Today's Tulsa World reports that for the first time, the Tulsa County, Oklahoma County Court Clerk's Office has approved applications by leaders of three local atheist/ free thought organizations for licenses permitting them to perform marriages. The three are: Bill Dusenberry, coordinator of the Tulsa Coalition of Reason; William Poire, president of the Atheist Community of Tulsa; and Randy Bradley, president of the Tulsa County chapter of the Freedom From Religion Foundation. In what may be a stretch of the language in O.S. Sec. 43.7, the clerk's office essentially accepted the Freedom from Religion Foundation as the equivalent of an ordaining religious organization that approved the applicants. FFRF presented letters attesting that the three applicants had met its requirement for performing marriage. FFRF has developed a set of requirements that includes having read 10 books on free thought; reading a newspaper or news magazine regularly; traveling outside Oklahoma at least three times; and being in love at least three times. FFRF also requires applicant to pass a multiple choice test.
An FFRF celebrant will only perform a marriage for a couple that are FFRF members, who are at least 25 years old or college graduates, and who promise not to allow their children to be "religiously or philosophically brainwashed."
