Reader Chas was ordained online to perform weddings and he’s done a few of them to this point. But, in an email, he asked about another aspect of marriage that I didn’t have an answer to:
Our local county offers a discount on marriage license fees for people who go through about 12 hours of premarital counseling, so I also wish there were local secular classes I could refer prospective couples to for secular pre-marital counseling since I’m certainly not qualified to offer it.
We know some places, like the Catholic Church, require that couples wanting to be married in the church go through pre-marital counseling first. Obviously, atheism has no such requirements.
But are there options for a service like this? For what it’s worth, Chas is in Minnesota, but I’m curious on a national scale. Do atheists just have to pony up for an expensive counselor (if they choose to do that) or are there secular alternatives available?