Judge not that you be not judged
The story: Kim Davis, an elected county clerk, refuses to issue a wedding license to a gay couple. Shortly thereafter she is held her in contempt of court for defying a Supreme Court order to issue marriage licenses to gay couples. As a county employee, she is charged with upholding the constitution of the United States. He sentences her to an indefinite term in county jail for breaking a Federal law. Ms Davis’ defense is that God’s moral law supersedes any civil law. Her Bible teaches that “homosexuality” is a sin against God. “My conscience will not allow it. God’s moral law convicts me and conflicts with my duties.”
The jailing of Ms Davis has caused an uproar among some of the Republican Presidential candidates. Taking the lead is former Baptist Minister and Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee declaring, “This is a wake-up call.” Regarding his views on gay marriage critics ask what difference does it make, so what, why does it bother you? His response: “Well, people are waking up and seeing why it bothers us. Now a county clerk is sitting in jail.”
What Huckabee and other conservative evangelical Christians fail to understand is that Ms Davis is in jail for contempt of court and not for her religious beliefs. Did she fully understand the responsibilities of the office she sought? Did she make it clear to her electorate that her religious beliefs superseded the presumptions of her office? If she did not, from where I sit she ran a dishonest campaign.
As an Ordained Southern Baptist Minister and a student of the Bible, a couple of things come to mind as I consider Ms. Davis’ defense for refusing to issue wedding licenses to Gay couples. First is the title of this column, “Render unto Caesar the things that are Caesar’s and to God the things that are God’s.” A society cannot function without the rule of law. Mr. Huckabee’s advice to Ms Davis “to obey law only if it’s right,” is not an option. Who among is capable of such a judgment? Civil disobedience as practiced by Thoreau, Gandhi, and Martin Luther King allowed for breaking a law but included three essential components: the citizen has the right to repudiate a law deemed unjust, but must do so nonviolently and must accept the penalty of any transgression.
Fighting injustice is a noble pursuit, but judging others based on ones personal definition of what is moral is not the task of the faithful. Consider the fact that the Bible admonishes against judging others. Paraphrasing: Why consider the mote in your brother’s eye and ignore the beam in thine own eye? First cast out the beam in thy own eye. Judge not that you be not judged. Judgment is mine, I will repay saith the Lord.
Pope Francis, the most revered religious figure of our time, is humbled at the thought. Refusing to condemn the gay life he asks, “Who am I to judge?” Further Ms Davis labels homosexuals as sinners but she fails to acknowledge that having been married four times she has broken the 7th Commandment, “Thou shall not commit adultery.” It is a twisted morality that directs her to deny justice to anyone who violates “her” moral compass. The moral thing to do would be to resign the position that compromises her beliefs or take two aspirin, a long nap and get back the job she was elected to do.
