Bill to take clergy out of marriage fails to win legislative panel’s OK

AUGUSTA – Members of the clergy may continue to act as state agents and perform marriage ceremonies after the Legislature’s Judiciary Committee on Tuesday all but killed a bill that would have taken clergy off the list of people who may sign marriage licenses in Maine.

Some 100 people showed up to oppose LD 779, which would have left the performing of marriage ceremonies to lawyers, justices, judges or notaries. Notaries can marry men and women in Maine.

Many of those who attended Tuesday’s committee meeting submitted written testimony or comments, and only one opponent testified before the committee voted unanimously to recommend to the Legislature that the bill ought not to pass.

Such a vote all but kills a bill.

LD 779 became controversial soon after it was printed, and each member of the Judiciary Committee received more than 600 e-mails, the vast majority of which urged them to oppose the bill.

Many expressed concern that the bill, if passed, would open a window for same-sex marriages. That issue was not voiced during the public discussion, which focused instead on state-church relations.

The Rev. Bob Emrich, pastor of Plymouth Emmanuel Bible Baptist Church and founder of the Maine Jeremiah Project, spoke against the bill on behalf of the majority who attended. The Jeremiah Project is a nonprofit organization that promotes what it describes as biblical principles and historical precedents for contemporary culture.

“We as clergy are not agents of the state,” he said. In allowing clergy to perform marriages, “the state is simply showing respect for its historical roots. This bill is an unnecessary reversal of a natural relationship between church and state.”

The bill was submitted by Rep. Boyd Marley, D-Portland, after discussions with clergy in his district, including the Rev. Mark Rustin, pastor of the North Deering Congregational Church.

Rustin was the only person to speak in favor of passage.

Before 1981, Rustin told the committee, Maine licensed clergy to perform marriages. Since the repeal of that provision, anyone who is an ordained member of the clergy or a licensed minister can marry a man and a woman, acting on behalf of the state.

That is the only instance, Rustin said, in which clergy act as an agent of the state.

“Clergy and churches are not immune from state law,” he told the committee. “The license that allows me to operate a motor vehicle and the license that allows the operation of the elevator in our church’s meetinghouse are but two examples of the peaceful and appropriate separation of civil and religious authority. Would you really support a law which grants me the right to drive based upon my call to pastoral ministry?

“Nothing in LD 779 prohibits clergy who wish [to] from obtaining an appointment as [a] notary public under rules and conditions prescribed by the secretary of state, and serving as an agent of the state and a servant of God simultaneously. They would be responsible to God for the covenant and to the state for the civil marriage,” Rustin said.

The Congregational minister has not gone that far, but said that he does not sign marriage licenses. Although he performs the religious ceremony, he has church members who are notaries sign the official state document.

Rustin, who was born in Bangor and is a graduate of Bangor Theological Seminary, said that allowing ministers to act as a state agent was in violation of the state constitution. Article 1, Section 3 states that no “religious test be required for any office or trust.” The minister believes current law violates that provision.

The Roman Catholic Diocese of Portland, the Christian Civic League of Maine, the Anglican Church of America, along with Episcopal priests and clergy from other mainline denominations opposed the bill.

The Secretary of State’s Office opposed the bill on the grounds that it would increase dramatically the number of notary publics, which that office commissions.

There are 30,000 notaries public in Maine who perform an estimated 40 percent of marriages, according to Timothy Poulin, who submitted written testimony on behalf of that office.