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Fixing Prior Divorce so Current Marriage is Valid

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CLEMCO

Junior Member
What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)? Missouri
I have a marriage filed and registered in St Louis, MO on June 2, 2010. Several years later it was discovered that my wife had a divorce that was filed and then child custody and court was handled seperately and involved DFS, and ultimately the judge never signed the paper to dissolve, although it should have defaulted to a dissolve. She thought the divorce was final. That was in Washington County, MO. Ultimately my religion/church disciplined me for having an "invalid marriage". They gave me some time to fix it but multiple things caused it to take a long time to rectify. So here I am still at about 16 months of being removed from a good standing and cut off from my religious connections and church. We did everything needed to be properly married, and my wife thought she was divorced. We had several years of filing taxes and had 2 children, and everything else a married couple does. Since then a new divorce was finalized and a new marriage certificate just to cover all the bases. However this did not fix the situation in my "church". I know based on research that in some circumstances and especially in a case like mine sometimes the legal papers can be fixed so that our original June 2, 2010 marriage would be valid. For a fact in other states they allow a "Nunc Pro Tunc", to fix issues exactly like this. Bottom line is I have lots of drama and trouble for our family and issues that have affected our kids and technically 2 children out of wedlock. Can you please research and see what can be done? Also I know that with money almost anything can be fixed in the legal system. So how much money would it take?
If my original wedding date could be validated, then it could ultimately fix multiple issues for my family.
 


LdiJ

Senior Member
What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)? Missouri
I have a marriage filed and registered in St Louis, MO on June 2, 2010. Several years later it was discovered that my wife had a divorce that was filed and then child custody and court was handled seperately and involved DFS, and ultimately the judge never signed the paper to dissolve, although it should have defaulted to a dissolve. She thought the divorce was final. That was in Washington County, MO. Ultimately my religion/church disciplined me for having an "invalid marriage". They gave me some time to fix it but multiple things caused it to take a long time to rectify. So here I am still at about 16 months of being removed from a good standing and cut off from my religious connections and church. We did everything needed to be properly married, and my wife thought she was divorced. We had several years of filing taxes and had 2 children, and everything else a married couple does. Since then a new divorce was finalized and a new marriage certificate just to cover all the bases. However this did not fix the situation in my "church". I know based on research that in some circumstances and especially in a case like mine sometimes the legal papers can be fixed so that our original June 2, 2010 marriage would be valid. For a fact in other states they allow a "Nunc Pro Tunc", to fix issues exactly like this. Bottom line is I have lots of drama and trouble for our family and issues that have affected our kids and technically 2 children out of wedlock. Can you please research and see what can be done? Also I know that with money almost anything can be fixed in the legal system. So how much money would it take?
If my original wedding date could be validated, then it could ultimately fix multiple issues for my family.
This is not legal advice. Its personal advice. Have you considered that maybe you need to find a church that is more forgiving about the foibles of life? I bet there are a lot of churches who would accept that you were married in the eyes of god even if a technical formality made your marriage void in the eyes of the government.
 

Zigner

Senior Member, Non-Attorney
From the legal side...you're going to want to talk to an attorney. The law in your state says that your current marriage is "void" - meaning that it never occurred because your "wise" was still married at the time of your "marriage".
 

LdiJ

Senior Member
From the legal side...you're going to want to talk to an attorney. The law in your state says that your current marriage is "void" - meaning that it never occurred because your "wise" was still married at the time of your "marriage".
He said that she got a new divorce and that they got a new marriage certificate so that is no longer a problem. His concern is now about his church and about his children being viewed as illegitimate.
 

Zigner

Senior Member, Non-Attorney
He said that she got a new divorce and that they got a new marriage certificate so that is no longer a problem. His concern is now about his church and about his children being viewed as illegitimate.
I missed that. Well, you're right - this couple may want to consider finding a new church. Beyond that, there's nothing that can be done on the legal end. His second marriage was void from the inception and there's no way to unwind that clock.
 

Zigner

Senior Member, Non-Attorney
Remarry in a civil ceremony and forget it. Render unto Caeser what is Caesar's.
As the OP said (and LdiJ pointed out), the divorce and subsequent marriage already occurred, so the OP is now legally married. The OP just wants to fix the church aspect.
 

xylene

Senior Member
You should gather your self respect and leave the church.

You have no options, and the disciplinary whims of your church are not holy, not an act of god, but in fact capricious and arbitrary.
 

PayrollHRGuy

Senior Member
I believe judging the beliefs and doctrine of a religion is a little outside the bounds of this forum unless they require illegal action on somebody's part. While I think it is strange that a church would allow the state to have this major a role in its' doctrine and yes, I too would be out of the place in a flash, I think it would be better to say so in a way that doesn't insult any given religion.
 

Zigner

Senior Member, Non-Attorney
I believe judging the beliefs and doctrine of a religion is a little outside the bounds of this forum unless they require illegal action on somebody's part. While I think it is strange that a church would allow the state to have this major a role in its' doctrine and yes, I too would be out of the place in a flash, I think it would be better to say so in a way that doesn't insult any given religion.
I don't believe that any religion was being referred to...just the practices at that specific church (at least, that's how I meant it.)
 

PayrollHRGuy

Senior Member
I don't believe that any religion was being referred to...just the practices at that specific church (at least, that's how I meant it.)
I was referring to Xylene's post #9 where she says of the OP's church, "...whims of your church are not holy, not an act of god, but in fact capricious and arbitrary."
 

xylene

Senior Member
I believe judging the beliefs and doctrine of a religion is a little outside the bounds of this forum unless they require illegal action on somebody's part. While I think it is strange that a church would allow the state to have this major a role in its' doctrine and yes, I too would be out of the place in a flash, I think it would be better to say so in a way that doesn't insult any given religion.
They opened the door by declaring children *******s because for what goes on in family court.

Do you think the church elders let the OP and his family have an advocate at all in the disciplinary hearing?
Do you think the dsciplineary process was transparent?

(The answer is no, btw)

So why do you get to declare this equivalism as order of the day? You have some insight that is wasn't all just to bully a member over a personal vendetta? You know that? Because that happens.

Worse than that happens in church. Little kids are made to publicly apologize to the people who sexually abused them, and you think this paperwork snafu is a holy cause.
 

adjusterjack

Senior Member
I believe judging the beliefs and doctrine of a religion is a little outside the bounds of this forum unless they require illegal action on somebody's part. While I think it is strange that a church would allow the state to have this major a role in its' doctrine and yes, I too would be out of the place in a flash, I think it would be better to say so in a way that doesn't insult any given religion.
Nobody's insulting anybody's religion. The "church" is not the religion, it's a group of people who practice a religion. People can be, and often are, hypocrites and sinners.
 

Zigner

Senior Member, Non-Attorney
Nobody's insulting anybody's religion. The "church" is not the religion, it's a group of people who practice a religion. People can be, and often are, hypocrites and sinners.
To be fair...
Some "religions" mean the entire religion when they refer to "the church". I don't think that's the case here, but it's like that in some instances.
 

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