FFRF v. Leean

[stuartbuck]

RE: FFRF v. LeeanEugene said: "It is an interesting question whether laws that only allow the clergy and government officials to solemnize marriages violate the Establishment Clause.  I'm inclined to say that they do, since they treat clergy better than other similarly situated private persons."

I'm puzzled.  I don't mean to sound naive, but just who are these similarly situated private persons?  Who, for the atheist or secularist, could possibly play the same role as the priest/rabbi/minister does for the religious believer?    Noam Chomsky?  Stephen Jay Gould?  Richard Dawkins?  Aren't we in fact just treating religious people equally by allowing their marriages -- one of the most solemn commitments of their lives -- to be presided over by the religious institution that they view as authoritative?
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: http://lists.ucla.edu/cgi-bin/mailman/private/religionlaw/attachments/20000601/959e4333/attachment.htm