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Kim Davis isn't a hero, she's breaking the law

Kim Davis stands by as her lawyer, Mat Staver, speaks to the media outside the Carter County Detention Center in Grayson, Ky., on Tuesday, Sept. 8, 2015. (Pablo Alcala/Lexington Herald-Leader/TNS)
Kim Davis stands by as her lawyer, Mat Staver, speaks to the media outside the Carter County Detention Center in Grayson, Ky., on Tuesday, Sept. 8, 2015. (Pablo Alcala/Lexington Herald-Leader/TNS)

Let’s be real. If you go to work and choose not to do your job or even just a portion of your job for months on end, you better have a good legal reason or else—no questions asked—you should lose your job.

Kim Davis, a county clerk in Rowan County, Ky. has garnered quite a bit of notoriety for refusing to do her job on grounds that issuing marriage licenses to gay and lesbian couples interferes with her First Amendment right to religious freedom.

Sure, I understand how gay marriage is wrong in the opinion of highly religious and conservative people like Kim Davis—they feel it’s contrary to what God intended and is an abomination in the sight of God.

But at the same time, issuing a marriage license doesn’t interfere with religious rights, so her reasoning for turning away perfectly eligible couples makes no legal or practical sense.

I mean, how can it?

Issuing a marriage license doesn’t stop a person from praying the way they want or attending church. It’s not as if the Obergefell v. Hodges case mandates marriages be held in churches, be presided over by a religious leader or outlaw heterosexual marriage. It only makes it legally possible for same-sex couples to be recognized by federal and state governments as married and receive the benefits they are entitled to as such.

Here in Utah, many members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints were worried about their religious freedoms after the Obergefell case. However, as time has shown, it’s not like gay and lesbian couples are being married in LDS temples or even in LDS meeting houses, nor do LDS religious leaders have a legal obligation to officiate in a homosexual couple’s wedding.

Kim Davis, center, with husband Joe Davis, right, hugs her mother, Jean Bailey, after speaking to the crowd outside the Carter County Detention Center in Grayson, Ky., on Tuesday, Sept. 8, 2015. (Pablo Alcala/Lexington Herald-Leader/TNS)
Kim Davis, center, with husband Joe Davis, right, hugs her mother, Jean Bailey, after speaking to the crowd outside the Carter County Detention Center in Grayson, Ky., on Tuesday, Sept. 8, 2015. (Pablo Alcala/Lexington Herald-Leader/TNS)

In no way did the Obergefell decision change how anyone of any sexual orientation or religious conviction can worship.  It only makes it legally possible for gay and lesbian couples to receive a valid marriage license.

According to an article in The Morehead News, the local newspaper in Morehead, Ky in Rowan County, Davis has worked for Rowan County as a county clerk for over 20 years. After so many years on the job, it would be reasonable to say an individual would intimately understand all of the duties required of a county clerk. If Davis is morally opposed to fulfilling the requirements of her job, I don’t understand why she didn’t just quit rather than continue in a position when she knew she couldn’t fully accomplish it.

Whether you believe gay marriage is morally acceptable or not, it is now the law of the land. No one particularly likes paying taxes or driving the speed limit, but you don’t see people skipping out on the IRS or driving 90 miles per hour down Harrison Boulevard. We all have to buck up and follow the law, whether its conducive to your moral code or not.

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  • J

    Johny GoodsonSep 22, 2015 at 3:54 pm

    This is soooooooo Opinionated that I feel bad for reading it…

    Reply
    • I

      Ingrid MaldonadoOct 8, 2015 at 6:51 pm

      because is a column which means is an opinion !

      Reply