Religious Freedom & the Law

Can religious freedom justify refusing to follow the law?

Kim Davis, a Kentucky state official charged with granting marriage licenses, believed it could when she refused to grant marriage licenses to same sex couples last week.  A Federal judge in Kentucky ordered her jailed for refusing to grant those licenses.

The clip above from the Religion and Ethics Newsweekly clearly explains the two sides.

Barry Lynn, executive director of Americans United for Separation of Church and State, argues that Davis broke the law and had to go to jail.

On the other side, Roger Severino, director of the DeVos Center for Religion and Civil Society at the Heritage Foundation, argues that Davis’s first amendment right of religious freedom allowed her the right to refuse to grant the marriage licenses because same-sex marriages contradicted her religious beliefs.

Lynn argues that Davis had an obligation to carry out the law as an elected official, “If you are seeking the office and know full well what the duties and responsibilities of that office hold, then I don’t think in our legal system you can possibly be permitted to opt out of the performance of those duties by claiming that one duty is violating your conscience.”

Severino disagrees. He argues that “the law actually requires religious accommodation where it’s reasonable.” Davis should be able to simply opt out. “All she is asking for,” he says, ” is to keep her name and her title off the license and licenses could go out to same sex couples. And, he continues, “I thinks it a possible solution that should be pursued and I don’t think that she should be thrown in jail.”

It’s an interesting argument. We had an animated discussion about the merits of the case in my world religions class last week.