Are you sure you're really married? It might be worth taking a look at who married you

Larry Rice did a double take while preparing a client's divorce petition.

"While we were talking to our client in mediation, the subject of Universal Life Church came up," Rice, a Memphis attorney, said. "He said, 'Yep, I'm a minister under that. So is the guy that married us."

With that, Rice was off to the courthouse to halt the divorce proceedings. Under Tennessee law, his client wasn't legally married. And since there was no marriage, there could be no divorce.

Rice says it's a more common problem than many would imagine — and the legalization of same-sex unions nationwide has only made it potentially worse.

Tennessee is one of several states that don't recognize marriages performed by ministers ordained online through sites such as Universal Life Church.

The website describes ULC as a multi-denominational religious organization that makes it quick and easy to become ordained and perform functions any other minister can perform, such as marriages — "Get ordained online, officiate a wedding," the site's home page proclaims. 

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ULC isn't alone in offering online ordination, but it's among the largest. More than a decade ago, The New York Times reported Universal Life Church at that time had ordained more than 18 million ministers since it was founded in California in 1959. 

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In many states, that's good enough. Tennessee, however, is one of a handful of states that don't recognize as valid marriages performed by ministers ordained online.

A 2015 Tennessee Attorney General's opinion says Tennessee code was amended in 1998 to explicitly spell out who can perform marriages. The code was amended to reinforce a 1997 AG opinion that implicitly disqualified ULC ministers, specifically, from officiating marriages.

"In order to solemnize the rite of marriage," the amended 1998 Tennessee code reads, "any such minister, preacher, pastor, priest, rabbi or other spiritual leader must be ordained or otherwise designated in conformity with the customs of a church, temple or other religious group or organization; and such customs must provide for such ordination or designation by a considered, deliberate, and responsible act."

ULC fails to meet those requirements, the opinion says.

"...Other than the click of a mouse," the opinion reads, "no 'considered, deliberate, and responsible act' as required by Tenn. Code Ann. 36-3-301 is a prerequisite for ordination by the Universal Life Church."

"Tennessee takes marriages seriously," Rice said. "There are enormous responsibilities created as a result of that one agreement. You don't have to married by a minister, so it's not a religious thing. You can go get a judge to marry you, but you can't get a joke to marry you. Universal Life Church is a joke."

ULC and its ministers dispute the characterization that they're a joke, but the website does make clear ordination doesn't require training or study.

Unlike traditional religious organizations, ULC says "we don't require years of training or expensive courses to become a member of the clergy. Becoming ordained is free, and can be done entirely online." 

"Universal Life Church is for guys sitting around the dorm laughing about religion and going, 'Well hey, look, I can press these keys on my computer and I am a full-fledged minister,'" counters Rice. "That's inconsistent with the solemn nature of a minister."

Rice said legalization nationwide of same-sex marriage only exacerbated the problem. 

"We've noticed that a lot of same-sex couples were having a problem getting some of the more conservative ministers to marry them," he said. "So they were looking for a non-conventional minister, and they wound up with one of their buddies going, 'Oh, I'll fix this.' A buddy saying 'I'll fix this' is never a good idea."

Richard Blumenthal, a U.S. senator from Connecticut who served as that state's attorney general for 20 years, told The New York Times the law would usually give couples the benefit of the doubt, even if they were not legally married, as long as they remained together.

The issue typically becomes a problem if someone challenges the marriage — such as in a divorce, which is what happened with the case with which Rice is currently involved in Shelby County Circuit Court.

"The problem comes when after you've been married for, say, a decade and you start going through a divorce," Rice said. "You start looking at the marital property, and alimony only comes if there's a valid marriage. 

"Otherwise, it's just a partition of jointly owned property, which is usually divided equally. More goes into the division if there's a valid marriage, such as earnings."

Of course, Rice notes, there's a simple solution to the potentially tangled mess that invalid marriages can create: Just make sure an officiant legally recognized by the state is also present.

"You can let anyone marry you that you want," he said, "but have a separate ceremony with an authorized officiant."