On the 26th of June history was made. The United States Supreme Court decided that same-sex couples would be allowed to get married regardless of the state in which they live. The Supreme Court made marriage equality the law of the land. The decision of course was faced with disagreement from people who do not feel as though same-sex couples should be allowed to wed. Kim Davis, a county clerk in Rowan County Kentucky, was one such person. I believe, of course, that people have the right to disagree, especially if a changed law now conflicts with an individual’s job. Yet, I believe it is up to the conflicted individual to find a path that follows both one’s faith and the law.
As a county clerk Davis was legally required to issue marriage licenses to anyone who lived in her jurisdiction, but due to Davis’ “Oneness Pentecostal” beliefs, she felt as though she could not morally issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples. Davis decided to no longer issue marriage licenses to anyone who came to her office, including heterosexual sexual couples as well. When this story began to be picked up by the media, many people, including Davis, claimed freedom of religion as the reason she was no longer doing her job of issuing marriage licenses to those individuals who the Constitution legally permitted to be wed.
Freedom of religion is the right to choose a religion or deny religion without interference from the government. This means that you can choose to practice your religion without fear of being jailed or persecuted. You are free to practice your religion, whatever that religion might be, so long as it does not violate the law that has been put in place by the constitution of the United States of America. Davis went on for weeks denying both heterosexual and homosexual couples marriage licenses which eventually led to several legal battles that went all the way to the Supreme Court. U.S. Supreme Court Judge Bunning ordered Davis to issues marriage licenses or she would be in contempt of court. On September Davis was arrested by U.S. Marshalls and was taken to Carter County Detention Center for not upholding the oath she had taken, one that stated she would obey the U.S. Constitution and do her job accordingly. Although I feel as though the arrest of Davis was a little excessive, she was in fact in violation of her job and the law put forth by the government.
Davis’ arrest occurred because her religious beliefs caused her to violate Constitutional laws put in place. However, Davis was not sent to jail because of her religious beliefs. Davis was arrested and jailed due to violating the United States Constitution, which is the law of the land. Many, including Davis herself, have claimed her stance to be that of martyr, however being prosecuted for not following governmental laws does not make Davis a martyr for her religious beliefs. If she was truly affected by her convictions, she had the opportunity to step down from this job in order to follow her religious beliefs.
On a personal level, as a member of the LBGT community, I firmly believe that Kim Davis had every right to feel that she should not administer marriage licenses to the homosexual community. After all, many Christians hold firm to the belief that homosexuality is wrong and this fact will not be altered anytime soon. Though I believe Davis’ religious beliefs were tolerable, I cannot tolerate the fact that she stayed in her legal position knowing full well that she was disobeying the laws this nation has chosen to cling to. If Davis resigned for her religious beliefs, that would make her story more desirable than the hurtful mess that she caused against the homosexual community by deliberately breaking the law.
Overall what Kim Davis did was illegal and does not in any way make her a martyr for her faith. In fact, if anything she violated God’s greatest commandment: love one another.
A correction to last week’s opinion piece, A Ring of Fire: Living in the Midst, should be noted. The article stated “5.6 million acres [of forest] burned in the past ten years- combined.” However, the yearly average, not total, of burned forest acreage is 5.6 million over the past decade.
One reply on “Modern Day Martyr?”
I find Philip’s point of view quite interesting in this essay, and wonder how far he is willing to consistently apply the standards he has used to judge Kim Davis. Apparently Philip generously grants her the right to “disagree” with a law she finds morally intolerable, contrary to her faith, (and some even find legally questionable). But finds that she is wrong to take any action that would defy American law thereby. She must, he insists, find a way to obey both faith and the state. And if she cannot, her violation of the “constitutional laws” apparently means she is justly incarcerated.
Well, following this logic then President Obama should be impeached, for he instructed his Justice Department in 2011 to not enforce a legally enacted law of congress, the Defense of Marriage Act, and thereby violated his oath of office. Following this logic, Rosa Parks deserved rightly to be arrested for refusing to move to the back of the bus in 1955–and acted wrongly. Following your logic, Philip, the entire nonviolent civil rights protest movement of the 1960’s was in fact wrongheaded. And all the Christian martyrs from the first century onward were mistaken and deserved their fates, such as Ignatius of Antioch, who refused the Roman emperor Trajan’s decree to worship the Roman gods. Or the Greek Orthodox Mother Maria, who illegally issued false baptism certificates to Jews in Nazi-occupied France to save them from the death camps until she herself was arrested (I guess deservedly, in your view) and killed in Ravensbruck concentration camp. I guess there have just been a whole lot of wrong-headed, government-defying Christians over the years and it is good you have raised the issue. I will be over there shortly for you to sign that petition for Obama’s impeachment.
Sincerely,
Terry Paige