American Marriage Ministries’ statement on vaccine mandates and religious exemptions

American Marriage Ministries is a non-denominational church that ordains people online so that they can officiate weddings. Our mandate draws on this country's foundational documents and the philosophies that inspired its founders, empowering us to share a vision of equality and freedom with our compatriots, and practiced through the solemnization of marriage. 

 

Wedding ceremonies are the physical and spiritual locus of our faith practice. The marriage ceremony and its participants are the congregants and praxis of our faith. For more than 11 years, we have worked to ensure that our ministers create safe and welcoming environments for the couples and communities that they serve. 

 

While the philosophies that underpin our church’s tenets are broad, American Marriage Ministries is necessarily focused on the celebration of marriage, and our three core tenets:

 

1. All people, regardless of race, gender, or sexual orientation, have the right to marry.
2. It is the right of every couple to choose who will solemnize their marriage.
3. All people have the right to solemnize marriage.

 

Over the last two years, we have worked hard to ensure that our ministers could officiate weddings that were safe, inclusive, and welcoming. We worked to provide options for our ministers, and the couples and communities that they serve, to celebrate meaningful ceremonies when large gatherings were not possible.

 

Vaccinations have allowed life to begin returning to normal, but vaccine hesitancy stands in the way, both of a safe return to the public sphere, and the unfettered celebration of marriage. 

 

Vaccination against COVID-19 is a matter of public health, not a question of faith.

 

For these reasons, American Marriage Ministries supports vaccine mandates. Additionally, ordination by, or affiliation with American Marriage Ministries are not grounds for seeking an exemption from any vaccine mandate imposed by any governmental entity within the United States.