Is Scientology a Religion? Religious Marriage and the UK Supreme Court's Landmark Decision Hodkin v Registrar
14 Pages Posted: 11 Dec 2013 Last revised: 13 Dec 2013
Date Written: December 9, 2013
Abstract
Britain lives in the age of equal marriage: most forms of discrimination have been removed and the state recognizes the union between two persons rather than that between a man and a woman. It is therefore not surprising that religious marriage is finally recognized to be pluralist: the church of scientology, for example, has just been allowed to celebrate valid religious marriages on its premises by the UK Supreme Court in a landmark case of Hodkin v Registrar. The decision is particularly important because it squarely moves away from a Judeo-Christian theistic definition of religion and embrace a much more open test that is broadly in line with religious pluralism.
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