Kim Davis Vs. Same-Sex marriage is the topic of today’s blog. Rowan County Kentucky Clerk Kim Davis has many critics and admirers for what she is doing. In defiance of a Federal Judge Ms. Davis has refused to bow to his authority in the matter of issuing marriage licenses to same-sex couples. For her it is a matter of religious belief in which says to her that same-sex marriage is an abomination and therefore not allowed.
Remember that this area is part of the Bible Belt and you will find many fundamental Christians living here. They of course do not believe in same-sex marriage and upon this religious belief Ms. Davis makes her stand from her jail cell. This all started when back on September 3rd when she stood before a Federal Judge in Ashland Kentucky and refused his order to issue a marriage license to a same-sex.
Now that she is being held in contempt of court her attorney says she is has the right to refuse and that any marriage licenses that her subordinates have issued are invalid because it is being done with her signature on the marriage license.
Per Reuters, her “lawyers sought emergency relief from the 6th Circuit Court of Appeals, asking it to grant Davis an exemption from the “governor’s mandate that all county clerks issue marriage licenses,” the non-profit legal advocacy group Liberty Counsel, which represents Davis, said in a news release.
“The governor’s refusal to take elementary steps to protect religious liberties has now landed Kim Davis in jail,” Liberty Counsel founder and chairman Mat Staver said.
The lawyers sought the injunction on the fifth day that Davis, 49, was in jail for contempt of court after defying U.S. District Judge David Bunning’s orders to issue licenses to same-sex couples because as an Apostolic Christian she opposes gay marriage.
“As a prisoner of her conscience, Davis continues to request a simple accommodation and exemption from Governor Beshear, who is overseeing Kentucky marriage policy,” said the emergency request for an injunction.”
The problem with all of this is that she could have just resigned her post or let others issue the licenses without her signature. Thus her religious convictions would not have been compromised and those same-sex couple who want to get married could do so. As I see this situation, it has become the classic David versus Goliath situation. Where Davis and her supporters are attacking the foundations of the American Justice system, i.e. the United States Supreme Court for its ruling on same-sex marriage, with everyone else who does not believe as she does being Goliath. This issue brings to the forefront an underlying problem, one that is a matter of religious conscience versus political freedoms.
A good example of this is from one of the underlying causes of the Civil War. The South had slavery and justified it by using passages from the Bible. To them a black man was not entitled to be called a human being. A similar case was in South Africa and its Apartheid, where again verses from the Bible were used to justify the oppression of races that were not white. In both cases religious beliefs were twisted into justifications for how they treated people of other races. In this instance it is not race, but ones sexual identity that is being suppressed, so that those who are ultra religious see them as abominations against God.
We must remember that Ms. Davis swore an oath to uphold the constitution of both the state of Kentucky and the United States when she took office. And since the laws of Kentucky were changed when the US Supreme Court ruled that same-sex marriage was legal she has no right to deny the issuance of marriage certificates to same-sex couples. Therefore as I have stated earlier she should have either resigned her office or let her clerks issue those certificates. She has no other choices and by fighting the court she is denying the freedoms of others, which she has no right to do.
That is my opinion- Jumpin Jersey Mike
