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NRB Awards Kim Davis for Commitment to Christian Values
Above: Kim Davis leaves jail. (Reuters)
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Kim Davis, the Rowan County Clerk who was jailed for her Christian faith and her refusal to issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples, received the National Religious Broadcasters (NRB) President's Award for her faithful commitment to Christian values despite political and media opposition. Last year, this award went to Miriam Ibrahim, a woman imprisoned in Sudan for her Christian faith.
Kim Davis will receive the Heroine of the Faith award for her courage from Bott Radio Network, a Christian radio network with more than 100 stations nationwide that reaches more than 50 million people. The NRB conference brings together thousands of similar Christian communicators each year to encourage and educate them about current trends and issues facing the religious community.
Mat Staver, founder and chairman of Liberty Counsel, joined Kim Davis at the podium to represent the importance of our First Amendment freedoms and free-speech rights. Staver said, "Our client, Kim Davis, never asked for the spotlight. She was just doing her job while remaining faithful to Christian values. Our nation should never force people to choose between their jobs and their faith. Kim has been an encouragement to me and to everyone she meets, showing how completely God can transform a life and use it incredibly beyond what you can imagine, ask or think. I'm thankful to Jesus Christ for transforming lives. What you see in Kim is a woman whose life was transformed by Jesus, and she will not be unfaithful to our Lord, and that's why she was there. That's the story of Kim Davis."
Kim Davis is still in the process of a legal battle in Kentucky, where her case is pending. There has been victory after victory for Liberty Counsel's client, including the governor's executive order protecting her freedoms and a legislative bill that permanently removes clerk's names from the marriage license. There still remains her court case that we are continuing to fight for clarification of the religious freedom of all county clerks and for all citizens' First Amendment freedoms.
Liberty Counsel is an international nonprofit, litigation, education and policy organization dedicated to advancing religious freedom, the sanctity of life and the family since 1989, by providing pro bono assistance and representation on these and related topics.
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WATCH: Presidential Candidate Asks the Left for 'A List of Jobs That Christians Aren't Allowed to Have'
Bobby Jindal has had enough with the prevailing double standard that punishes Bible-believing Christians but gives Islamic fundamentalists anything they ask.
The governor of Louisiana was asked about the case of Achmed Mohamed, the 14-year-old Muslim boy who was arrested when the homemade clock he brought to school was mistaken for a bomb.
While he thought the error was regrettable, Jindal was less concerned with a school district's understandable concern than with another kind of blatant viewpoint discrimination.
"The biggest discrimination is going on against Christian business owners and individuals who believe in traditional forms of marriage," he said.
He referred to the case of Kim Davis, who was sent to jail for refusing to issue marriage licenses to lesbian and homosexual couples.
"Let's talk about that," the excited governor said. "Let's talk about the Christian florist, the caterer, the musician, who simply want to say, don't arrest us, don't discriminate against us, don't shut down our businesses, don't fine us thousands of dollars for believing marriage is between a man and a woman."
"Lets talk about not discriminating against Christians," he said.
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Matt Barber believes Christians should follow Kim Davis' example. (Reuters/Marlene Steele)
Wanted: A Million More Bold Christians Like Kim Davis
For the first time in American history a woman has been imprisoned by the government for merely exercising her Christian faith. War has been declared on Christ and His followers.
And there's no turning back.
Anti-Christian persecution is the civil rights cause of our time. The cultural Marxists in power have seceded from our constitutional republican form of government, with its Judeo-Christian moorings, and have supplanted, in its place, a secular-socialist oligarchy. Like Union troops hunkered at Fort Sumter, faithful Christians are now exiles in our own land. Anti-Christian "progressives" have demanded unconditional surrender, and federal Judge David Bunning has fired the first mortar.
Even as I write, a kind, soft-spoken and well-respected civil servant of 27 years sits languishing, like some violent criminal, in a Kentucky prison. She is confined, indefinitely and without benefit of a trial, to a tiny cell. She is a political prisoner in a spiritual war. Like so many accidental civil rights heroes who came before her, Davis, a Democrat who was overwhelmingly elected as Rowan County clerk, has peacefully and graciously refused to violate her Christian conscience.
She has declined to sign her name to marriage certificates that defy God's natural design for the timeless institution. Instead she has requested, as a simple accommodation, that either her name be removed from the marriage licenses, thus eliminating her personalized acquiescence to the Supreme Court's novel attempt to usurp God's authority and redefine this cornerstone institution, or, alternatively, "to allow licenses to be issued by the chief executive of Rowan County or [by] developing a statewide, online marriage license process."
That's it. Simple, reasonable and fair. Our nation has a rich history of respecting the rights of conscientious objectors, and Kim Davis, like tens of millions of her brothers and sisters in Christ, is exactly that.
"There is absolutely no reason that this case has gone so far without reasonable people respecting and accommodating Kim Davis' First Amendment rights," said Mat Staver, Davis' attorney and head of Liberty Counsel, a Christian civil rights organization.
"This is a heaven or hell issue for me and for every other Christian that believes," Davis said on Thursday. "This is a fight worth fighting. ... I've weighed the cost and I'm prepared to go to jail."
And so she has.
Reasonable people can disagree on the propriety of Kim's actions. Some say that she was right in refusing to violate her conscience by signing her name to a legal document that presumes to solemnize that which God condemns. Still others say that she needs to either "do her job" or resign—that she took an oath and is violating that oath.
Nevertheless, all reasonable people must agree that imprisoning this innocent woman for her conscience is both an absolute outrage and gross violation of her constitutional liberties. Even the ACLU thought it was a bridge too far. The fact remains that people don't shed their First Amendment rights when they become government employees.
Kim Davis swore to uphold the U.S. Constitution, the Kentucky Constitution and the laws of the Bluegrass state. When she took her oath, United States law, the Kentucky Constitution and the Kentucky Revised Statutes all reflected the millennia-old definition of natural marriage: "Only a marriage between one man and one woman shall be valid or recognized as a marriage in Kentucky."
The Kentucky Legislature has yet to change this law one jot or tittle. Instead, five left-wing extremist lawyers in Washington, D.C., issued an opinion presuming to move the goalposts mid-game. Court opinions are not "the law of the land." Judges don't make laws—only the legislature can do that. Kim Davis is not defying the law; she is upholding it as codified.
Accordingly, she has repeatedly asked, "Under what law am I authorized to issue homosexual couples a marriage license?"
Neither Judge Bunning nor anyone else can answer.
Because no such law exists.
In a statement on Friday, Mat Staver made the same point: "Not long ago 75 percent of Kentuckians passed the state's marriage amendment. Today a Christian is imprisoned for believing what the voters affirmed: marriage is between a man and a woman. Five people on the Supreme Court imposed their will on 320 million Americans and unleashed a torrent of assaults against people of faith. Kim Davis is the first victim of this tragedy."
Indeed, many scoffed at our warnings that Christians will someday be forced to either endorse "gay marriage" or go to jail. Well, scoff no more. That day has arrived. In just two months since the high court's disgraceful Obergefell v. Hodges opinion, the full-on criminalization of Christianity has begun. You must either bow a knee before the false gods of same-sex "marriage" and "gay rights," or face the fiery "contempt of court" furnace. We have moved from anecdotal instances of anti-Christian discrimination to systemic religious persecution.
Here's the formula: 1) Force affirmation of homosexual behavior, abortion or some other institutionalized sin via judicial fiat; 2) Christian objects, refuses to disobey God and requests a reasonable religious accommodation; 3) accommodation is denied and Christian is jailed for "contempt of court."
You're going to hear that term a lot in coming days, weeks, months and years—"contempt of court." It's the straw man charge that will be utilized to imprison not just Christian public officials, but others as well. Christian business owners, lawyers, private sector employees, parents of school-age children who don't want their children indoctrinated by sexual anarchist propaganda and many others will be held in contempt of court, denied due process and incarcerated indefinitely.
The persecution isn't coming.
The persecution has arrived.
And that's what it means to be a Christ follower.
So pray for a million more like Kim Davis.
Become like Kim Davis.
Is she perfect? Certainly not. None of us is. Indeed, before Kim's transformational Christian re-birth four years ago, she was thrice divorced and "played in the devil's playground" for much of her life.
She was lost.
But now she's found.
God has an amazing way of taking empty, broken vessels, rebuilding their lives and then using them mightily for His glory and honor.
Stand, like Kim, fearlessly, lovingly and boldly for Christ, declaring, as did the apostles when faced with a similar decision, "We must obey God rather than men" (Acts 5:29).
Indeed, as the Bible's Daniel, a "public official," boldly refused to disobey God and commit sin by worshiping a pagan king, so too has Kim Davis honored our Lord by refusing to bow before a pagan court—by refusing to call evil good and good evil.
They wanted to make an example of her.
Instead, they made a martyr of her.
And awakened a sleeping giant in the process.
Matt Barberis founder and editor-in chief of BarbWire.com. He is an author, columnist, cultural analyst and an attorney concentrating in constitutional law. Having retired as an undefeated heavyweight professional boxer, Matt has taken his fight from the ring to the culture war. (Follow Matt on Twitter:@jmattbarber).
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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.
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.
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.
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
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.
With Kim Davis Ruling, Is Government Working to Ban Christians From Public Service?
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 Perkinsis president of the Washington, D.C.-based Family Research Council.
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."
