{"id":5268,"date":"2015-09-11T05:59:52","date_gmt":"2015-09-11T09:59:52","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/admin.patheos.com\/blogs\/northamptonseminar\/?p=5268"},"modified":"2015-09-11T05:59:52","modified_gmt":"2015-09-11T09:59:52","slug":"the-best-thinking-about-kim-davis","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/northamptonseminar\/2015\/09\/11\/the-best-thinking-about-kim-davis\/","title":{"rendered":"The best thinking about Kim Davis"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

Mark Tooley, the President of the Institute for Religion and Democracy, provides<\/a> what seems to me to be the most balanced assessment of how we should think about Kim Davis\u2013the courageous county clerk who was jailed for refusing to violate her conscience.\u00a0 Here are some of his thoughts:<\/p>\n

1. These issues of faith and statecraft are not new to American politics.\u00a0 Martin Luther King, Jr., argued from jail<\/em> in his \u201cLetter from Birmingham Jail\u201d that laws that violate natural law (God\u2019s eternal law written on the heart) are no laws at all.\u00a0 He urged non-compliance with laws of segregation, and went to jail for breaking such laws.\u00a0 He was eventually assassinated for this conviction.<\/p>\n

2.\u00a0 William Seward worked against slavery not through civil disobedience but through political change.\u00a0 His work culminated in the 14th Amendment.\u00a0 He was nearly slashed to death in an anti-Lincoln conspiracy.<\/p>\n

3. There is no statute that Kim Davis is violating.\u00a0 Kentucky\u2019s legislature never authorized same-sex marriage.\u00a0 Nor did the U.S. Congress.\u00a0 The \u201claw\u201d is a ruling from the Gnostic mystic Justice Anthony Kennedy, who discovered in the 14th Amendment, crafted to protect legal equality for freed slaves, a state-imposed \u201cdignity\u201d for same-sex arrangements outside natural marriage.<\/p>\n

4. Of course tradition grants deference to Supreme Court rulings until they are overturned by other Court rulings or acts of the legislature.\u00a0 Yet this does not prevent other branches of government from ignoring or condemning what they consider to be unconstitutional Court decisions.\u00a0 Lincoln called the Dred Scott decision, which denied citizenship to blacks, unconstitutional.<\/p>\n

5. Some Christians call on government officials like Kim Davis to resign.\u00a0 Others such as Ryan Anderson call on<\/a> the Kentucky legislature to do what the North Carolina legislature has done\u2013issue conscience exemptions for those in government who cannot comply.<\/p>\n

6. Globally there are countless complications for Christians who serve in government or live in a democratic state.\u00a0 Christians served in Caesar\u2019s court even as that government persecuted Christians.\u00a0 Should Christians in China work for the regime that periodically torments Christians?\u00a0 Should American Christians of past times have worked for segregationist governments?\u00a0 Should they work for state governments that subsidize abortions?\u00a0 There are no quick answers found in brief Bible quotes.<\/p>\n

7. Is federal endorsement of same-sex marriage worse than federally-endorsed racial segregation or slavery?\u00a0 Is this a more egregious violation of natural law?\u00a0 Few would think so.<\/p>\n

If it is not worse, does that mean we can shrug our shoulders and say Kim David went too far?\u00a0 That she should have simply resigned and let others sign those marriage certificates?\u00a0 (She said that even in that case her name would remain by law on those certificates, and those couples could go to other counties and get married.)\u00a0 Are we embarrassed by her?\u00a0 Fearful that liberals will think we are fundamentalist and unreasonable if we cheer on her courage?<\/p>\n

I think Kim Davis is the tipping point.\u00a0 Not that our nation is irredeemably lost.\u00a0 For public opinion seems to favor the view that the government went too far by putting her in jail.<\/p>\n

But Davis shows us what is coming down the road.\u00a0 That people of conscience (and that includes unbelievers who sense\u2013rightly\u2013that government should not force anyone to violate their conscience on such critical issues as marriage) will be subject to state coercion in the future.\u00a0 In other words, it has now gone beyond those bakers and florists, who have lost their businesses and suffered the sullying of their reputations.\u00a0 If we don\u2019t register our protest now, for the sake of others whose paths we might not have chosen for ourselves, one day we too will suffer such coercion and opprobium.\u00a0 And we will wonder why more do not support us.<\/p>\n

This is time to remember the words of German Lutheran pastor Martin Niemoller (1892-1984) who protested Nazism and wound up in a concentration camp:<\/p>\n

\n
\n

First they came for the Socialists, and I did not speak out\u2014
\nBecause I was not a Socialist.<\/p>\n

Then they came for the Trade Unionists, and I did not speak out\u2014
\nBecause I was not a Trade Unionist.<\/p>\n

Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out\u2014
\nBecause I was not a Jew.<\/p>\n

Then they came for me\u2014and there was no one left to speak for me.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Mark Tooley, the President of the Institute for Religion and Democracy, provides what seems to me to be the most balanced assessment of how we should think about Kim Davis\u2013the courageous county clerk who was jailed for refusing to violate her conscience.\u00a0 Here are some of his thoughts:<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2043,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5268","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\nThe best thinking about Kim Davis<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Mark Tooley, the President of the Institute for Religion and Democracy, provides what seems to me to be the most balanced assessment of how we should\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/northamptonseminar\/2015\/09\/11\/the-best-thinking-about-kim-davis\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The best thinking about Kim Davis\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Mark Tooley, the President of the Institute for Religion and Democracy, provides what seems to me to be the most balanced assessment of how we should\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/northamptonseminar\/2015\/09\/11\/the-best-thinking-about-kim-davis\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"The Northampton Seminar\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2015-09-11T09:59:52+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Gerald McDermott\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Gerald McDermott\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"4 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/northamptonseminar\/2015\/09\/11\/the-best-thinking-about-kim-davis\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/northamptonseminar\/2015\/09\/11\/the-best-thinking-about-kim-davis\/\",\"name\":\"The best thinking about Kim Davis\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/northamptonseminar\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2015-09-11T09:59:52+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2015-09-11T09:59:52+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/northamptonseminar\/#\/schema\/person\/4d790ed5dce84a7c25492742cfd27eea\"},\"description\":\"Mark Tooley, the President of the Institute for Religion and Democracy, provides what seems to me to be the most balanced assessment of how we should\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/northamptonseminar\/2015\/09\/11\/the-best-thinking-about-kim-davis\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/northamptonseminar\/2015\/09\/11\/the-best-thinking-about-kim-davis\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/northamptonseminar\/2015\/09\/11\/the-best-thinking-about-kim-davis\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/northamptonseminar\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"The best thinking about Kim Davis\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/northamptonseminar\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/northamptonseminar\/\",\"name\":\"The Northampton Seminar\",\"description\":\"\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/northamptonseminar\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/northamptonseminar\/#\/schema\/person\/4d790ed5dce84a7c25492742cfd27eea\",\"name\":\"Gerald McDermott\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/northamptonseminar\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/a7436975a9b9ccfe46d43fddc4557584?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/a7436975a9b9ccfe46d43fddc4557584?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Gerald McDermott\"},\"description\":\"Gerald R. 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