Kim Davis should resign
Kim Davis- the Kentucky County Clerk who refuses to issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples- has it wrong.
She's not wrong because she questions whether the Supreme Court may properly ignore two thousand years of precedent regarding the conjugal basis of the institution of marriage and redefine society's most basic institution on the basis of poorly-defended personal preference on the part of a majority of the Supreme Court.
She's not wrong theologically when she says that God instituted marriage as an institution involving one man and one woman, and that Anthony Kennedy does not have the authority to overrule Him.
And she's certainly not wrong when she refuses to violate her conscience by issuing marriage licenses to same-sex couples. But she is wrong when she tries to have her cake and eat it, too.
Rightly or wrongly (and I agree with Davis that it's wrongly), the law not only permits but mandates civil "marriage" between individuals of the same gender. And the government which has promulgated that law- however irregularly it may have done so- enjoys the status of a divine institution every bit as much as marriage does.
If Davis cannot in conscience issue marriage licenses to gay couples as her job requires her to do, the answer is not to cop out by claiming a special religious privilege excusing her from doing what her job requires. Nor is it to bring the Faith into disrepute by confusing the expectation that a public official perform the duties of her office with a requirement that she violate her conscience.
Kim Davis has no special rights by virtue of her faith, any more than an atheist or an agnostic would who chose on the basis of conscience to refuse to issue marriage licenses for church weddings. If she cannot do her job, her course should be clear.
She should resign. Doing so would be a public witness to her faith.
What she is doing now merely brings it into disrepute by providing the social and secularist Left with ammunition for the bogus charge that in insisting on religious liberty, believers are actually claiming special treatment.
She's not wrong because she questions whether the Supreme Court may properly ignore two thousand years of precedent regarding the conjugal basis of the institution of marriage and redefine society's most basic institution on the basis of poorly-defended personal preference on the part of a majority of the Supreme Court.
She's not wrong theologically when she says that God instituted marriage as an institution involving one man and one woman, and that Anthony Kennedy does not have the authority to overrule Him.
And she's certainly not wrong when she refuses to violate her conscience by issuing marriage licenses to same-sex couples. But she is wrong when she tries to have her cake and eat it, too.
Rightly or wrongly (and I agree with Davis that it's wrongly), the law not only permits but mandates civil "marriage" between individuals of the same gender. And the government which has promulgated that law- however irregularly it may have done so- enjoys the status of a divine institution every bit as much as marriage does.
If Davis cannot in conscience issue marriage licenses to gay couples as her job requires her to do, the answer is not to cop out by claiming a special religious privilege excusing her from doing what her job requires. Nor is it to bring the Faith into disrepute by confusing the expectation that a public official perform the duties of her office with a requirement that she violate her conscience.
Kim Davis has no special rights by virtue of her faith, any more than an atheist or an agnostic would who chose on the basis of conscience to refuse to issue marriage licenses for church weddings. If she cannot do her job, her course should be clear.
She should resign. Doing so would be a public witness to her faith.
What she is doing now merely brings it into disrepute by providing the social and secularist Left with ammunition for the bogus charge that in insisting on religious liberty, believers are actually claiming special treatment.
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