VA Court Official Tells Atheist Couple They Have No Right To Get Married Because...

[justiceischeap]

They Don’t Believe In God

Marriage is a right that belongs to any consenting adults. But an over-religious court official in Virginia has a message for atheists and any other non-Christian: you have no right to get married if you don’t believe in God.

Bud Roth is a court appointed officiant in Franklin County, Virginia. He performs wedding ceremonies for couples who go to the courthouse to get married. Atheists, however, have no right to get married as far as he’s concerned.

When Morgan Strong and Tamar Courtney contacted the county courthouse to seal their love for each other after six years together, they were directed to Roth. Roth refused to perform the ceremony at the courthouse and only agreed to marry the couple if they tied the knot at his church. A deal was struck and the cost and date were set. Strong and Courtney would go through the legal part of the ceremony at Roth’s church. That’s when the whole situation turned ugly.

Roth asked the couple about their religious beliefs and upon hearing that he would be performing a ceremony for an atheist and an agnostic, turned the couple away. Why? Because they “didn’t know where God was.” That’s right, Roth refused to marry the couple out of sheer religious bigotry. Disappointed, Morgan and Courtney decided to discuss the situation with Roth and they kindly recorded the conversation.

http://www.addictinginfo.org/2014/05/31/marriage-only-for-christians/

I'm so glad I don't live in Virginia any longer. I hope this couple gets the ACLU involved and the clerk gets removed from his job and the judge gets a reprimand of some kind (we all know he won't lose HIS job).

[Historic NY]

1. Sound like Bud better pony up some money......

to pay for the lawsuit headed in his direction.

[mercuryblues]

2. how dare

that couple persecute that xtian like that?

[arcane1]

4. LMAO exactly!

[Arugula Latte]

3. To the "Atheists are just as bad as religious zealots" types here on DU --

What say you now?

[SoLeftIAmRight]

5. I say, mistakes in thinking whatever their root results in bad decisions.

There are things that we can know and others that we believe. It is good to know the difference.

[JoeyT]

6. Presumably that it's terrible

how that couple forced their non-belief on him like that. And by surprise, too.

[hobbit709]

7. Numbnuts Bob needs to read what William Bradford wrote about the first marriage in the colony

by the Pilgrims.
Marriage is a CIVIL matter.

[IronLionZion]

8. Dude must be for "family values"

without valuing families.

They look like a cute couple

[DisgustipatedinCA]

9. Do your job, functionary, or lose it. nt

[gratuitous]

10. I wonder if Roth's paycheck contains any atheist tax dollars?

I'm sure he's scrupulous about his principles, even if it would cost him money out of his pocket, right?

Right?

Ooh, listen! Crickets!

[RedRocco]

11. notice how he refused to give them a ceremony unless they paid his church?

how is that not extortion?

[Bonx]

12. Franklin County is a great place to get moonshine

Progressive culture, not so much.