldn't have stated it better, North, because there is no other purpose.

If one willingly and knowingly obtains a degree mill degree, then uses the degree in one's professional life, the intent is obvious. It is to portray one's self as having a credential, which in reality, one does not have. It is unethical, deceptive and fraudulent.

And the ironic thing is that some who have obtained such credentials will defend them as though they were defending a Harvard degree.

 

[


[/B][/QUOTE"The exception is that Episcoplians (of whom I was once one until I could't take the political shift in the church to unitarianism)"

Gee...how old ARE you!!!! My Father was an Episcopalian when he married my Mother in 1935..but she insisted on the only Unitarian Church in Berkeley, CA....
For that matter, 40 years ago 40% of those who attended the First Unitarian were Jewish by birth, as am I.
Universalist/Unitarian is a pretty good faith for those who are not rigid about their beliefs but have a real connection with G-d. ]Get a grip!
"Judge not...."

David

 

Do You have to be a "Rev. Dr." to start a Wedding Chapel?

Not in Tennessee in 1989. A friend of ours, whose property was visible from the Interstate bought a Universal Life credential, started one, and put up a big illuminated sign.

He had two customers the first day. The first was two women. The second was a man who wanted to marry his cat.

 

I'm almost positive that I saw their son at the Memphis in May celebration last month. The tail falling into the barbecue pit was the giveaway.



------------------
Bill Gossett

 

Paging Bill Dayson, Bill Highsmith, and Ken Lewchuk, because I know all three of you are reading this thread, and because I've lost all of your e-mail addresses: please drop me a note at [email protected]. I've found some religion-type stuff that you might be interested in.

Peace,

------------------
Tom Head
www.tomhead.net

 

Years ago I bought (I mean earned) a D.D. from American Fellowship Church and a D.D. and Ph.D. in religion from Universal Life Church.I planned on having some fun with them but never got around to it.I was cleaning out the basement last week and found the credentials.I tossed them in the trash.

 

PCap:

Welcome to the forum!

You are to be commended for having "tossed them in the trash," as this is a very fitting location to store them. I do wish everyone else with similar pieces of worthless paper would do the same.

BTW, my beagle (who actually died last January) was ordained by the ULC only a few weeks ago. The ULC ordained him with no questions asked.

Russell

 

You don't have to be a minister (licensed or ordained) to set up a wedding chapel in my neck of the woods. A fellow named Yerkes converted two row houses on Baltimore Pike in Delaware County PA (Lansdowne or Yeadon, I forget which) and turned them into "Yerkes' Wedding Chapel"--what he does is rent the space--several rooms--to those folks who don't want to get married at church or at city hall. Yerkes doesn't officiate, however; an obliging mayor or county judge, or the occasional preacher will fill the bill.

I was present at one of those weddings about ten or more years ago; a good friend of mine was getting married for the third time; there was a rush because the new bride was very pregnant, and the second wife took her time re: the divorce. As it was she went into labor just as soon as she said "I do" and they had to haul ass to the nearest hospital, about five miles or so away. The Mayor of the borough of East Lansdowne PA officiated; in another room, the mayor of Yeadon PA joined a couple in legal matrimony. A couple of preachers (you could tell because they had these huge crosses around their necks) were hanging around outside waiting for those couples who showed up without a mayor or a district justice or a county judge or someone who could marry them. It was interesting.

Maybe when I retire, I'll get my Universal Life Church ordination and get beer money standing outside of Yerkes' flagging down couples ready to tie the knot, but who didn't bring their preacher along and don't want to wait for the judge or the mayor to finish up

Scott "Preach It Brother" Metcalf

 

Do we know if one can get married by internet? No, I have no plans, but I recall news stories about couples with forced separation who were married by telephone or over the radio, apparently legally. Could be quite a market niche, if I would stand up in court.

 

Not yet in North Carolina, John. We have only recently begun to perform weddings here with shoes, although some still prefer the old fashioned method---barefoot and a shotgun!

Russell,
Who was once asked to perform a wedding in cowboy attire, hat and all, but cordially turned down the opportunity.

 

Greetings David,

Since you ask my age, I am a Generation Xer (barely but I qualify).

Absolutely no insult was meant to the Unitarian faith. I think your "Judge not" comment sets up a false dichotomy though. When I left the Episcopal/Anglican church I had come to the point of frustration with the direction it was taking. It was moving away from biblical christianity and toward more of a unitarian universalist approach. I found it to be advocating tolerance and yet becoming less tolerant of evangelical christians within the church. I have had friends in both camps. An Episcopal priest I knew in college in Canada was a staunch advocate of homosexual rights, a strong New Democrat (kind of democratic socialist), and did not believe too much of the bible in anything other than a general way. I knew a seminarian who was also into native spirituality. Nothing wrong with him believing that way but it was not adhereing to biblical orthodoxy. I also knew priests who were very evangelical.

I believe that each person has a right to their beliefs and to practice their faith. That includes the right of those who believe in Islam or the Mormon faith, Animists, etc to believe that their faith is the correct one. Tolerance exists when we allow others to believe as they do and they allow us to believe as we do. It does not mean compromising our beliefs by accepting all religions as equally true. I personally believe in the Christian faith. I believe that the bible contains the inspired & inerrant word of God. I believe unitarianism is inaccurate. That does not mean that I don't accept and respect the right of unitarians to believe the way they do and to practice as they see fit. This model of tolerance and respect is what the US military practices. The army had chaplains from Christian Scientists, Mormons, Southern Baptists, Muslims, Assemblies of God, Orthodox Judaism, etc. All worked together without compromising their own beliefs. If they could not perform some function for a service member then they provided for them by finding a chaplain of their faith who could. Or an evangelical chaplain advocating for them with the command in the case of a Wiccan.

At any rate this is a little off topic but as you asked.

 

Russell:

I had an unordained beagle. He is dead also. Cause of death:Buick.
I have two questions.Russell,was your beagle's death a death by auto also?They are prone to it. Second question to anyone: Anybody have any information on who ordained guys like Rev.Al Sharpton, Rev.Jesse Jackson, Rev Jimmy Swaggart etc. Doubtless some of them have legitimate credentials but ya gotta wonder.Hmmmmmm.

 

Sorry to hear about your beagle, PCap, may he rest in peace and live in eternal canine bliss!

Cause of death for my ordained beagle(actually at the time of his death he, too, was unordained): Lethal Injection, at the animal shelter. He was very old. If you go to the ULC website, you can have your beagle ordained today. This would be a nice way to remember him.

Jackson & Sharpton were ordained by a local Baptist church, IIRC, which is customary for their faith.

Swaggart was ordained first by the Assemblies of God, then defrocked after his problems in 88-89, now ordained by the World Evangelism Fellowship--an independent group of ministers formed under Swaggart's own ministry.

Russell

 

Russell,

Thanks for the canine commiseration and information regarding the ordination of above referenced Reverands. I also meant to ask which,if any,divinity schools they attended.Did they earn degrees,can you be ordained without divinity/theology degrees?I am naive with respect to these things but possessed with an insatiable curiosity of the world around me.
Best Regards,
PCap

 

PCap:

IIRC, Swaggart attended no divinity school and has no theological degrees, I am not sure about Jackson or Sharpton. If any of these have doctorates, they are in all probability honorary.

Requirements for ordination depends on which denomination/fellowship/church one is associated with. Some groups require the Master of Divinity degree before they will ordain, others, however, require only that one express a "call" to ministry--no formal education is required.

Still others, like the ULC, will ordain via the Internet, no questions asked. The humor in this, at least for me, is not that the ordination is via the Net, but that no questions are asked. Technically, one could be a mass murderer or a dead beagle and still be ordained.

Russell

 

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Ministries:
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Well I've been monitoring this forum since Barry referred us there. Rev. Dr. Gladys claimed to be all set to answer the charges that she is deceiving people with her use of questionably-earned doctoral degrees. The thing was, a split-second before she was to respond, her dog got run over outside her house. Claiming to be too distraught to write, she promised to respond the next day (June 5).

Instead, sometime today, her forum became password-protected. How conveeeenient. Now I may never learn her justifications!

 

I meant Reverend,not "Reverand"! Sheeesh!
PCap,The Spelling King