Ordained over the internet

[KRWoods]

Yesterday I was ordained as a legal minister for a church I've never heard of before, the Universal Life Church Monastery.
It seems strange that it is so easy to become a reverend of a church, and to become a member of a clergy. By merely typing in your name and address you can become ordained.

I'm curious as to hear your thoughts on this, what do you think?

[Anders Schlander]

if the requirement to become part of the church is to have acess to internet, then that doesn't speak much about the church, does it? it seems like there's not really any standards. Weird...

[Tomas]

Yesterday I was ordained as a legal minister for a church I've never heard of before, the Universal Life Church Monastery.
It seems strange that it is so easy to become a reverend of a church, and to become a member of a clergy. By merely typing in your name and address you can become ordained.

I'm curious as to hear your thoughts on this, what do you think?

ULC has been around for decades .. I've several cousins who "became" ordained in the 1970s-80s.

You can even have it placed on your driver's license ;-)

The Reverend KR Woods, it has a nice ring to it...

PS - You best be careful tho, (if you start a church, temple, mosque etc) the IRS will hunt you down if you don't take a 501(c)3 for tax purposes. In essence, "the king's license to preach." See Patrick Henry's comments about "Give Me Liberty or Give Me Death" regarding his journey thru Culpepper, Virginia all those centuries ago...

[KRWoods]

Thanks for that.

Something that shocked me is that there are no restrictions, age-wise, that I can find. Apparentley, you can become an ordained minister at any age.

[Tomas]

Thanks for that.

Something that shocked me is that there are no restrictions, age-wise, that I can find. Apparentley, you can become an ordained minister at any age.

It was either Jesse Jackson or Al Sharpton that was ordained at age-10 and the other at age-16. Though not from the raise-your-hand outfit out of Oregon. How the above got theirs was by way of 501(c)3 religious organizations approved by the State. The lord works in mysterious ways...

[Tomas]

if the requirement to become part of the church is to have acess to internet, then that doesn't speak much about the church, does it? it seems like there's not really any standards. Weird...

The internet simply cuts out the middleman - the US Post Office. Much easier than snail mail and what with printers and faxes, God (Al Gore or whoever) invented the internet to spread the Word of (take your pick) on his time schedule, not ours. Until our heavenly trinity of QRS returns we must make do with what is available at this time.

PS - May the Most Blessed QRS watch over you.

[Anders Schlander]

actually, it's not the lack of age restriction that disturbs me. Technically a young person can be much wiser than an old person. It's really about personal credentials based on experience you ought to look for in a priest / wiseman / holyman. For the purpose of sustaining a credible and effective church, if a church of geniune knowledge it be, why is it that they don't research what people they allow to join?.


... Numbers matter..... not knowledge. The majority can be insane and still be sane because they're the majority, the flaw of democracy. And that flaw, even if it isnt really a flaw for most people, is spread everywhere. Everybody joins up in groups to avoid responsibility, hiding behind numbers.