What  happens when man's law conflicts with God's law? (Reuters)

Should You Do Your Job or Obey Your Conscience?

 9/9/2015 FRANK TUREK  charisma News

Should Christians ever disobey their government? Some say no. But Kim Davis sides with Martin Luther King Jr. and thinks civil disobedience is justified. Mrs. Davis is the Rowan County Kentucky clerk who spent four days in jail for refusing to put her name on same-sex marriage licenses. Claiming to be a new Christian, Ms. Davis is also a longtime Democrat.

"The court cannot condone the willful disobedience of its lawfully issued order," Judge David Bunning told Davis last week in court. "If you give people the opportunity to choose which orders they follow, that's what potentially causes problems."

Judge Bunning is absolutely right. This is the kind of chaos that results when people do not respect the law. But I'm not referring to Kim Davis—I'm referring to the United States Supreme Court. As I've written before, and the multiple dissents state more eloquently, there is no justification in the Constitution for judicially imposing genderless marriage on every state in the union. Five unelected justices simply imposed their own law on 330 million people.

But does that justify civil disobedience? Where do you draw the line?

Certainly, there is a line somewhere. After all, we laud those behind the Underground Railroad who freed slaves and those who protected Jews in Nazi Germany. While bad marriage laws are obviously not as serious, consider a more equivalent scenario: Suppose the Supreme Court decided to drop the age of consent in every state to 12 years old (a position Ruth Bader Ginsberg supported before she became a Supreme Court Justice). Would you think that Kim Davis should be forced to endorse the marriage of a 75-year-old man who brought a 12-year-old girl into her office? I hope you can see that there is a line and it's not far from Kim Davis.

Liberals believe in civil disobedience—when it suits their causes. Despite chanting, "Do your job!" outside Kim Davis's office, liberals were rejoicing when San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom ordered clerks to violate California law and issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples in 2004. They certainly were not chanting "Do your job" outside of Attorney General Eric Holder's office when he told the states last year to ignore their own laws that defined marriage as the union of a man and a woman. And liberals were not asking a federal judge to throw President Obama in jail when he refused to do his job by defending the Defense of Marriage Act in Court.

So just 10 minutes ago liberals believed that defying marriage laws was heroic! Now their blatant double standard is all too obvious—they laud civil disobedience when it's used to advance the religion of sex and denounce it when it's used to protect Christian or natural law beliefs.

But on what authority does one defy the government? One man who wanted a same-sex marriage license asked Kim Davis on "what authority" was she not issuing licenses. She cited God.

Yet the question needs to be asked of both sides. By what authority did Newsom, Holder, Obama and other liberal politicians defy the law? They certainly weren't citing God or the Creator cited in our Declaration of Independence who gives us unalienable rights. But without an authority beyond man's law, there is no authority for their actions nor is there any objective standard to ground unalienable rights. Without God, every right claim is merely a human opinion. At least Kim Davis, agree with her or not, is citing an authority beyond herself.

Civil disobedience has rich precedent in the United States. In fact, our country was founded on it largely to secure religious freedom. Civil disobedience also has precedent in the Bible. When Pharaoh ordered Hebrew midwives to murder all Hebrew boys, they disobeyed and even lied to the authorities (Ex. 1). And Daniel and his friends peacefully defied laws that contracted God's commands. Likewise, when the Jewish authorities told John and Peter to stop telling people the good news that Jesus paid for your sins and rose from the dead, they disobeyed, saying that they would obey God rather than men (Acts 4).

Therefore, the principle for Christians is this: Civil disobedience is necessary when a government compels you to sin or prevents you from doing something God commands you to do. You don't disobey the government merely because it permits others to sin—only when it compels you to do so. Kim Davis thinks that line has been crossed.

It's actually not hard to avoid crossing the line. Both parties can be accommodated as Judge Bunning finally figured out when he released Davis yesterday. In North Carolina, we passed a law to allow people like Kim Davis to opt out of endorsing relationships that violated their religious or moral beliefs. Since other government employees are more than happy to issue licenses, no one is inconvenienced or forced to violate conscience. We do this for far more serious issues than weddings. For example, even during a time of war when we draft people to defend the country, we allow for conscientious objectors to opt out. If we can allow exemptions for government employees involved in protecting the very existence of our nation, we can certainly allow exemptions for government employees involved in weddings!

Will the Kentucky legislature act when it returns in January to pass such a law? Unfortunately, I doubt the activists who are always demanding tolerance will tolerate such reasonableness. It seems that some people just can't live and let live. They will not rest until all opposition is crushed and everyone is forced to celebrate what they are doing.

If that's your position, I have a question for you: Why would you want anyone who disagrees with your wedding to have anything to do with it? Go to another clerk, another florist, another photographer. Why force people to violate their conscience when there are so many other people willing to help you and celebrate with you?  After all, isn't this supposed to be a time when "love wins?"

Apparently not. For some liberals, "love wins" as long as everyone agrees with them. Those that disagree will not like the kind of "love" some liberals dish out. Are the same people who are chanting, "Love wins," some of the same people who issued death threats to Kim Davis? It certainly wasn't the Christians.

The truth is Kim Davis and other victims of "tolerance" don't want a holy war. Davis just doesn't want her signature on the license. She suggested other government officials sign, and Judge Bunning finally agreed. But a law needs to be passed to prevent future problems.

North Carolina has led the way. It remains to be seen if liberals in Kentucky will accept that way. If their recent history is a guide, I'm afraid they will demand that every knee bow and every tongue confess the dogma of their secular religion.

Frank Turek is the president of crossexamined.org, coauthor of I Don't Have Enough Faith to Be an Atheist and the author of the new book Stealing From God: Why Atheists Need God to Make Their Case.

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What We Learned From the Arrest of Kim Davis - Dr. Michael Brown

What We Learned From the Arrest of Kim Davis

9/4/2015 MICHAEL BROWN  charisma news

Kim Davis, seen in this courtroom sketch above, was arrested and jailed Thursday. (Reuters)

It is jarring to write the words "the arrest of Kim Davis," speaking of the Kentucky clerk who was remanded to jail for refusing to issue marriage certificates to same-sex couples, but for years now I and others have been warning that committed Christians could soon face jail time in America for holding to our convictions.

That time is now here, and the only thing that is surprising is that anyone is surprised. How could we not see this coming?

To be sure, there is a healthy debate taking place among both believers and non-believers concerning the rightness of Kim Davis's actions. Should she simply have resigned if, in good conscience, she could not issue those certificates? Does she have any legal, moral or constitutional ground on which to stand?

That is a legitimate debate, and it is one that is sure to continue.

But what cannot be debated is that the national outrage against Kim Davis has nothing to do with her refusing to obey the law and everything to do with her Christian beliefs.

Had she found herself on the opposite end of the conflict and had she stood for "gay rights," refusing to obey a law that she felt discriminated against them, she would be praised from coast to coast.

Instead, she is being vilified in the ugliest terms and has quickly become the target of death threats simply because, in conscience before God, she cannot comply with the judge's order.

Yesterday I tweeted, "It's interesting that gay activists who praised SF mayor Gavin Newsom for illegally issuing marriage licenses now vilify Kim Davis."

Hector Alvarez (@eltoritolociito) responded, "@DrMichaelLBrown how is it interesting? He was for marriage equality, she was an anti gay bigot who wasnt [sic] doing her job."

Doesn't that say it all?

As Andrew (@AKUContraMundum) tweeted later in the day: "Civil disobedience is only cool when it is God's Law that's being broken." Or, as expressed by Sean Davis,writing on the federalist.com, "Kim Davis Uproar Shows That Breaking the Law Is Only Okay When Progressives Do It."

When Gavin Newsom refused to submit to the law in 2004, he was a hero. When Kim Davis refuses to submit to the law, she is a bigot and a monster. (And make no mistake about it: His actions were far more flamboyant and aggressive than hers, and whereas as she is a self-professed "very private person" who does not want the spotlight to the point of being overwhelmed and in tears because of the national attention, Newsom actively sought it out.)

Let's also remember that while Newsom, who was sworn in as mayor under national and state laws that recognized marriage as the union of one man and one woman, violated his oath of office to uphold that law, the exact opposite was true of Davis. When she was sworn in, Kentucky did not recognize same-sex "marriage."

As attorney David French pointed out, while it is true that her act was revolutionary, "she didn't fire the first revolutionary shot. That distinction belongs to a Supreme Court that concocted out of whole cloth a constitutional right to same-sex marriage, using legal 'reasoning' that reads more like a religious tract than a court opinion. Justice Kennedy took the moral sensibilities of five justices and rendered those moral sensibilities the law of the land."

Let's recall that just last year, Jack Conway, Kentucky's attorney general, refused to defend the state's ban on same-sex "marriage," despite his oath of office, explaining that, "Once I reached the conclusion that the law was discriminatory, I could no longer defend it. At that point, being true to myself became more important than the political considerations." (Conway was planning to run for governor of Kentucky.)

Where was the national condemnation of Conway?

And where was the national condemnation of then-Attorney General Eric Holder when he instructed attorneys general nationwide that they were not obligated to defend state laws—meaning, specifically, bans on same-sex "marriage"—if they found them to be discriminatory?

Ironically, liberal websites like the Huffington Post, which are leading the assault on Kim Davis, celebrated Gavin Newsom's actions as recently as 18 months ago in the article, "Ten Years Ago Today, San Francisco Set the Stage for Marriage Equality."

The article begins: "Ten years ago today, San Francisco issued the United States' first same-sex marriage licenses—a move then-Mayor Gavin Newsom ordered of the city clerk after President George W. Bush declared his stance against them in his State of the Union address. The marriages were annulled by a Supreme Court ruling four months later, but the landmark event set the stage for the national fight for marriage equality that's still blazing forward."

And Newsom, portrayed as a champion and icon, is quoted as saying in 2004, "I took an oath of office to bear truth, faith and allegiance to the constitution of the state of California, and there is nothing in that constitution that says that I have the right to discriminate against people on any basis ... And I simply won't do that. And if that means my political career ends, so be it."

What, then, is the difference between Newsom, who did not lose his job and who spent no time in jail, and Davis, who was told by the judge that she would be jailed until she complied?

Newsom stood for redefining marriage, Davis is standing for marriage as God intended it and, more fundamentally, is refusing to violate her conscience as a Christian, and that, not the breaking the law, is the issue at hand.

Make no mistake about it. Following Jesus in America today will be increasing costly until God's people awaken and stand.

The arrest of Kim Davis has made that clear.

Michael Brown is the host of the nationally syndicated talk radio show "The Line of Fire" and is the president of FIRE School of Ministry. His newest book is Outlasting the Gay Revolution: Where Homosexual Activism Is Really Going and How to Turn the Tide. Connect with him on Facebook at AskDrBrown or on Twitter @drmichaellbrown.

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Jailed Clerk Becomes Symbol in Faith Freedom War

Jailed Clerk Becomes Symbol in Faith Freedom War

By Heather Sells

CBN News Reporter

Saturday, September 05, 2015

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Rowan County, Kentucky clerk Kim Davis sits behind bars for refusing to issue marriage licenses to anyone in her tiny district.  

In doing so, the Rowan County clerk has become a national symbol for many who oppose gay marriage because of their faith.
   
The gay couples suing Davis had asked that she be fined. But in a surprise move, the federal judge decided to put her in jail instead, saying a mere fine wouldn't be enough to bring about the desired result of compliance.
   
At the last minute, Davis rejected a deal to allow her deputies to process same-sex marriage licenses. That could have prompted her release.

"She's been ordered to stay there until she is willing to change her mind, until she is ready to change her conscience about what that belief is," Davis' attorney, Roger Gannam, said.
  
Within hours of the judge's order, several Republican presidential candidates declared their support for Davis. 

Former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee said her imprisonment "removes all doubt of the criminalization of Christianity in our country."
   
"Who will be next? Pastors? Photographers?  Caterers?  Florists?" he asked. "This is a reckless, appalling, out-of-control decision that undermines the Constitution – and our fundamental right to religious liberty."
  
Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, also weighed in.

"Today, for the first time ever, the government arrested a Christian woman for living according to her faith. This is wrong. This is not America," he said.

Hillary Clinton disagreed, saying government officials should uphold the law.
   
The White House echoed that sentiment.

"The success of our democracy depends on the rule of law and there is no public official that is above the rule of law," White House press secretary Josh Earnest said.
   
But a Wall Street Journal editorial suggested the Obama administration's position was hypocritical.

"We don't recall President Obama insisting on the 'rule of law' when his then Attorney General Eric Holder announced in 2011 that he wouldn't defend challenges to what was then the law – the Defense of Marriage Act," the editorial read.
   
Meanwhile, protesters on both sides of the issue are up in arms in Kentucky.

"If you can't do your job then resign," a Kim Davis opponent said.

But a supporter said, "Today we came to stand for God and support our county clerk Kim Davis."
   
Davis had hoped Kentucky lawmakers would find a way for her to keep her job – and her conscience.  But the governor has refused to call a special session.
   
In the meantime, her deputies plan to follow a U.S. district judge's orders and issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples, starting Friday.

Judicial Tyranny: Why Kim Davis May Not Be the Last

9/4/2015 TODD STARNES   charisma news

Pastor Rick Warren once told me the fight for religious liberty would become the civil rights issue of our generation.

On Thursday, Pastor Warren's prophetic words were fulfilled at the hands of the United States Government.

It happened in the Commonwealth of Kentucky, where Judge David Bunning ordered U.S. Marshalls to arrest Kim Davis, the clerk of Rowan County, Kentucky.

Mrs. Davis is a devout Christian who refused to issue gay marriage licenses. She claimed that doing so would violate her religious beliefs.

Davis is represented by the public interest law firm Liberty Counsel. The firm's attorneys asked the court to accommodate her beliefs by simply removing her name from the licenses.

But Judge Bunning refused to do so. He refused to accommodate her religious beliefs—and ordered U.S. Marshals to take her into custody.

I truly believe Judge Bunning wanted to intimidate Christians and send a very clear message—that resistance to same-sex marriage will not be tolerated—doing with the gavel what Bull Connor tried to do with dogs and fire hoses.

Christian leaders, among them Tony Perkins, the president of the Family Research Council, urged Kentucky Governor Steve Beshear to call a special session of the legislature to enact emergency protections for religious liberty.

"Religious liberty in America is in grave danger," Perkins warned. "This will, in effect, establish a reverse religious test barring those who hold biblical views of marriage from positions of public service. Such a religious test by proclamation or practice is wrong."

But Gov. Beshear refused to do so—blocking the door to the statehouse much like Alabama Gov. George Wallace blocked the door to the schoolhouse in defiance of racial integration.

"The United States Supreme Court has spoken and same-sex marriage is now legal in Kentucky and the rest of the United States," Beshear wrote in a statement.

Critics of Mrs. Davis, on both the right and the left, argue that public officials cannot pick and choose which laws to uphold.

But what law—what specific law—did Mrs. Davis violate? Where is the law that mandates Mrs. Davis issue a marriage license?

That's a question Republican presidential candidate former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee raised to his supporters in a recent letter.

"That simple question is giving many in Congress a civics lesson that they never got in grade school," Huckabee wrote.

"The Supreme Court cannot and did not make a law," he continued. "They only made a ruling on a law. Congress makes the laws. Because Congress has made no law allowing for same-sex marriage, Kim does not have the Constitutional authority to issue a marriage license to homosexual couples."

However, there used to be a federal law on the books called the Defense of Marriage Act. And President Obama directed his administration to ignore the law. I don't seem to recall a federal judge throwing the president in the slammer.

Judge Bunning's act of judicial tyranny troubles me because it sets a standard for what could become an all-out assault on people of faith.

The great German theologian Dietrich Bonhoeffer wrote: "Silence in the face of evil is itself evil: God will not hold us guiltless. Not to speak is to speak. Not to act is to act."

Gov. Huckabee has decided to not only speak—but to act.

The governor, himself a Baptist preacher, issued a clarion call to the nation—much like those great preachers of the civil rights era. He urged Christians of all colors and all faiths to join him in Kentucky on Tuesday to send a message to our government that we will not be silenced, no matter the cost.

But history has taught us that sometimes words are not enough. Sometimes to right a wrong, we must take action. We must be willing to consider the cost. We must be willing to stand up to judicial tyranny.

Is it possible that a new generation of preachers and politicians could find their voice on Tuesday?

Perhaps one day, students of history will read not only letters from a Birmingham jail, but letters from a Kentucky jail.

Perhaps.

But no matter what happens we must hold firm to a central truth that one day Kim Davis will overcome. And one day we shall overcome.

Todd Starnes is host of "Fox News & Commentary," heard on hundreds of radio stations. Sign up for his American Dispatch newsletter, be sure to join his Facebook page and follow him on Twitter. His latest book is God Less America.

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With Kim Davis Ruling, Is Government Working to Ban Christians From Public Service?

9/3/2015 TONY PERKINS  charisma news

Are Christians at risk of losing their religious liberty? (Reuters)

Today we are witnessing what the four dissenting Supreme Court Justices warned of in the Obergefell decision: religious liberty in America is in grave danger.

While five justices on the Supreme Court created this dilemma, it is incumbent upon Congress, and in this case legislators, to ensure orthodox religious beliefs are accommodated. Kentucky Governor Steve Beshear could solve this court-created conflict by immediately calling for a special legislative session and establishing statutory accommodations for clerks like Kim Davis. 

Ultimately, this is about more than same-sex marriage licenses in Kentucky. It is about the ability of Christians and other religious people to serve in positions of public trust. If this is not resolved in a manner that accommodates the orthodox religious beliefs of Clerk Davis, this will, in effect, establish a reverse religious test barring those who hold biblical views of marriage from positions of public service. Such a religious test by proclamation or practice is wrong.

Now a court is jailing someone over this because the governor failed to act. How hard is it to change a simple form to remove her name from it? Isn't that worth doing to keep someone out of jail because of what they believe? Governor Beshear must call for a special session of the legislature and grant an accommodation to Kim Davis.

If governors and legislators thought this threat to religious freedom would go away, the jailing of Kim Davis proves them wrong. The time to protect and accommodate religious liberty is now.

Tony Perkins is president of the Washington, D.C.-based Family Research Council. 

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KY Clerk Ordered to Jail over Gay Marriage Licenses

Kim Davis - Kentucky County Clerk standing on God's Word

KY Clerk Ordered to Jail over Gay Marriage Licenses

By Gary Lane

CBN News Chief International Correspondent

Thursday, September 03, 2015

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A federal judge has ordered a defiant Kentucky county clerk Kim Davis to jail after she refused to issue marriage licenses to gay couples.

U.S. District Judge David Bunning told Davis she would be jailed until she complied with his order to issue the licenses.

Davis said "thank you" before she was led out of the courtroom by a U.S. marshal. She was not in handcuffs.

Earlier, Davis had filed an emergency motion to stop the governor from ordering her to issue same-sex marriage licenses.

Davis says issuing those licenses would violate her beliefs and, she argues, God's authority trumps even the Supreme Court.

Police are now guarding the Rowan County clerk's office, making sure order is maintained. Tempers are flaring from people on both sides of the gay marriage issue.

Davis' supporters say federal courts have violated her First Amendment rights.

"I'm here for religious freedom because it's been stripped away," supporter Serena Smith said.

At the heart of the controversy is disagreement over belief. Davis, a Democrat, refuses to issue marriage licenses to anyone at this time, including homosexual couples.

"We're here to get our marriage license," a gay couple recently told her.

"So, presently we are not issuing marriage license pending an appeal to the system," Davis replied.

Davis is now asking a U.S. district court judge to block an order from the Kentucky governor requiring county clerks to issue marriage licenses to gay couples.

She's set to appear before another judge at a contempt-of-court hearing. Davis could face jail time or at least a major fine for refusing to issue the licenses.

Same-sex couples have been challenging Davis all week.

"Under whose authority are you not issuing licenses?" one gay couple asked her.

"Under God's authority," she responded.

Davis says her religious convictions prevent her from signing the licenses. She proposes that other Rowan County officials sign them instead.

Some Republican presidential candidates have weighed in.

Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul suggests governments get out of the marriage license issuing business. He proposes all couples, heterosexual and homosexual, sign marriage contracts that could be used instead of licenses.

But other candidates, like South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham, say government employees must comply with the rule of law or resign.

Kentucky Senate President Robert Stivers, a Republican, has also weighed in. Stivers is asking the federal judge to withhold a ruling on the governor's order until the state passes a new marriage law. The state legislature will not be in session again until January.

Kentucky law, like many other states, must be revised after the Supreme Court's decision in June to legalize same-sex marriage in the United States.

"The Supreme Court ruling has completely obliterated the definition of marriage and the process for obtaining a marriage license in Kentucky," Stivers said in a press release. "The General Assembly will be compelled to amend many sections of Kentucky law, not just for the issuance of marriage licenses, to comply with the recent Supreme Court decision."

Meanwhile, Davis insists she's ready to suffer the consequences rather than compromise her beliefs.

"I'm willing to face my consequences," she told her critics. "And you all will face your consequences when it comes time for judgment."