{"id":9456,"date":"2014-05-10T10:50:01","date_gmt":"2014-05-10T14:50:01","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/unequallyyoked\/?p=9456"},"modified":"2014-05-10T10:50:01","modified_gmt":"2014-05-10T14:50:01","slug":"the-unexpected-consequences-of-laws-and-lies","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/unequallyyoked\/2014\/05\/the-unexpected-consequences-of-laws-and-lies.html","title":{"rendered":"The Unexpected Consequences of Laws and Lies"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Two of my recent posts at\u00a0The American Conservative<\/em> turned out to be about unintended consequences. \u00a0The first, \u201cDrop Those Wedding Rings in the Name of the Law,\u201d<\/a><\/strong> covered the suit filed by the United Church of Christ in North Carolina to be allowed to perform private, unofficial, same-sex weddings.<\/p>\n

Currently, it is illegal for anyone who can conduct\u00a0legal<\/em> weddings to conduct extra-legal<\/em> ones. \u00a0It\u2019s a bizarre constraint on religious practice, but the original purpose of the law has nothing to do with gay marriage:<\/p>\n

The statute is the legal equivalent of banning notaries public from witnessing and stamping invalid or unofficial contracts, even if they promise to use a unofficial stamp. As long as they\u2019re going through the same motions and procedures as when they conduct official state business, there\u2019s the possibility for confusion.<\/p>\n

North Carolina is not alone in setting these restrictions.\u00a0Alabama<\/a>,\u00a0Arizona<\/a>,Connecticut<\/a>,\u00a0Michigan<\/a>,\u00a0South Dakota<\/a>,\u00a0Virginia<\/a>, and\u00a0Wisconsin<\/a>,\u00a0all forbid people permitted to officially solemnize marriage to supervise unauthorized ceremonies. Most states classify this as a misdemeanor, and Alabama sets the highest fine at a stiff $1000 per wedding. In Virginia, rogue ministers may be sentenced to up to one year in jail.<\/p>\n

Read more at\u00a0<\/em>The American Conservative\u2026<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

The original law in North Carolina was well-intentioned but had slightly silly knock-on effects, but the second story I covered is a matter of life and death. Prompted by the WHO\u2019s declaration of an emergency (with associated travel restrictions), I returned to my epidemiology and ethics hobbyhorse in \u00a0\u201cPolio Breaks Out After the U.S. Breaks Trust,\u201d<\/a><\/strong>\u00a0discussing the consequences of the CIA using vaccinators as covert operatives in Pakistan to catch Bin Laden.<\/p>\n

If doctors could be spies in disguise, how could nations welcome them in? In Syria, where polio is spreading amid the chaos of the civil war, how can vaccinators persuade Assad to let them move freely within the country, if they could be doubling as spies, assassins, or gun runners? In order to check these diseases, public health officials need to be enter any country to set up quarantines and dispense inoculations.\u00a0The United States has shattered the trust placed in medical workers, and polio may not be the last of the threats we face as a result\u2026<\/p>\n

Combatting these diseases requires more than a team of elite commandos. Turning back a pandemic, whether of natural or human origins, requires international coordination and trust. America\u2019s covert operations have broken that trust and put us all in danger.<\/p>\n

Read more at\u00a0<\/em>The American Conservative\u2026<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Two of my recent posts at\u00a0The American Conservative turned out to be about unintended consequences. \u00a0The first, \u201cDrop Those Wedding Rings in the Name of the Law,\u201d covered the suit filed by the United Church of Christ in North Carolina to be allowed to perform private, unofficial, same-sex weddings. Currently, it is illegal for anyone […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":127,"featured_media":9459,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[64,85,92],"class_list":["post-9456","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-churchstate","tag-gay-marriage","tag-other-writing"],"yoast_head":"\nThe Unexpected Consequences of Laws and Lies<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Two of my recent posts at\u00a0The American Conservative turned out to be about unintended consequences. \u00a0The first, "Drop Those Wedding Rings in the Name of\" \/>\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\/unequallyyoked\/2014\/05\/the-unexpected-consequences-of-laws-and-lies.html\" \/>\n<meta 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