David Harsanyi, a senior editor at The Federalist, recently wrote that Kim
Davis (a county clerk in KY) was wrong to refuse a same-sex couple a marriage
license … because “if you’re unwilling to enforce the law, you shouldn’t be an
officer of the state.” Harsanyi goes on
to say, “Davis’ stand isn’t about
religious freedom. Not really. Signing off on state documents is not
tantamount to being forced, as bakers and photographers have been, to
participate in a wedding ceremony. There
are certainly bigots out there intent on coercing Christian businesses to
choose between their faith and their livelihood; this isn’t one of those
instances. If you want to participate in
civil obedience, don’t work for the state.”
Harsanyi concludes, “After all, it’s not a clerk’s job to ascertain the constitutionality
or practicality of a law. If it were, we’d
have anarchy. There are hundreds of
other vocations she is free to pursue if this one doesn’t suit her.”
In all due respect,
Harsanyi has thrown my Christian sister under the bus … and I’m not going to
take it! This is absolutely about
religious liberty. [read my blog posting
of September 4 – “What Comes After County Clerks? It’s Christian Churches”] Why should she have to deny her
constitutional right to live in accordance with her religious convictions and
expect the protection from governmental interference in her free exercise thereof? Why should she have to walk away from
2-decades of government employment to seek another job? Where is the state’s responsibility to found
Davis a different function of employment or make the changes to the licensing
procedure that could have prevented her from going to jail for contempt of
court? This gay couple drove through two
other counties that could have (would have) issued their gay-marriage license. [There are about 125 other marriage clerks in
Kentucky.] She was clearly, undeniably targeted! Thank goodness, the senseless judge … who
order her into federal custody (without bail) … came to realize the error of
his ways, and released her after 5-days in the slammer.
This week will be
interesting … as Davis returns to her elected position as county clerk with no
changes from the way things were before her jailing of last week. We’ll see what the day brings; but meanwhile there
are a few things that are worth contemplating … beginning with the prevailing
hypocrisy surrounding the attacks on Davis (a Democrat), and what it tells us
about the state of American political debate and policymaking in 2015. Haven’t you noticed how the rule of law only
seems to be sacred when it happens to conveniently fit with liberal values? In the eyes of liberals, nothing – not the
freedom of association or religion or anything else mentioned in the 1st or 2nd
Amendment – will ever supersede these consecrated rights: the right not to be ‘discriminated’
against, the right to have an abortion, and the right to have a gay marriage.
When GOP presidential
candidate Marco Rubio commented that Kentucky should probably respect the
beliefs of county clerks, John Podesta, chairman of Hillary for America,
tweeted: “SCOTUS says LGBT couples can marry. Officials should uphold the law. Period. What’s next, Professor Rubio?”
What hypocrisy! Liberals ignore the rule of law by
circumventing the legislative process and creating regulatory regimes to battle
climate change; people who are here illegally can march in the streets to
protest their situation without any genuine fear of being rounded up and deported;
cities across this country can ignore immigration laws they don’t like and
create sanctuaries from law. But none of
these elected officials have been hauled off to jail for any of these stands. Yet a Christian struggling to come to terms
with the implications of a decision that the U.S. Supreme Court reached only a
couple of months ago … and our progressive president embraced only a couple of
years ago … is hauled off to jail.
Christians will have no
choice but to take more obstinate positions in these battles of the culture war
– battles that could easily have been avoided if a judge had exhibited more
compassion and come to an accommodation. If we’re going to be rigid about the rule of
law, let’s throw all officials who ignore it into jail cells. And let it start with President Obama … and
work our way down.
Rev.
Dr. Kenneth L. Beale, Jr.
Chaplain
(Colonel-Ret), U.S. Army
Pastor,
Ft. Snelling Memorial Chapel
Yes, indeed Kim Davis was targeted. It would be interesting to see what would happen when a DMV clerk who is Muslim decides to not issue a drivers license to a woman because of Shiria law. Will the court order him to? Will he be sent to jail for contempt if he refuses based on his religious belief or will a religious accommodation be made for him?
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