Bad idea for ministers to sign marriage licenses, pastors insist

WACO—Marriage licenses signed by ministers create an unhealthy union of church and state, and they historically have been used as instruments of racial oppression and the subjugation of females, a trio of Baptist pastors told a group of their peers.

“Signing marriage licenses is a bad idea. We should stop doing it. The marriage license is a way for the state to assert its power over people,” Kyle Henderson, pastor of First Baptist Church in Athens, told a gathering of pastors on the eve of the Baptist General Convention of Texas annual meeting.

Given their deeply rooted commitment to religious liberty, Baptists should not participate in a system that mingles church and state, he insisted.

‘Agents of the state’

“We should stop acting as agents of the state,” he asserted. “How did we ever get snookered into this deal?”

Instead of signing a state-issued marriage license, ministers should consider exclusively performing covenant marriage ceremonies that emphasize the New Testament ideal for marriage taught in Ephesians 5, he said.

Click on the image above to download a complete sample Certificate of Covenant Marriage as a PDF. More resources are available at the end of this article.Brent Gentzel, pastor of First Baptist Church in Kaufman, and Kris Segrest, pastor of First Baptist Church in Wylie, joined Henderson in organizing the event focused on religious freedom and sexual ethics, particularly in light of changing definitions of marriage at the national level

In the past, the state used marriage licenses to prevent intermarriage between races and essentially to transfer ownership of a woman from her parents’ family to her husband, Henderson explained.

“We need to stop letting the state have pre-eminence over people and their lives,” he said.

The state has the right to regulate contracts and inheritance laws, and it should protect children, he added. But Christians should reclaim a higher standard for marriage, he insisted.

The state and the church both use the term “marriage,” but they don’t mean the same thing, he asserted.

Benefits of ‘covenant marriage’ ceremony

Texas couples joined in a Christian covenant marriage ceremony without benefit of a state-issued marriage license can complete a “declaration of informal marriage” form at their local county courthouse, Henderson explained. It provides all the legal protection of a marriage license and costs less, he added.

While increased acceptance of same-sex marriage prompted many Christians to think deeply about what marriage means, a watered-down definition predated current debates about homosexual unions, speakers stressed.

“The steps the courts have taken completely eroded the definition of marriage, even if the homosexual issue were not on the table,” Gentzel said.

When the state passed no-fault divorce laws, it ceased to consider marriage as a life-long commitment, he noted. The state does not require married couples to live together or share medical information.

“There is almost no expectation of spousal responsibility,” he said.

Christian marriage mirrors the relationship between Christ and the church, and it is a “high and holy” institution, Segrest said.

‘A picture of the gospel’

“We have to contend for marriage, because it is a picture of the gospel,” he said.

Rather than sign marriage licenses, ministers should consider exclusively signing covenant marriage certificates that couples also sign as an expression of their commitment to each other and acceptance of the New Testament definition of marriage, speakers asserted.

“This conversation transcends the conversation about homosexuality,” Dennis Wiles, pastor of First Baptist Church in Arlington, noted from the audience during a question-and-answer session at the event.

Churches need to clarify their own convictions about marriage and sexual ethics—and express them in writing, speakers emphasized.

While all churches and Christian organizations should approve statements of their beliefs about marriage and family, Texas Baptist churches particularly need to consider revising their articles of belief, Henderson asserted.

Many BGCT-related congregations—especially churches that distanced themselves from the Southern Baptist Convention—have governing documents that identify the 1963 Baptist Faith & Message as their statement of faith. Unlike the version of the Baptist Faith & Message the SBC adopted in 2000—which includes a statement added in 1998 defining marriage as “the uniting of one man and one woman in covenant commitment for a lifetime”—the 1963 faith statement does not directly address marriage and family.

Amending church statements of faith

First Baptist in Athens recently voted to amend its statement of faith to include an article on covenant marriage, Henderson said.

The revised statement says: “Covenant marriage is the uniting of one man and one woman in commitment for a lifetime. It is God’s unique gift to reveal the union between Christ and his church, and to provide for the man and the woman in marriage the framework for intimate companionship, the channel for sexual expression according to biblical standards and the means for procreation of the human race. We believe that Ephesians 5:21-33 is the normative expression of covenant marriage. First Baptist Church Athens believes that the Bible mandates sexual activity is to be enjoyed exclusively between a man and a woman that have been joined together in covenant marriage. All other sexual activity is a violation of biblical standards.”

The church also amended its personnel handbook to stipulate staff members are authorized only to perform covenant marriage ceremonies as defined by the statement of faith and sign covenant marriage certificates exclusively, and they will be held to the standards of covenant marriage as defined in the statement of faith. The church instructed the governing board of its related school to update its personnel handbook accordingly.

The Athens congregation also amended its rental policy to prohibit the use of facilities by individuals or groups in direct conflict with the church’s sincerely held beliefs.

Amending the state constitution

Henderson, Gentzel and Segrest also expressed their hope to see Texas amend its state constitution to include language modeled after the national Religious Freedom Restoration Act.

The amendment would take language currently in Texas statutory law—based on RFRA—and add it to Article 1, Section 6 of the Texas Constitution’s Bill of Rights. RFRA—passed by Congress in 1993 at the urging of a broad-based coalition spearheaded by the Baptist Joint Committee for Religious Liberty—was intended to prevent laws that substantially burden any individual’s free exercise of religion.

The proposed amendment would ensure no government entity could burden a person’s free exercise of religion unless it is “necessary to further a compelling state interest,” and provided that it is “the least restrictive means of furthering that interest.” Adding the RFRA-based protections to the state’s constitution would raise the threshold, so any state legislative session could not overturn it, the pastors noted.

The pastors provided sample documents for statements of faith, personnel and rental policies, and covenant marriage certificates for churches to consider.

Resources

Denison Ministries statement on marriage (PDF)

Denison Ministries sample model code of conduct (PDF)

First Baptist Church, Athens, amendments to its policies (PDF)

Proposed religious freedom amendment to the Texas Constitution (PDF)