An ongoing news story says that Kim Davis, the county clerk
of Rowan County, Kentucky,
has been refusing to issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples, despite the
Supreme Court decision that same-sex couples have the right to marry, and other
court rulings that she must do so as it is required by her job.
Ms. Davis claims that it is against her religious
convictions; that her religion says that
same-sex marriage is wrong, and that she will go to Hell if her signature is
affixed to a marriage license for a same-sex couple.
Well, I am not a Biblical scholar (and I suspect Ms. Davis
is not, either), but I am extremely skeptical that the Bible, or Jesus,
anywhere says that two people of the same gender may not marry. In fact,
"Biblical marriage" (as these Religious Right types keep talking
about) would require that a widow marry her brother-in-law--at least under
certain conditions (Deuteronomy 25:5). Of course it is no news at all that
these anti-gay, bible-thumping types pick and choose what in the Bible they
care to pay attention to.
Of course Ms. Davis is entitled to believe as she wishes.
But if she is unwilling or unable to perform her duties as the courts define
them, then I'd say the answer to the problem is really very simple: she should
resign her job, but this she refuses to do.
As long as the United States
is not a theocracy (that is, we have a secular society rather than one governed
by religious law), her religious objections to doing her job should not
outweigh the definition of her duties.
Anyway, these are my words to Ms. Davis: You've had your 15
minutes of fame. Now go away.
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