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Kim Davis Is Complicated
Townhall.com ^ | September 11, 2015 | Erick Erickson

Posted on 09/11/2015 10:19:52 AM PDT by Kaslin

Kim Davis is the clerk of Rowan County, Ky. After Anthony Kennedy and four other justices of the United States Supreme Court decided that they know better than the more than 50 percent of Americans who either oppose gay marriage or think the states should have decided things, Davis decided to stop issuing marriage licenses in Rowan County.

Kentucky Attorney General Jack Conway, now running for governor of Kentucky, had refused to represent Kentucky in federal court in the gay marriage case. He needed to consolidate the political left to his side. Defending Kentucky's constitutional provision in support of real marriage would have cost him political support. So he sat on his hands.

It was left to Davis, a county clerk, to stand up for the rule of law. Once Kennedy decided happiness trumps democracy, Davis refused all marriage licenses. To avoid being accused of discrimination, Davis would not issue licenses to anyone, heterosexual or homosexual, and denied other clerks in her office the right to do so because Davis' name would be on the licenses.

Davis had been married multiple times, but prior to her current marriage, she converted to Christianity. In an age of cultural Christianity, many on the left assume being born a Christian is just a cultural thing. In reality, no one is born a Christian, but rather we are born again into Christianity. Because Davis is now a Christian and takes her faith seriously, she does not want to undermine an institution she believes God created, and in a way, she herself had undermined it prior to asking Jesus for forgiveness.

But the issue is more complicated than many Christians would acknowledge. Davis took an oath to uphold the Constitution of Kentucky and to faithfully execute the laws of Kentucky. When Davis was sworn in, the law required that she issue marriage licenses to heterosexual couples. After the Supreme Court's heavy-handed rejection of democracy, Davis herself engaged in a heavy-handed rejection of democracy. She, with no authority, essentially rewrote her constitutional job description to include not giving marriage licenses to anyone.

Had Davis just not issued licenses to gay couples, she could have said that when she took her oath the law pertained to heterosexual marriage, and Kennedy and his merry band of culture warriors had no power to change Kentucky's Constitution. Under our system of law, she would have been wrong, but she would not have engaged in a wholesale rewriting of her position.

On the opposite side are those who think Davis should be denied the right to hold office because of her Christian beliefs. The governor of Kentucky could have convened the legislature to deal with the issue. Instead, he preferred to watch Davis and other Christians squirm. The state could have provided a means for Davis to keep her job without sacrificing her faith.

In fact, as the country becomes more and more secular, the left thinks people of faith must give up their faith to serve government. Never mind that all Americans should be able to serve in government. The state should be able to accommodate the religious beliefs of its citizens as opposed to forcing citizens to give up their beliefs or violate them in order to serve their fellow citizens through government.

For a while now, the political left has treated the First Amendment's "freedom of religion" clause to be a freedom from religion clause. They have treated the U.S. Constitution's prohibition on religious tests for office to be a prohibition on the religious to hold office. In the prevailing hypothetical of the day of whether we should be OK with a Muslim at the DMV refusing to give a woman a driver's license, we should be answering yes, so long as there are others there who can and will give the driver's license.

Davis and Christians should not expect that she can engage in civil disobedience without punishment. But we should all roll our eyes at the absurdity of the state refusing to accommodate her to the point of throwing her in jail. The nation has lost its mind.


TOPICS: Culture/Society; Editorial; US: Kentucky
KEYWORDS: christianity; fagmarriage; homosexualagenda; kimdavis; religion
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1 posted on 09/11/2015 10:19:52 AM PDT by Kaslin
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To: Kaslin
But we should all roll our eyes at the absurdity of the state refusing to accommodate her to the point of throwing her in jail. The nation has lost its mind.

Absolutely!

I would say that the culture war that has been seething just under the surface for decades is not fully exposed and active.

2 posted on 09/11/2015 10:23:00 AM PDT by Cold Heat (For Rent....call 1-555-tagline)
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To: Kaslin

God uses the foolish things of this world to confound the wise. It does not surprise me at all that he would use someone as flawed as Kim Davis to confound a nation that has lost its mind!!


3 posted on 09/11/2015 10:23:04 AM PDT by The Citizen Soldier
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To: Cold Heat

not=now......darnit...


4 posted on 09/11/2015 10:23:33 AM PDT by Cold Heat (For Rent....call 1-555-tagline)
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To: Kaslin; All

‘Christians should not expect that she can engage in civil disobedience without punishment. ‘

Just so. But governments really do fear civil disobedience unless they are ISIS. If enough citizens won’t do as they are told the state’s grip on control begins to slip. This is something those who consider themselves on the right will I believe, have to grapple with in the near future. Our country and culture is being stolen and destroyed before our eyes. How do we stop this abomination?


5 posted on 09/11/2015 10:26:11 AM PDT by robowombat
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To: The Citizen Soldier

Flawed...???

I guess you can say that since we are ALL far from perfect.

But I would just assume that truth.

I view her big mistake as running for office as a democrat, lol but you know how that issue is in states...


6 posted on 09/11/2015 10:26:37 AM PDT by Cold Heat (For Rent....call 1-555-tagline)
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To: robowombat
How do we stop this abomination?

This abomination has been ingrained in two generations now of our children by public school and college leftwing advocates.

I don't know that we can stop it....

But we can sure as heck fight against it for as long as it takes.

7 posted on 09/11/2015 10:29:37 AM PDT by Cold Heat (For Rent....call 1-555-tagline)
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To: Kaslin

This is going to be an ongoing news event for the foreseeable future, imo. The basis for
the SCOTUS ruling lies not in state/federal law but in rights they percieve coming from
the 14th Amendment to the Constitution. Note the following decision recently issued
which is the basis for this confrontation.

****
The argument is correct in that Kim Davis broke no law as such. But rather she was ruled
against under the Due Process Clause and the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth
Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. Or that is my understanding.

June 26, 2015, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in the landmark case of Obergefell v. Hodges,
576 U.S. (2015), holding in a 5–4 decision that the fundamental right to marry is
guaranteed to same-sex couples by both the Due Process Clause and the Equal Protection Clause
of the Fourteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.


8 posted on 09/11/2015 10:35:07 AM PDT by deport
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To: Cold Heat

I agree. But how does one go about fighting the pervasive. It is like attacking a heap of jello.


9 posted on 09/11/2015 10:36:03 AM PDT by robowombat
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To: robowombat
To attack jell-o you use a great deal of heat and it melts away.

If you apply a great deal of heat to politicians you get the same results.

10 posted on 09/11/2015 10:38:14 AM PDT by Harmless Teddy Bear (Proud Infidel, Gun Nut, Religious Fanatic and Freedom Fiend)
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To: Kaslin

The author spouts much BS.


11 posted on 09/11/2015 10:40:01 AM PDT by Ray76 (Mitch McConnell - leader of the Death To America Caucus)
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To: Kaslin
Davis had been married multiple times, but prior to her current marriage, she converted to Christianity. In an age of cultural Christianity, many on the left assume being born a Christian is just a cultural thing. In reality, no one is born a Christian, but rather we are born again into Christianity. Because Davis is now a Christian and takes her faith seriously, she does not want to undermine an institution she believes God created, and in a way, she herself had undermined it prior to asking Jesus for forgiveness.

I thought Davis turned to religion after she remarried her current husband and not before. Because if she converted before she remarried him then she should know that the marriage does not meet the Biblical definition of marriage and that she is committing adultery.

12 posted on 09/11/2015 10:42:35 AM PDT by DoodleDawg
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To: robowombat
Well....I actually have given this some thought. Liberalism is like the "default position" because it's so easy and requires no thought, no self criticism, no argument at all.

Our young skulls full of mush take to it like a duck to water, but there is a way to shift the programming to the Libertarian view. You cannot (without the aid of Christianity) shift someone's political view to Conservative in one step, so my thinking is that the reason the "Paul's", appeal to the younger crowd is that they present a logical option politically to them.

I think that every time this leftist government is exposed for damaging or taking away another personal "right" they lose a few of the young to the Paul's. Ron and Rand.

We can then offer them a more complicated conservative view and they can make the transition.

That's really all we have...unfortunately.

There is that, and there is perhaps another civil war, IMO.

13 posted on 09/11/2015 10:46:27 AM PDT by Cold Heat (For Rent....call 1-555-tagline)
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To: DoodleDawg

It would be more logical to have begun the conversion after the marriage failure as opposed to just because her spouse was a Christian..

It would then be easy to explain her leap into the Apostolic church as a result of her spouse.


14 posted on 09/11/2015 10:50:09 AM PDT by Cold Heat (For Rent....call 1-555-tagline)
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To: DoodleDawg

She remarried Davis her 2nd husband in 2009 for her fourth marriage.
She got religion in 2011.


15 posted on 09/11/2015 10:51:28 AM PDT by deport
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To: deport

Perhaps, rather than “getting religion,” she truly met Jesus Christ on a personal basis. There is a tremendous difference, and until on truly experiences an encounter with the Living Christ, they will never understand the difference nor the experience


16 posted on 09/11/2015 10:57:33 AM PDT by evangmlw
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To: evangmlw

“getting religion,”

*****************

I truly understand and didn’t mean anything negative about it. I was raised in a pentecostal
enviorment from both sides of my family history.


17 posted on 09/11/2015 11:04:42 AM PDT by deport
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To: deport

The destruction of the meaning of the word, “equal”, is where the Marxist destruction of Words, exists which erases our Constitutional “Natural Rights and Duties” (which is unconstitutional).

Human Beings are equal under the Law-—but to pretend women and males are “the same” is radical egalitarianism (Marxism) which throws out Science and Truth/God and Natural Law, and is irrational and antithetical to the meaning of all the Words in our Constitution.

All Just Law is reasoned and promotes “public virtue” and Truth, only (never vice and an irrational, vile evil use of the body which is degrading, dehumanizing and removes dignity and meaning and Natural Rights of babies-—to buy and sell them. There is no Natural Right to sodomize others-—or destroy true marriage which sets up a system where people perform their Natural Duty which is paramount in our Constitution.

The basis of our Constitution is Natural Law (God’s Laws) which acknowledges the Natural instincts and roles of males and females which create the most flourishing, system for raising their own biological offspring (the Natural Duty of all people) and all children have the Natural Right to be raised by a system which connects them to the past and the future which is the only humanizing element-—having a mother and father—true role models who can create Individualism in children and not “group think” institutional artificial systems which only confers “group think” and dehumanization.


18 posted on 09/11/2015 11:19:05 AM PDT by savagesusie (Right Reason According to Nature = Just Law)
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To: savagesusie

5-4 decisions are what we seems to be stuck with. Maybe at some point in the future
that will change. But with societial changes I wonder what that future will hold.


19 posted on 09/11/2015 11:25:40 AM PDT by deport
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To: Cold Heat

Throwing Christians in jail for their beliefs
was the whole point of legalizing Gay Mirage.


20 posted on 09/11/2015 11:26:45 AM PDT by MrB (The difference between a Humanist and a Satanist - the latter admits whom he's working for)
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