{"id":264,"date":"2006-03-27T12:00:00","date_gmt":"2006-03-27T12:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/chatteringmind\/2006\/03\/god-with-your-wedding.html"},"modified":"2006-03-27T12:00:00","modified_gmt":"2006-03-27T12:00:00","slug":"god-with-your-wedding","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/chatteringmind\/2006\/03\/god-with-your-wedding.html","title":{"rendered":"God With Your Wedding?"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/div>\n

\u201cHow do you feel about using the word \u2018God\u2019 in your ceremony of marriage?\u201d <\/p>\n

I had successfully avoided the question–buried in the 10-page survey that our officiant had us fill out–for a full week.<\/p>\n

The answer was so obvious and at the same time so unclear, that I couldn\u2019t bring myself to address it. P and I want a spiritually minded ceremony for our June wedding–for us love is inherently linked to something higher. But we\u2019re also connected to our families: mine non-practicing Italian Catholic\/Jewish and his non-practicing, but big-talking Irish Catholic. In choosing the person to marry us, we wondered (read: worried) if it would be possible to create a ceremony that would embrace a spiritual sensibility cultivated through yoga, meditation, and devotional practice without alienating mostly agnostic family members. <\/p>\n

P suggested a light-hearted Catholic priest. I nixed him as too mono-religious. I suggested a friend who teaches meditation and practices South American shamanism. His vote: \u201cToo out there.\u201d After weeks of searching for a person who falls somewhere between rabbi and Buddhist nun (I\u2019ve always dreamed of being married by Pema Ch\u00f6dr\u00f6n<\/a>), one morning I suggested we have a judge marry us. \u201cI refuse to be married by anyone who also sends people to jail,\u201d he said without looking up from his cereal.<\/p>\n

Then we found Norma. An ordained wedding officiant and a reverend, she\u2019s also a spiritual counselor, a mother of kids our age, and just plain cool. On her card she promises to design \u201ccreative, personalized ceremonies that reflect the essence of the love you are celebrating,\u201d and she\u2019s even better in person. Funny and sassy, she\u2019s willing to help us strike a balance between our spiritual lives and the family members who ask, \u201cYou still doing that yoga stuff?\u201d <\/p>\n

I eventually answered the question: Yes, I\u2019m comfortable with the word \u201cGod.\u201d Even if rest of the family might not be.<\/p>\n

\u2013- Guest blogger Marisa Lowenstein<\/p>\n

<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u201cHow do you feel about using the word \u2018God\u2019 in your ceremony of marriage?\u201d I had successfully avoided the question–buried in the 10-page survey that our officiant had us fill out–for a full week. The answer was so obvious and at the same time so unclear, that I couldn\u2019t bring myself to address it. P…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":374,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-264","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\nGod With Your Wedding? - Chattering Mind<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/chatteringmind\/2006\/03\/god-with-your-wedding.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"God With Your Wedding? - Chattering Mind\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"\u201cHow do you feel about using the word \u2018God\u2019 in your ceremony of marriage?\u201d I had successfully avoided the question–buried in the 10-page survey that our officiant had us fill out–for a full week. The answer was so obvious and at the same time so unclear, that I couldn\u2019t bring myself to address it. P…\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/chatteringmind\/2006\/03\/god-with-your-wedding.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Chattering Mind\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2006-03-27T12:00:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"chattering mind\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"God With Your Wedding? - Chattering Mind","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/chatteringmind\/2006\/03\/god-with-your-wedding.html","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"God With Your Wedding? - Chattering Mind","og_description":"\u201cHow do you feel about using the word \u2018God\u2019 in your ceremony of marriage?\u201d I had successfully avoided the question–buried in the 10-page survey that our officiant had us fill out–for a full week. The answer was so obvious and at the same time so unclear, that I couldn\u2019t bring myself to address it. P…","og_url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/chatteringmind\/2006\/03\/god-with-your-wedding.html","og_site_name":"Chattering Mind","article_published_time":"2006-03-27T12:00:00+00:00","author":"chattering mind","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/chatteringmind\/2006\/03\/god-with-your-wedding.html","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/chatteringmind\/2006\/03\/god-with-your-wedding.html","name":"God With Your Wedding? - Chattering Mind","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/chatteringmind\/#website"},"datePublished":"2006-03-27T12:00:00+00:00","dateModified":"2006-03-27T12:00:00+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/chatteringmind\/#\/schema\/person\/8ac8611ed5893441997fe2f474a954b5"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/chatteringmind\/2006\/03\/god-with-your-wedding.html#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/chatteringmind\/2006\/03\/god-with-your-wedding.html"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/chatteringmind\/2006\/03\/god-with-your-wedding.html#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/chatteringmind"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"God With Your Wedding?"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/chatteringmind\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/chatteringmind\/","name":"Chattering Mind","description":"Amy Cunningham, Spirituality blog, Beliefnet Spiritual parenting blog","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/chatteringmind\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/chatteringmind\/#\/schema\/person\/8ac8611ed5893441997fe2f474a954b5","name":"chattering mind","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/chatteringmind\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"chattering mind"},"url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/chatteringmind\/author\/chattering-mind"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/chatteringmind\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/264","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/chatteringmind\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/chatteringmind\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/chatteringmind\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/374"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/chatteringmind\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=264"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/chatteringmind\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/264\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/chatteringmind\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=264"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/chatteringmind\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=264"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/chatteringmind\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=264"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}