Posted on 10/23/2014 2:38:18 PM PDT by SeekAndFind
A North Carolina county judge resigned on Monday because he did not want to violate his Christian faith and perform same-sex marriages, which are now permitted under the state's law.
With the news that North Carolina's same-sex marriage ban was struck down by a federal judge on Oct. 10, Judge Gilbert Breedlove, a 57-year-old magistrate in Swain County and also an ordained minister, could not, in good faith, be forced to conduct same-sex courthouse weddings when his Christian belief tells him that a marriage is only between a man and a woman.
"It was my only option," Breedlove told Citizen-Times. "We were directed we had to perform the marriages, and that was just something I couldn't do because of my religious beliefs."
Although Breedlove has been a magistrate for the past 24 years, he said the law, which judges are responsible for interpreting, no longer stands with his beliefs.
"I was Christian when I started," Breedlove said. "Then, the law didn't require me to perform something that was against my religious belief. Now that law has changed it's requirements."
Although Breedlove could claim he had two jobs as a pastor and a magistrate, the majority of his income came from his judgeship. However, he said he is not worried about his financial future because he put his full faith in the Lord.
"That's one of the things about being a Christian," Breedlove said. "You are able to serve the Lord and the Lord will provide."
The Bryson City community in which Breedlove served, is located next to a Cherokee Indian reservation and his wife was even raised a Cherokee. Breedlove's affinity for Jesus and Native Americans led him to help translate the Bible into the Choctaw Indian language. Having been a part of the Bible translation effort and being a part-time pastor, Breedlove said he is confident in the biblical truth about marriage.
"The whole Bible from front to end states that a marriage is between a man and a wife," he said. "Any other type of sexual activity other than that is what is defined as fornication."
With previous reports indicating that other North Carolina magistrates have also stepped down due to their objection to the state's new law permitting same-sex marriages, Breedlove said he believes more magistrates will continue stepping down as more same-sex couples look to wed by Christian magistrates. The state has issued over 600 same-sex wedding licenses in 60 of the state's counties.
Last Thursday, a Rockingham County magistrate named John Kallam Jr. issued his resignation and claimed that allowing gay marriage "would desecrate a Holy Institution established by God Himself."
"When I took my oath of office, I understood I would be required to perform weddings and have done so throughout my tenure," Kallam wrote in his resignation letter. "I did not however take that oath with any understanding that I would be required to marry same-sex couples."
Chris Sgro, executive director of Equality North Carolina, a statewide LGBT advocacy group, group said that although the group doesn't want judges to feel like they have to resign if they disapprove of the law, he said they at least be willing to uphold the duties required by law.
"This is part of an effort to hype up a few small cases," Sgro said. "If you hold a job or position that serves the public or the state, then you have to carry out the duties of that job. Hundreds and hundreds of people are being married by employees of the state across North Carolina with no problem."
Good for him, bad for the rest of us, as he will be replaced with a toady who will act according to governmental dictates.
Wimp. If he performs the marriage, he can say anything he wants.
I wish he would resist rather than resign. Make the county force him out.
Amazing.
Most people’s god is their paycheck.
DO NOT expect American cops and American soldiers to refuse to kill you, if they are ever ordered to do so.
Bravo Mr. Breedlove. You are a good and a wise man, a rare breed in America these days.
May God reward you handsomely for your loyalty.
If all decent judges resign, we will be in deep trouble.
Better to refuse all weddings, or to “schedule” all weddings for a personally convenient time - at least ten years in the future. We cannot deal with today’s far left thugs in good faith, as if they were decent people who will suddenly recognize that they are trampling our basic human rights and back down. They understand that they are trampling our God-given and constitutionally-protected rights, and that is their goal.
We are dealing with pure evil, and we cannot surrender any part of the battlefield to America’s enemies.
As lousy as the decision is we should never condone nor encourage judges to perform unlawful actions. He did the exact right thing. Judges do not get to decide what laws they will and will not follow. They are the last line of ruling on order. They rules according to established lalaw, what higher courts have decided and what legislatures have passed. To do otherwise and not rule according to this is condoning anarchy. If the law is not liked change it at the legislative level where when high enough judges who are constitutional then rule based on that belief and this garbage is then overturned.
Truth forever on the scaffold, Wrong forever on the throne,—
Yet that scaffold sways the future, and, behind the dim unknown,
Standeth God within the shadow, keeping watch above his own.
We see dimly in the Present what is small and what is great,
Slow of faith how weak an arm may turn the iron helm of fate,
But the soul is still oracular; amid the market’s din,
List the ominous stern whisper from the Delphic cave within,—
‘They enslave their children’s children who make compromise with sin.’
-from James Russell Lowell, “The Present Crisis”
And sadly, he will be replaced by a Leftist judge.
Not many will, being a judge is good work.
Remember the good old days when perverts kept their shame to themselves?
I agree.
I’m getting to the point where I don’t see how any decent or devout Christian would have anything to do with a government or a nation that has become so depraved and so evil as America has become.
But, who knows? After all, I’m still planning to vote in two weeks and still planning to pay taxes. So I’m still participating. But it sure doesn’t have the same meaning to me it once had. I’m finding for the first time in my life that I really, REALLY am starting to fully comprehend, down to the deepest recesses of my soul, why those in Europe fled to the ‘new world.’
"The Senators and Representatives before mentioned, and the Members of the several State Legislatures, and all executive and judicial Officers, both of the United States and of the several States, shall be bound by Oath or Affirmation, to support this Constitution; but no religious test shall ever be required as a qualification to any office or public trust under the United States."
There's a religious test now: If you have a religion to which you actually adhere, you are not allowed to serve in a position of public trust.
I think we have a constitutional crisis.
God impresses how and when a Christian takes a stand, and each person may be different in their approach, but ultimately the message reaches those it is supposed to reach....
I am impressed that the Judge took the time to speak his mind before being forced out. He made the choice not the perverts. I find that refreshing.
I’ve been meaning to ask my judges here in Johnson County KS. It was stayed but the admin judge said that the marriage license bureau had to provide licenses to same sex couples.
#8 was meant in response to #4 not AppyPappys
Why resign? Just refuse and MAKE them impeach you (they won’t).
God bless him. I know it creates a vacuum for evil, but there are some things a Christian God-fearing man just cannot do. The saying is God, country, family. God is always first.
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