Senior Matthew Haynes is an ordained minister. He can perform weddings, start his own church tax free, forgive others for their sins and legally go by the title reverend. He never went to seminary school and doesn’t consider himself religious.

He just went online and applied.

“It literally took every bit of 15 seconds, if you’re a fast typer,” Haynes said.

The Universal Life Church, where Haynes applied, is a non-denominational church offering ordinations to anyone who submits their legal information on the church’s Web site.

Within a few days, applicants are sent confirmation of their request and can be legally called reverend. Online ministers are awarded many of the same rights as those who went through school, such as performing exorcisms and baptisms and blessing holy artifacts.

He first became a minister as a joke, and he’s admitted he’s probably the last person who should have this title. But when his friends wanted a non-religious wedding, Haynes stepped up and married them.

“One time I had reverend on my driver’s license,” he said. “It’s just the same concept as flirting with a police officer.”

Mostly he’s used the title to have fun, blessing things in jest and being called reverend. He was surprised when he started getting some negative reactions to the idea. Some people claimed people who become ministers online are undermining the religious leaders who actually go through years of school.

Father Mike Dandurand of St. Thomas More said Catholic ministers have to go through four years of college, five years of graduate school and one year of interning.

He said he’s a bit worried about the online process.

“I would be as concerned about that as a doctor would be about someone getting an MD [online],” he said.

According to the Universal Life Church Web site, they “strongly believe in the rights of all people to practice their beliefs, regardless of what those beliefs are, as long as they do not infringe on the rights of others and are within the law.”

The Web site claims the point of the process is to spread different religions.

They encourage you to start your own church, Haynes said. And people tend to assume since he’s a minister he’s “a massively religious person.”

But he sees the title as more of a legal title than a religious title.

“It just makes me able to marry in the law,” he said.

Some of his friends who have gone through the process have started performing marriages as a side business.

“It’s become more apparent over the years,” he said.

And despite the negative feedback, he would recommend the process to anyone.

“There’s nothing more hilarious than knowing you have to be referred to as reverend in a court of law,” he said.