Mr. Thigpen has been the Register of Deeds in Guilford County for as long as I can remember. He stated clearly to the media last week, the government has no right to interrupt any marriage and to do so illustrates religious preference.
GREENSBORO, N.C. (click title to entry - thank you) — North Carolina has no constitutional duty to be in the marriage licensing business and should get out of it immediately, according to a lawsuit filed by a Guilford County elected official and other residents.
County Register of Deeds Jeff Thigpen, whose office is responsible for recording marriage licenses, is the lead plaintiff in a lawsuit that says the state should not be involved in that activity — or deny marriages to same-sex couples, according to The News & Record of Greensboro.
State laws essentially make members of the clergy agents of the state by requiring them to oversee the marriage licensing process, the complaint argues, and they improperly deny marriage rights to same-sex couples.
"In order adequately and fully to protect the personal liberty and religious freedom of citizens in North Carolina and the United States, there must be a de-coupling and disentanglement of the state from the personal and religious institution of marriage," the complaint reads....
To the right is a map of estimates to when states may enact gay marriage laws. (click here) On this map it is estimated North Carolina won't have the political will to move their legislature until between 2017 to 2020. That might be true, but, what Mr. Thigpen is clearly stating is that the government has no role in granting or denying marriage.
He believes that by granting rights to heterosexual couples only sets a precedent that is over reaching by the government and if there is legislation to change that to include same sex marriage then the law could also be passed to prohibit heterosexual marriage as well. To the best of my knowledge Mr. Thigpen is not gay and is a devout man. I don't know him personally. I do know he is well qualified to do his job and has been for a long time.
SEEKS INVESTIGATION OF “MERS” FOR REIMBURSEMENT OF $1.3 MILLION IN LOST
REVENUE TO GUILFORD COUNTY
Guilford County Register of Deeds Jeff Thigpen announced today that he will be conferring with County Attorney Mark Payne, NC Attorney General and Secretary of State as to whether the Mortgage Electronic Registration Service (MERS) owes Guilford County fees estimated at $1.3 million in lost revenue from mortgage assignments. Thigpen also wants to review pending legal actions against MERS and consider options to protect the integrity of public land recordation offices....
Mr. Thigpen's approach is how to best define government to serve the citizen. He is not dismantling anything, he is simply trying to clear up his role in registering a marriage license. After all, it isn't as though a marriage license has deeded property rights, or, does it?
TUESDAY, DECEMBER 13, 2011
(Updated 5:05 pm)
GREENSBORO -- Guilford County Register of Deeds Jeff Thigpen and 10 other people filed a lawsuit last week that challenges a requirement that marrying couples in North Carolina obtain a state-issued license....
While this pleading for relief from the Register of Deeds to the state seems kind of strange, the way I interpret it that marriage is a contract. Marriage is more contract law then a responsibility of government. When one examines a marriage license as it is submitted after the ceremony there are the participants and witnesses. That is very much the way a contract is agreed to and written. It isn't as though Mr. Thigpen and the other plaintiffs are trying to weaken marriage, quite the contrary, it would strengthen it.
The "Jumping the Broom" (click here) is a ceremony in which the bride and groom, either at the ceremony or at the reception, signify their entrance into a new life and their creation of a new family by symbolically "sweeping away" their former single lives, former problems and concerns, and jumping over the broom to enter upon a new adventure as wife and husband.
Today there are already marriage contracts separate from the ceremonial license. Marriage contracts have been used for a long time and are sought to protect one partner against financial loss to the other partner should the marriage fail. The Marriage Contract today is legal and binding. Why does the State or any other government entity have to provide the same service when a couple can simply go to "Contracts 'R' Us" and fill it out at the time they are wed? Does the State have the right to define marriage? If the State has that right, then who is to shape the definition and what prevents any changes in the future? I sincerely believe the lawsuit is correct. Heck, at one time births were recorded on the inside covers of Bibles. That wasn't so long ago.
...There is another meaning of the word mazel (click here) that is more relevant to the phrase Mazel Tov. Mazel is the term used in Jewish mysticism to describe the root of the soul. The mystics say that only a ray of our soul actually inhabits our body. The main part of the soul, our mazel, remains above, shining down on us from a distance....
When does marriage happen for you, at the alter or when a clerk asks for blood tests? There are many ways of handling marriage as an institution, not just through government consent. A marriage license has taken on less meaning as time has gone by, with palimony and children born without the benefit of a marriage license. It is a curiosity that so many on the political right in the USA complain about government being involved with privacy rights, yet they see no problem with government overseeing the most personal contract a citizen can have. Odd. Marriage licenses have nothing to do with birth certificates. They are separate topics, both socially and legally.
When does marriage happen for you, at the alter or when a clerk asks for blood tests? There are many ways of handling marriage as an institution, not just through government consent. A marriage license has taken on less meaning as time has gone by, with palimony and children born without the benefit of a marriage license. It is a curiosity that so many on the political right in the USA complain about government being involved with privacy rights, yet they see no problem with government overseeing the most personal contract a citizen can have. Odd. Marriage licenses have nothing to do with birth certificates. They are separate topics, both socially and legally.
