A new house bill is on the block in Pennsylvania. House Bill 1099 is an attempt by the legislative body to set legal standards that define valid religion and religious practices. Those under attack in this bill are any persons belonging to a faith that is not recognized as an accepted religious organization. One of it's interesting tools is to prevent individuals who were ordained by electronic means from performing legally valid marriage ceremonies within the state of Pennsylvania. If a couple were to choose, for example, to be married by an ordained minister of the Universal Life Church the union would not be legally recognized.
No governing body should have the power to tell you that your faith is not "valid." No governing body should have the power to prevent individuals from freely choosing how to celebrate thier faith, be it through a marriage ceremony or any other faith based excercise.

That's really messed up. The government shouldn't be meddling in the peoples religious beliefs.

not true, its the business of ksatriyas to protect dharma

hare krishna is the only authorized religion

Maybe in VEDIC times...like Satya Yuga. Now they need to stay the hell out of it.

Babu, you show me a real ksatriya in modern times and I'll show you the way to Oz...

Yes, it's the Christian fundies dream to discredit all minority religions and have the government declare what is a "real" religion. I've been in discussions online with some of these people and they just plain think all us pagans and Hindus and Buddhists are nuts and our beliefs are a crock and we shouldn't have the protection of the first amendment. I hope this is soundly defeated.

I am a ULC minister, btw.

My hope is that it's not only soundly defeated but that it also brings some awareness as to some of the utterly dangerous things that the powers that be are up to. Perhaps, this will encourage some vigilance from the taxpayers in the great Commonwealth.
Another side of this is-folks like the ULC have the lawmakers running scared or they wouldn't have dreamed up a bit of legislation like this. Goodness me, the masses can't be empowered-Lord no! That challenges those in power. I hope all the so-called "nuts" keep up the good work! Don't get discouraged! Remember, if it happen in PA, it can happen to you...
My friend is a ULC minister as well...he posted a very solid, logical and eloquent blog on the ULC website regarding this issue. Check it out if your get a moment-last name Sweeney.

Russia passed a similar law too, some 7-8 years ago. It defined which religions were recognized and which were not. To be a recognized religion, the given religion must have existed in Russia for at least 100 years (or some other high number, I don't remember) and have at least a given number of members in its congregation, and the ecclesiastical heads had to be Russian citizens.

It created many interesting conundrums. ISKCON devotees of course defended Hinduism: a religion may be new to Russia but if it is 5000 years old, then why not recognize it?

There was a similar problem with Catholicism. Russia doesn't like the Roman catholic Church, it had been outlawed and its churches turned into storage spaces. Since Perestroika the missionaries have been coming, chiefly from Poland, and creating parishes for the Catholics living in Russia. The Catholics had problems registering because their congregations were too small, and because many priests were Polish. But of course they had to be Polish, since Catholicism had been so suppressed in Russia there were no Russian ordained priests yet!

Besides, how reasonable is it to require that a religion existed in Russia for a long time, when the only somewhat tolerated religion during the Soviet time was Russian Orthodox Christianity?

I seem to remember the new law recognized Jews and Buddhists. All others had to apply for registration and could be rejected. And in order to apply, you had to provide lots of info about your headquarters, names of main persons, etc. Useful for the Russian police to have in case they outlawed you.

The non-recognized religions did not have a right to congregate -- not even in private homes. Which makes it very hard to survive and grow enough to become recognized.

I haven't been following the developments in Russia for a while. But from what you are describing, Saraswati, there are some parallels with Pennsylvania.

Wow-thanks for the information. I'm going to take the time to do a little research on that. I wonder how my elected representatives will feel if they knew that they were-on some levels anyway-imitating Russia? I doubt, with their superior American attitudes, that they would like it much. One thing that continues to bother me about this bill is that the mechanisms that they plan to use to determine the validity of certain religions has not been included in the text of the bill. At this point, we don't know what criteria a group would have to meet (other than no electronic ordainations) in order to be legally recognized. That in itself is quite frightening. I'll keep you posted...

real ksatriya

Nice Babu...when I first clicked on the link I was taken to a picture of heron-I thought perhaps you were giving me the 'bird.'

yes, he's a real ksatriya alright and therefore has license to alcohol excesses that he is sometimes criticized for. he does not give sexual satisfaction to any damsel coming to him seeking satisfaction and so i still hope you consider him bonafide.

You're a trip...
it is unfortunate than that the bonafide ksatriyas do not hold public office. Babu, you will have to become President. It is the only answer...