Article: 261754 of talk.bizarre
From: mlegare@wetware.com (M. Legare, etc.)
Newsgroups: talk.bizarre
Subject: Rev. Matthew Legare, Shaman or something like it
Date: Mon, 04 Dec 1995 08:34:23 -0800
Organization: arcana on spec
Lines: 32
Message-ID: <ACE8630F96682676D@klang.wetware.com>
Status: O
X-Status: 

This is going to be a long rambling essay.  If you don't like that sort of
thing, or if you're looking for more short n snappy BoBteCh stuff, you'll
probably want to skip this one. 'kay?

A few weeks back I was slogging thru my emailbox and found that the
Universal Life Church now has a <a
href="http://www.YBI.com/ulc/index.html">website</a> which was doling out
on-line ordainments.  Being like the next gazabo who enjoys collecting
titles, I went looking for it and, sure enough, it was there.  I stepped
through the procedure and voila - I'm "Reverend Matthew Legare", a minister
in the Universal Life Church.  Didn't even cost me the $1 it usually does,
and I got a cool color GIF to print out for my credentials.

Ok.  Ha-ha.  I'm a reverend now, and it's all legal and stuff, and I can do
all these cool church things like preside over marraiges and funerals and
baptismals and so forth.  Heck, I could do that as a SubG minister too, but
now it's like OFFICIAL and RECOGNIZED (albeit grudgingly) by the STATE.  A
ULC minister presided over Colette and John's wedding, so it's GOTTA be
real, right?

Now comes the hitch.  See, I've shopped around, I don't seem to fit any of
the major religous categories or profiles.  Not even the "esoteric" ones.  

So now, not only am I a minister, but I have to go out and MAKE my own damn
religon.  Fine.  Want something done right and all that...

It's a very strange thing to be a minister and not be sure what kind of
religon you are ministering.

mpl