In case you’re sitting in church every week thinking mankind is doing just fine…
It’s an actual article about actual people who have actually lost their minds.
Christians are supposed to shine light in darkness.
Be prepared with a response for when you get invited to a “secular wedding celebrant”.
USA: Amanda Holowaty didn’t need God to get married. She just needed her husband, Mike.
Actually, Amanda Holowaty needs a vague understanding of what she means by the term “get married” so she can explain it to husband Mike. Otherwise, he won’t know they aren’t “just dating”.
USA: When the atheist couple decided to join their lives a year ago, they knew they wanted a secular wedding celebrant, but their families weren’t so sure.
Her family is Methodist and his is “generally spiritual.” And they worried about even telling Mike’s grandmother, who is Eastern Orthodox.
They were right to worry about telling the families. There’s no way way their announcement won’t be convoluted and dumb:
“We’ve been living together having sex for a year. Bring us gifts as we declare our intention to keep living together and having sex. Celebrate the new chapter in our lives as we start filing our taxes jointly!”
USA: So they found a wedding celebrant ordained through the Humanist Society, who allowed their family members to read a spiritual poem.
“Nobody seemed to notice that we didn’t mention God,” Holowaty said. “People came up afterward and said it was one of the best weddings they’d seen.”
Being ordained by the Humanist Society is like being declared kosher by Hell’s Angels.
The family should politely decline the spiritual poem. Leave Amanda Holowaty to figure out how to plan a wedding ceremony without a hint of spiritual significance. Let the godless bride come up with an idea that will make her ‘big day’ more interesting than a speeding ticket.
USA: The creative elements of a humanist wedding don’t differ much from a religious one. There are sand-mixing ceremonies, candle-lighting ceremonies and walking down an aisle in a white dress. Vows are typically written by the couples themselves…
The creative elements in a movie wedding are the same as a religious one. There are candles, dresses, poems and vows. Everyone in the ceremony is just pretending.
The humanist wedding is different because the vows contain the words, “We’re not kidding…”
USA: Amanda and Mike Holawaty didn’t want to settle for a justice of the peace. They wanted to celebrate their values in a scenic wedding near the ocean.
“You see weddings in movies and on TV, the bride being given away and walking down the aisle,” she said. “It was really the same desire for us, just minus the religious aspect.”
They wanted a secular wedding but didn’t want to “settle for” a secular service. So they hired a non-religious “celebrant” to perform a service that is indistinguishable from a religious ceremony, because they don’t want the religious aspect.
It’s okay to laugh at these people because their marriage is a joke.
Marriage is God’s idea. There is no such thing as ‘secular marriage’. Nothing important happened when they ‘joined their lives’ standing next to the ocean. They might as well have sent invitations for friends to come watch them get a Sam’s Club membership.
Where is the wise man? Where is the scholar? Where is the philosopher of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world? 21 For since in the wisdom of God the world through its wisdom did not know him, God was pleased through the foolishness of what was preached to save those who believe.
1 Cor. 1:20
3 Responses
Hi John, I appreciate your article. As a pastor who has done all of two weddings in my fairly short so far career, I was struck by the fact that several people supposedly came up after the wedding and told them, that it was one of the best weddings that they had ever seen. I have had atheists and agnostics at both of those weddings come up to me and compliment me on the wedding service that I did, which was thoroughly Christian. I chuckled thinking of those compliments now, knowing that if a wedding like the one you describe could get “Best wedding that they’ve ever seen” I might need to moderate my enjoyment of the compliments on my weddings, as some people are perhaps without dicernment in these things 🙂
God bless!
I’m often told that I’m the “best Comedian” people have ever seen. I wonder (to myself) how many comedians they’ve ever seen.
They wanted the tax benefits so they decided to follow the law. Let’s see how the law helps them when they have their first big disagreement. They are starting out wanting free stuff from family. And they want us to celebrate their joint tax return?
Our ability to love is based on recognizing how much God loves us. Enough to give His son to die for us. And loving Him first and foremost should be our priority in our daily life. She spoke not one word of love and commitment. Lust won’t sustain a long lasting relationship. Nothing of a covenant between them.
This seems headed toward disaster. They need a wake up call.
These ceremonies leave you with an empty disjointed feeling. “What just happened here?”