State of the Church

So this summer the roomies of me will be getting hitched.

I'm happy for them.

My gay and lesbian friends won't be.

They can't.

Oh, yeah, they can get "blessed", and have a formal civil union under Icelandic law.
But they can't get married.

Because a group of unelected religious twats have the power to decided, without public input, who can and can't get married.

Thanks to this decision, other churches, temples, what have you that are in favor of gay-marriage can't issue marriage licenses.

This pisses me off.

What pisses me off even more is the fact that anyone born in, or moving to Iceland is automatically registered as a member of the state church.

If you move to Iceland and you'r:

Hindu?- you're registered
Jewish?- you're registered
Muslim?- you're registered
Buddhist?- you're registered
Ásatrúar?- you're registered
Catholic?- you're registered
Atheist?- you're registered
Devout Follower of The Great Cthulu, Elder God of Madness, Devourer of Souls, Shatterer of Worlds, Howling Chaos from the Elder Deep?- yup, you're registered

And...just wait for it...

If you belong to any of these groups and have a child- they're registered

How ass-backwards is that?

Some guy from Turkey named Mohamed and they automatically register him as Lutherin?

On a personal note, every Cthulu-damned time I change my address, I have to go and change my registration back to civil so this archaic relic of an idiotic age doesn't get a cut of my money.

Fuckers.

I'd like to see these other religious organizations start "marrying" gays, applying for official marriage licenses, and raising hell if they don't get it.

Not likely I know. Icelanders have never been big civil disobedience or protest.

Just ask the Falun Gong, the only group that didn't get automatically registered.

They got kicked out en mass for protesting.