Cedric Hohnstadt, an artist whom I only know as one of my frequent correspondents who sends me thoughtful, polite e-mails sometimes disagreeing with me, has this to say…
About Kim Davis…This article mentions a few facts that most people are missing in this story. Mainly, that starting as far back as January (pre-Supreme Court decision) Davis made several unsuccessful attempts to find a compromise that would allow the gay marriage licenses to go through while at the same time not forcing her to sign her name to something she religously objects to. Ideas she tried to put through include:
- Changing the rules so that she would not have to personally sign each license.
- Setting up some sort of online application/approval process that would remove her as the middleman.
- Allowing the option for some marriage licenses to be funnelled through the governor's office instead of through her.
All of her requests were either rejected or ignored. Whether you agree with her or not, I think there is a case to be made that we should try to find reasonable compromises wherever possible that don't force employees to violate their conscience just to do their job.
What I've read in the last days of so about Ms. Davis leads me to believe of the various "scenarios" I gave as possibly motivating her, the one that is most probably correct is that she is utterly sincere, doesn't have an endgame in mind and is just trusting that if she holds tenaciously to her position, it will eventually work out for the better.
It's interesting that she tried to find a compromise here but it seems to me that the obvious solutions to this logjam are more like…
- Having Kim Davis do the job she was elected to do.
- Replacing Kim Davis with someone who will actually do the job she was elected to do.
Once upon a time, the "compromise" to blacks getting equal rights was to give them "separate but equal" water fountains and restrooms and such. You're not supposed to "compromise" when people receive equal rights. The correct way to treat Gay Marriages is to treat them exactly the same as Straight Marriages except that you're forgiven for being awkward with the pronouns.
Depending on which poll you believe, somewhere around 38% of Americans still don't like the whole idea of letting folks of the same sex marry. That probably means that around 38% of the clerks and government employees who process the paperwork on marriages disapprove of those unions…and it's surely way higher than 38% in some states. Somehow, Kim Davis is the only one who demanded that rules or procedures be changed to accommodate her personal sensibilities.
I read the article you cited and I thank you for the link. But the thing I don't think some people get is that while anyone is entitled to believe in the God of their choice and the interpretation of Him or Her and of His or Her teachings, we do not in this country make policies and laws based on that. This is why the lawyers who argued the case against Gay Marriage in the many courtrooms didn't even try offering "God doesn't approve" as an argument against letting two men or two women marry.
Ms. Davis says of her view on Gay Marriage, "This is real and this is true." She has every right to hold that viewpoint but not to insist that everyone else acknowledge that and act accordingly. Someone who believes that God blesses Gay Marriages has the same standing. So does someone who believes there is no God. The "War on Christianity" as defined by the Mike Huckabees of the world is a frustration that we don't treat all other faiths and non-faiths as bogus and make laws according to Mike Huckabee's interpretations of Scripture.
In a land where we have no official religion, this is how it works. (Another problem, of course, is that even people who believe The Bible is the ultimate authority do not agree on how much of it to take literally or on what certain passages mean. Does God really want anyone who works on the Sabbath to be put to death? Or women who are not virgins on their wedding nights?)
The other clerks and workers who handle forms pertaining to marriages do this the easier way. They don't see themselves as somehow participating and endorsing the marriages because they processed the paperwork. All of them have probably handled the papers covering marriages in which some pretty immoral, inhumane things happened between heterosexual partners.
Other clerks don't judge. They just clerk. Ms. Davis is sitting in a cell in Kentucky because she has created an unnecessary, unwinnable conflict for herself, deciding that God wanted her to take this stance. Are the clerks who are uncomfy with Gay Marriage but continue to process the forms in accordance with the law not hearing those same orders from God or are they not listening? Maybe He told them to just stamp the licenses and not worry their pretty little heads about it.