STEPHEN M GRANT

It may seem utterly bizarre, but if you want to have a religious marriage in England – even for 'out there' and obviously concocted so-called religions such as Jehovah's Witness or Scientology – you're fine and dandy as long as you satisfy the usual legal requirements. These are essentially that the person carrying out the ceremony is authorised to register it and make an entry in the registry, that the entry is signed by the parties to the marriage, and that it is witnessed by two people. There are some other requirements of course, but that's the gist of it.

 

However if you are humanist, that is someone who conducts life according to the golden rule and who relies on reason, logic and science to explain the world as opposed to one of the many deities available – you're marriage is not legal.

 

We are two decades into the twenty-first century in what is supposedly one of the world's leading lights of liberty, democracy, freedom of expression and tolerance. You can of course have a humanist wedding – no problem there - but you won't be legally married as far as England, Wales, Guernsey or the Isle of Man are concerned.

 

Pop over to Northern Ireland, and you can have a humanist wedding in a pub in the Falls Road which will be legally recognised, and because it was conducted in a territory that recognises it according to its laws, it will be legally recognised in England and Wales.

 

Similarly, if you're a humanist living in Guernsey, you'll need to get the boat over to Jersey if you want the splice to be legal. Even in far more religious countries such as Ireland and in the barmy bit of the bible belt of the USA, humanist ceremonies are recognised. In Scotland, there are more humanist marriages than in any other religion or belief group at 23% of all ceremonies in 2019. In Ireland, humanist marriages come second only the the Catholics. It's not as though this is some small and irrelevant fringe group.

 

However humanists are trying to correct this ridiculous situation. In July 2020, six humanist couples went to law. The following is from the HumanistsUK web site.
 

“In July 2020, in a case brought by six humanist couples, High Court judge Mrs Justice Eady DBE ruled that the failure to provide legally recognised humanist marriages means that ‘the present law gives rise to… discrimination’. She also ruled that, in light of that, the Secretary of State for Justice ‘cannot… simply sit on his hands’ and do nothing. However, she said, given that the Government is currently giving the matter consideration in the form of a review into marriage law by the Law Commission, the Government’s refusal to act immediately can be justified ‘at this time’ and concluded, ‘Although I may deprecate the delay that has occurred since 2015, I cannot ignore the fact that there is currently an on-going review of the law of marriage in this country.’ As a consequence, she declined to make a formal declaration that the Government is acting unlawfully at this time. We welcomed the court making clear that the failure to provide legal recognition of humanist marriages cannot be justified other than by saying that there is a review to redress the issue, but expressed disappointment at the Government being given more time to resolve it, particularly given how long humanist couples have already had to wait for legal recognition.The claimants in the case are considering whether to appeal this aspect. “

Details of the entire campaign by HumanistsUK can be be found here.

 

Tempting though it is, I will refrain from a conclusion because the above speaks all to clearly for itself.