For an alternative opinion on this controversial issue, click here.
Prominently featured in recent news, Kim Davis, a county clerk in Kentucky, refused to issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples, sat in jail for a few days, and may yet sit there again.
- Along with most Mormons, I share her opposition to same-sex marriage, but I believe her approach is ill-advised.
- She decided to work for the government and took an oath to faithfully execute the law. She violated that oath.
- Regular citizens can oppose a law and agitate for change, but the executor must either execute or resign. Otherwise chaos.
- If one accepts employment in a religion (for many, government is their religion), one does not have the right to inject competing doctrine. A Mormon musician who takes a gig as a Presbyterian church organist does not have the right to replace “Amazing Grace” with “Come, Come Ye Saints.”
- At the same time, I sympathize with Ms. Davis. She appears to be acting out of deeply felt religious convictions, as her willingness to go to jail demonstrates.
- The deeper problem is the uneven execution of laws. Certain officials in Washington too often select which laws to enforce and which to ignore (think immigration law for starters), contrary to the Constitution that requires laws be faithfully executed.
- The powerful are abetted by judicial hypocrites who wink at barefaced violations by the elite and drop the sledgehammer on everyone else.
- Unfortunately for Ms. Davis, she is not high enough on that pecking order.
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Gary Lawrence is a political pollster and the author of “The War in Heaven Continues; Satan’s Tactics to Destroy You, Christianity, the Family, the Constitution, and America.”
Bill SherwoodSeptember 15, 2015
Jesus was unequivocal in his condemnation of divorce, but not of homosexuality. It seems a bit hypocritical that the "deeply held religious convictions" of the thrice-divorced Davis are offended only by same sex marriage.
JustaMomSeptember 12, 2015
The oath she swore to was to support and uphold the Constitution of the United States, the Constitution of the State and the Charter of the city. The only way she should be forced out is by a vote of the people. I doubt there would be enough to vote her out. She should not resign. The duties of her job changed mid-term. That is not her doing. But, resigning is just caving to public pressure. If the county in Kentucky no longer wants her as clerk, follow the rules and impeach/remove her by vote, not the media. A much bigger problem, and one that is NOT being discussed (I have not read all comments) is that the decision, or opinion, of the Supreme Court (SC) is not law. Congress makes the laws. The SC has side-stepped it's own job description. When a case comes before the SC that does not fall within it's jurisdiction, as listed in the US Constitution, it should be saying, "That is a State issue, not a federal issue. Take it up with your state or move to a state that accommodates your opinion."