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DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20141104T163000
DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20141104T173000
LOCATION:John R. Howard Hall 302
GEO:45.451619;-122.669391
SUMMARY:"A Religion of Convenience: The Universal Life Church\, Contempor
ary Weddings\, and the Secular Sacred" - Dusty Hoesly CAS '02
DESCRIPTION:PLEASE NOTE CHANGE IN TIME. \;Major national news outlets
have observed that weddings in the United States\, especially for young
educated people\, are increasingly performed by ministers who are friends
or relatives of the couple and who become ordained online just for that
purpose. The primary organization licensing these ministers\, and thus au
thorizing these weddings as legally valid\, is the Universal Life Church
(ULC)\, which has ordained over 20 million people since 1962. To date\, t
here has been no focused study of the ULC or weddings conducted under its
auspices. According to my initial research findings\, both ULC ministers
and the couples who use them self-describe as non-religious\, usually as
agnostic\, atheist\, apathetic\, secular\, or spiritual. Similarly\, the
y describe their weddings in non-religious terms\, emphasizing the person
alization of the ceremony to match their particular beliefs and tastes as
well as the conscious exclusion of most religious language. These secula
r or spiritual wedding ceremonies reveal non-religious couples' desires f
or an alternative apart from bureaucratic civil ceremonies or traditional
religious rites. Using original archival\, survey\, interview\, and part
icipant observation data\, mostly based in California and the Pacific Nor
thwest\, this paper explores why "secular" people employ ULC-ordained min
isters for their weddings\, and how ULC ministers and couples married by
them label and valuate their "non-religious\," personalized wedding cerem
onies. My examination of ULC weddings reveals not only the diversity of n
on-theistic self-identification and lifecycle ritualization\, but also ho
w constructs such as religious and secular can be co-constitutive rather
than oppositional.
X-ALT-DESC;FMTTYPE=text/html:
PLEASE NOTE CHANGE IN TIME.
\;
Major national news outlet
s have observed that weddings in the United States\, especially for young
educated people\, are increasingly performed by ministers who are friend
s or relatives of the couple and who become ordained online just for that
purpose. The primary organization licensing these ministers\, and thus a
uthorizing these weddings as legally valid\, is the Universal Life Church
(ULC)\, which has ordained over 20 million people since 1962. To date\,
there has been no focused study of the ULC or weddings conducted under it
s auspices. According to my initial research findings\, both ULC minister
s and the couples who use them self-describe as non-religious\, usually a
s agnostic\, atheist\, apathetic\, secular\, or spiritual. Similarly\, th
ey describe their weddings in non-religious terms\, emphasizing the perso
nalization of the ceremony to match their particular beliefs and tastes a
s well as the conscious exclusion of most religious language. These secul
ar or spiritual wedding ceremonies reveal non-religious couples' desires
for an alternative apart from bureaucratic civil ceremonies or traditiona
l religious rites. Using original archival\, survey\, interview\, and par
ticipant observation data\, mostly based in California and the Pacific No
rthwest\, this paper explores why "secular" people employ ULC-ordained mi
nisters for their weddings\, and how ULC ministers and couples married by
them label and valuate their "non-religious\," personalized wedding cere
monies. My examination of ULC weddings reveals not only the diversity of
non-theistic self-identification and lifecycle ritualization\, but also h
ow constructs such as religious and secular can be co-constitutive rather
than oppositional.
UID:20141105T003000Z-31015@college.lclark.edu
DTSTAMP:20141017T093943Z
URL:https://college.lclark.edu/live/events/31015-a-religion-of-convenienc
e-the-universal-life
CATEGORIES:Open to the Public
LAST-MODIFIED:20141103T181934Z
ATTACH:https://college.lclark.edu/live/image/gid/82/width/80/height/80/cr
op/1/49862_dusty_hoesly.rev.1413839788.jpg
X-LIVEWHALE-TYPE:events
X-LIVEWHALE-ID:31015
X-LIVEWHALE-TIMEZONE:America/Los_Angeles
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eight/80/crop/1/49862_dusty_hoesly.rev.1413839788.jpg
X-LIVEWHALE-SUMMARY:PLEASE NOTE CHANGE IN TIME.
\n
\nMajor nati
onal news outlets have observed that weddings in the United States\, espe
cially for young educated people\, are increasingly performed by minister
s who are friends or relatives of the couple and who become ordained onli
ne just for that purpose. The primary organization licensing these minist
ers\, and thus authorizing these weddings as legally valid\, is the Unive
rsal Life Church (ULC)\, which has ordained over 20 million people since
1962. To date\, there has been no focused study of the ULC or weddings co
nducted under its auspices. According to my initial research findings\, b
oth ULC ministers and the couples who use them self-describe as non-relig
ious\, usually as agnostic\, atheist\, apathetic\, secular\, or spiritual
. Similarly\, they describe their weddings in non-religious terms\, empha
sizing the personalization of the ceremony to match their particular beli
efs and tastes as well as the conscious exclusion of most religious langu
age. These secular or spiritual wedding ceremonies reveal non-religious c
ouples' desires for an alternative apart from bureaucratic civil ceremoni
es or traditional religious rites. Using original archival\, survey\, int
erview\, and participant observation data\, mostly based in California an
d the Pacific Northwest\, this paper explores why "secular" people employ
ULC-ordained ministers for their weddings\, and how ULC ministers and co
uples married by them label and valuate their "non-religious\," personali
zed wedding ceremonies. My examination of ULC weddings reveals not only t
he diversity of non-theistic self-identification and lifecycle ritualizat
ion\, but also how constructs such as religious and secular can be co-con
stitutive rather than oppositional.
X-LIVEWHALE-TAGS:alumni|lecturer|open to the public|religious studies|sen
d-to-undergraduate|student event|student
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