Posted on 09/08/2015 3:12:38 PM PDT by markomalley
But it was her Christian faith that was her reason for refusing to issue the marriage licenses. I would say that without that faith few if any people in her position would take the stance she took.
“Needlessly confusing, unless that was the intent, to provoke you just enough to click on the story.”
Got me to click!
I agree.
But isn't that a sad commentary on the state of right reason in this world these days? We used to teach our young how to think properly...have them read the classics, learn natural philosophy, understand political theory, and so on.
Education has degenerated so far in the past 50 years that most of our youth (and, in fact, most adults) could not even fathom the words of Aristotle, Plato, Cicero, Augustine, Thomas Aquinas, Locke, Hobbes, and so on.
No wonder they are so easily swayed by cultural change.
No, actually. The article sums up her legal argument pretty well, although it misses the fact that this issue is a direct result of the governor’s and attorney general’s blatant violations of state law.
When I read the brief filed on her behalf, I realized how badly I was missing the mark when I argued the nullification side of things.
Judge Who Jailed Kim Davis Ordered Students Who Opposed Homosexuality to Be Re-Educated:
" Following yesterday’s jailing of a county clerk for stating that it is not possible for her to obey an order to issue marriage licenses to homosexuals against God’s law, it is now being noted that the same federal judge also once ordered Kentucky students to be re-educated about homosexuality despite their objections"
http://christiannews.net/2015/09/04/judge-who-jailed-kim-davis-ordered-students-who-opposed-homosexuality-to-be-re-educated/#!
One other thought: fortitude is not a theological virtue, it is a cardinal virtue. The cardinal virtues, prudence, justice, temperance, and fortitude, are accessible by natural man. Consider Plato's Republic:
Ariston, tell me where. Light a candle and search the city, and get your brother and the rest of our friends to help in seeking for her. That won't do,' replied Glaucon, ' you yourself promised to make the search and talked about the impiety of deserting justice.' Well, I said, I will lead the way, but do you follow. My notion is, that our State being perfect will contain all the four virtues wisdom [NB: prudence], courage [NB: fortitude], temperance, justice. If we eliminate the three first, the unknown remainder will be justice.
First then, of wisdom : the State which we have called into being will be wise because politic. And policy is one among many kinds of skill, not the skill of the carpenter, or of the worker in metal, or of the husbandman, but the skill of him who advises about the interests of the whole State. Of such a kind is the skill of the guardians, who are a small class in number, far smaller than the blacksmiths ; but in them is concentrated the wisdom of the State. And if this small ruling dass have wisdom, then the whole State will be wise.
Our second virtue is courage, which we have no difficulty in finding in another class that of soldiers. Courage may be defined as a sort of salvation the never-failing salvation of the opinions which law and education have prescribed concerning dangers. You know the way in which dyers first prepare the white ground and then lay on the dye of purple or of any other colour. Colours dyed in this way become fixed, and no soap or lye will ever wash them out. Now the ground is education, and the laws are the colours; and if the ground is properly laid, neither the soap of pleasure nor the lye of pain or fear will ever wash them out. This power which preserves right opinion about danger I would ask you to call ' courage,' adding the epithet 'political ' or ' civilized ' in order to distinguish it from mere animal courage and from a higher courage which may hereafter be discussed.
Two virtues remain ; temperance and justice. More than the preceding virtues temperance suggests the idea of harmony. Some light is thrown upon the nature of this virtue by the popular description of a man as ' master of himself 'which has an absurd sound, because the master is also the servant. The expression really means that the better principle in a man masters the worse. There are in cities whole classes women, slaves and the like who correspond to the worse, and a few only to the better ; and in our State the former class are held under control by the latter. Now to which of these classes does temperance belong? To both of them.' And our State if any will be the abode of temperance; and we were right in describing this virtue as a harmony which is diffused through the whole, making the dwellers in the city to be of one mind, and attuning the upper and middle and lower classes like the strings of an instrument, whether you suppose them to differ in wisdom, strength or wealth.
And now we are hear the spot ; let us draw in and surround the cover and watch with all our eyes, lest justice should slip away and escape. Tell me, if you see the thicket move first. Nay, I would have you lead.' Well then, offer up a prayer and follow. The way is dark and difficult ; but we must push on. I begin to see a track. ' Good news.' Why, Glaucon, our dulness of scent is quite ludicrous ! While we are straining our eyes into the distance, justice is tumbling out at our feet. We are as bad as people looking for a thing which they have in their hands. Have you forgotten our old principle of the division of labour, or of every man doing his own business, concerning which we spoke at the foundation of the State what but this was justice ? Is there any other virtue remaining which can compete with wisdom and temperance and courage in the scale of political virtue ? For every one having his own ' is the great object of government ; and the great object of trade is that every man should do his own business. Not that there is much harm in a carpenter trying to be a cobbler, or a cobbler transforming himself into a carpenter ; but great evil may arise from the cobbler leaving his last and turning into a guardian or legislator, or when a single individual is trainer, warrior, legislator, all in one. And this evil is injustice, or every man doing another's business. I do not say that as yet we are in a condition to arrive at a final conclusion. For the definition which we believe to hold good in states has still to be Republic tested by the individual.
I read the Motion filed on her behalf, too and it is blistering in regard to the governor’s and attorney general’s blatant violations of state law. However, nullification arguments are not necessarily wrong even if other legal arguments are valid. An unjust law is still no law at all.
Her attorneys appear to have been working the from the angle of First Amendment accommodation based on existing statutes and precedents, which I suppose is what attorneys do, but those do not necessarily negate the Natural Law arguments inveighing against the abuse of the law and the persecution of Kim Davis.
Cordially,
Hell hasn’t frozen over, but I agree with the full content of the article.
I'm shocked ;-)
Have a Blessed day - even though I often disagree on some of the “details”, I recognize you as a spiritual warrior and have a lot of respect for that.
Homosexuals have redundant sex organs. They weren’t designed from birth to ever be able to mate with each other. A marriage between them is absurd.
Even animals know this. I have never seen two male cardinals trying to tend a nest after they chased away the female who laid the eggs. That is the only option gay males have when they want a kid. They steal birth rights. Lesbians are just as bad in denying the child a father. There is plenty of anger among the adult children who were raised by homosexuals, but the gay mafia is doing its best to silence them by whatever means necessary.
If you want to know of others who also have the courage that Kim Davis has shown, look up Dawn Stephanowicz, Denise Shick, Robert Oscar Lopez, B.N. Klein (aka Rivka Edelman), Katy Faust and Heather Barwick. They submitted amicus briefs to the Supreme Court before its decision, for all the good it did. I have never seen these COG’s (Children of Gays) interviewed on Fox News. Because of their courage, the gay lobby is actively trying to ruin them.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.