Legal Basis for Non Denominational Ordination Parity

Non Denominational Ordinations are Different but the Same

The Universal Life Church’s non denominational ordination is fundamentally different from the ordinations issued by the Catholic, Lutheran and Baptist churches in that they allow those who hold them to adhere to the practices and beliefs of many different religions. A ULC minister is thus able to combine Christian with Shinto and Buddhist teachings into a service they perform (to give an arbitrary example) without the church administration batting an eyelash. The same can be said for the various ceremonies, like weddings, funerals and baptisms, that Universal Life Church ministers perform for their communities; a ULC minister can officiate a bar mitzvah in the morning and a Hindu wedding that evening if they choose to do so.

Why Does the ULC Have This Policy?

Some Western churches would object to ordaining a Sikh with their non denominational ordination, but the ULC Monastery does not.

The primary mantra of the Universal Life Church is “We are all children of the same universe.” This means that the ULC believes in religious equality; no single religion, or group of religions, is superior to other belief systems and the intermixing of spiritual beliefs is acceptable if not encouraged. The Universal Life Church believes that Pagan, Wiccan and other alternative religions are equally as important as the “mainstream” ones. Concordantly, the ULC Monastery issues non denominational ordinations to people of all belief systems.

From the Universal Life Church’s perspective, picking and choosing which religious groups should receive their ordination would be to imply that those which are chosen to receive its ordination are superior to those that are not chosen. This type of policy would be religious elitism, something that the ULC Monastery abhors.

Is a Non Denominational Ordination Less “Legal?”

There is no legal difference between the non denominational ordination issued by the Universal Life Church and the denominational ones issued by the Baptist, Mormon and Pentecostal churches; these two types of ordinations can be called identical. ULC ministers are thus able to do all that those who are ordained by these churches are able to do, from starting and leading congregations to performing weddings, funerals and baptisms. Read the following section to learn why this is the case.

Non Denominational Ordinations are Protected by the Bill of Rights

The Universal Life Church enjoys equal rights under U.S. law thanks in part to the Establishment Clause.

The First Amendment contains the Establishment Clause which pertains to the federal government’s relationship with religion. It states the following:

The federal government cannot establish an official state religion.

The federal government cannot directly or indirectly favor one religion.

The Establishment Clause prohibits the federal and state governments from saying that one faith system counts as a religion and another one doesn’t, as doing so would be to implicitly favor the former and thus violate this important clause. In turn, the government is prohibited from ruling that churches that issue non denominational ordinations, like the Universal Life Church, are less of a church than their counterparts that issue denominational ordinations.

This Bill of Rights protection has given ULC ministers the right to perform legally-recognized weddings in 48 U.S. states and have the same ministerial standing in the eyes of state governments as those possessed by denominational ministers.

Implications for ULC Ministers

A county clerk is generally mistaken if they question the validity of a ULC minister’s non denominational ordination as only two states (Pennsylvania and Virginia) have been able to justify refusing to accept it. The county clerk who tells you that your ordination is not valid is violating the Free Establishment clause as well as the terms of their employment (county clerks are not supposed to give out legal advice, something that weighing in on the legality of ordinations constitutes as). Please let the ULC staff know if your ordination has been rejected by a county clerk by providing us with their name, position and the reasons they gave for rejecting it and they will do their best to correct the ill-informed official.