What are the legal requirements for starting your own religion?(U.S.) if any. I keep looking and can't find what Im looking for.

http://ulc.org

Look at the FAQ on that site for info about starting a church. Good luck starting a new religion, don't exspect it to be respected in your lifetime.

Edit: The FAQ on that site apears to be gone, check and see if it comes back any time soon. All I can remeber is you need three people, a pastor a treasurer and someone else. There is probably some paperwork that you need before you are official and can ordain people. Check on your States website for info on marriages, more specificly who can do them. That could point you in the direction of specific requirements.

[This message has been edited by MasterPython (edited 12-08-2004).]

All you need is to get people to put the name of your shiny new reilgion on there census and BAM! you got a new reiligon recognized by your government. Well, You have to have a lot of el fucking people to sign. Or you could get a whole lotta people to off themselves. But I'm don't recommend the second one.

^ this isnt true. Its an urban legend.

so what god are you worshiping? i thought we had em all covered.

I'm pretty sure that you need at least 100,000 people to follow your beliefs before it's legally considered a religion, at least in the UK.

quote:Originally posted by robbinthehood:

I'm pretty sure that you need at least 100,000 people to follow your beliefs before it's legally considered a religion, at least in the UK.

I'm pretty sure you're wrong.

Source: http://www.snopes.com/religion/jedi.htm

Snopes.com is the most respectable urban legends page.

Faithfully Submitted,

Cesare de Borgia

quote:Originally posted by asthesunsets:

^ this isnt true. Its an urban legend.



Yeah, you need to demonstrate that your followers come to worship as well, they can't just sign and leave.

I believe all being official does is allow you to ordain people so they can preform marriages. If you have a building you might be able to grant sancuary to illegal immagrants. Unless you gave up all your possesions and lived in some kind of compound you would still have to pay taxes.

its much easier to start a cult. christianity started off as a cult.

quote:Originally posted by firefighter12:

its much easier to start a cult. christianity started off as a cult.

it still is ^__^

But the govt has campaigns to teach the public to be aware of cults. It was easier back in the old days.

so what kind of religion were you thinking of starting? we could make one devoted to porn and beer!

quote:Originally posted by Its steven:

? we could make one devoted to porn and beer!

ill join!