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Since its inception, the Universal Life Church has come into legal conflicts over such issues as the validity of ordinations and the tax-exempt status of the organization. ==Overview== In 2002 the Church sued the state of Utah regarding the legality of its Internet-based ordination process. Utah had passed a law banning ministers ordained by mail or over the Internet from officiating legal marriage. The court ruled in favor of the Church, declaring the statute unconstitutional and permanently barring the state from enforcing it, noting among other things that there is essentially no difference between an Internet-based application or mail-order application and one sent by courier, fax machine, phone, or done in person. Had the law been allowed to stand, it might well have had the unintended consequence of "defrocking" many ministers from traditional churches for purposes of officiating marriage, for the ULC is not the only church to conduct such business via U.S. Mail. The United States government was, for a period of time, concerned that perhaps the Church had been founded as a way for Hensley to avoid paying taxes. In 1985, the ULC began a series of court battles against the IRS to prove its legitimacy as a Church. The courts ruled that like any tax-exempt organization, the ULC would qualify for exempt status year by year, based on its financial activities within the tax period. The ULC was subsequently found to be tax-exempt for some years and not in others. Tax exemption can apply only to organizations and not to individual ministers. Each congregation within the ULC is legally independent and would be required to establish its own exemption via 501(c)3 or rely on existing tax statutes to determine tax-exempt status without regard to the Headquarters or any other ULC entity. The three main ULC sites all currently are not 501(c)3. Another common criticism of ULC ordination is that some people, usually as a joke, submit ordination requests for their pets. The ULC has tried to curb the ordination of pets, but if the name on the application appears to be legitimate, the pet will probably receive ordination. The ULC website contains the following warning against fraudulent ordination requests, including attempts to ordain pets: "No one is rejected because of their name, but we must protect the integrity of the records against those who fraudulently submit requests for pets, obscene names, etc. Applying for ordination in the name of a fictitious person or animal, or the submission of a person's name without his or her permission is fraud, and may subject you to prosecution!" 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Legal status of the Universal Life Church」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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