By now, you have probably heard about a County Clerk in a little corner of Kentucky called Rowan County, who has been refusing to issue marriage licences ever since the Supreme Court ruled in favor of same-sex marriage. Her name is Kim Davis. In a statement about her refusal, she writes, “To issue a marriage license which conflicts with God’s definition of marriage, with my name affixed to the certificate, would violate my conscience. It is not a light issue for me. It is a Heaven or Hell decision.” She goes on to declare that she will not be stepping down…. “I was elected by the people to serve as the County Clerk. I intend to continue to serve the people of Rowan County, but I cannot violate my conscience.” HERE IS WHY SHE IS EMPIRICALLY, COMPLETELY, OBJECTIVELY, AND, IN ALL OTHER WAYS, 100% WRONG.

LOGIC–Imagine you worked at a restaurant, and you believed that God thought drinking alcohol was a sin. Now imagine that the restaurant’s owners decided to start selling alcohol…. As an employee, you are NOT being forced to drink alcohol in violation of your religious liberty. And if you decide that having a job where you sell alcohol to others goes against your moral code, you are free to find another job, right? What you DON’T do is you don’t go into work and refuse to sell people alcohol–claiming “religious freedom”–and expect to keep your job. The same is true if your job is issuing people marriage licenses….

HYPOCRISY–Refusing to issue a marriage license to a couple because you believe the Bible condemns their union is a difficult position for a County Clerk to take without turning into a giant hypocrite. The Bible actually says nothing whatsoever about same-sex marriage. It does say quite a bit about the issue of divorce. It seems to say that if a person gets a divorce for a reason other than infidelity and then remarries, that person is guilty of adultery (that’s one of the big 10!). I wonder how many divorced people Kim Davis has issued marriage licenses to…. Of course, the Bible has some really interesting things to say to the Church about obeying the rules of their government. But then again, the Bible also says that women shouldn’t be in positions of authority. Yikes!

CONFUSION–Kim Davis and her supporters are arguing that forcing her to issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples amounts to “Religious Persecution.” These people could not be more confused. It is not religious persecution to tell a person she is not allowed to persecute whole groups of people just because she (mistakenly or otherwise) believes that her religion calls for that persecution. This is the same mentality of the people who are opposing anti-bullying legislation on the grounds that they believe they should be allowed to bully gay kids as a part of the Christian expression of their beliefs. Just because you belong to some freaky “religion” that views forced sex with strangers as an act of worship, it doesn’t give you the right to go around raping people.