Yesterday marked a sad milestone in American history – the first Christian has been sent to jail for defying a court order to issue same-sex marriage licenses in a rural Kentucky county.
Fox News is reporting on the story of Rowan County clerk Kim Davis, a devout Christian who was placed in the custody of federal marshals yesterday after refusing to issue same-sex marriage licenses.
Davis, who has been working in the county clerk’s office for nearly 30 years, was elected to office in November of 2014 when her mother, who previously held the office, retired. After a troubled past, she gave her life to Christ four years ago and has been a devout Christian ever since.
When the U.S. Supreme Court legalized gay marriage earlier this summer, she promptly refused to issue any marriage licenses from her office and would not allow her deputies to do so either because her name was on the certificates. She simply referred anyone seeking a license to another county.
Gay activists immediately began to attack her.
“They told my husband they were going to burn us down while we slept in our home,” she told Fox. “He’s been told that he would be beaten up and tied up and made to watch them rape me. I have been told that gays should kill me.”
She soon found herself sued by four couples, two gay and two straight, for refusing them licenses. U.S. District Judge David Bunning, son of GOP Senator Jim Bunning who retired from the U.S. Senate in 2011, told her that she or her deputies must issue the licenses but stayed his order after she appealed the case to the U.S. 6th Circuit Court of Appeals in Cincinnati. When that stay expired, she asked the Supreme Court to weigh in but the justices refused.
Yesterday, Davis found herself back in front of Judge Bunning who heard emotional testimony from the defiant clerk who cited her faith as the reason for her convictions.
Her attorneys argued that her convictions created a “factual inability” to issue the licenses to same-sex couples, which is the legal “test” for protection under federal law. But lawyers for the couples pressed her into admitting that her policy was the result of a personal choice.
Judge Bunning agreed and said fining Davis would not be enough to ensure that she would follow his orders because supporters, many of whom were rallying outside the courthouse as the proceedings were underway, would probably pay her fines.
He felt he had no other choice than to send her to jail for contempt of court, to be held indefinitely until she agrees to issue the licenses.
“I don’t do this lightly,” he said. “It’s necessary in this case.”
Davis reportedly showed no emotion as she left the courtroom, which was not surprising as she had already come to terms with the prospect of serving jail time.
“I’ve weighed the cost and I’m prepared to go to jail, I sure am,” Mrs. Davis told Todd Starnes in an exclusive interview. “This has never been a gay or lesbian issue for me. This is about upholding the word of God.”
She added: “This is a heaven or hell issue for me and for every other Christian that believes. This is a fight worth fighting.”
Meanwhile, outside the courthouse Davis’ opponents roared in satisfaction over the ruling, chanting “Love won! Love won!”
Her supporters, however, were also out in full force, singing hymns, waving signs, and even arranging for a plane to fly over the courthouse towing a banner that read, “Stand firm Kim!”
As Fox reports, Davis is an elected official who can only be removed from office if the Legislature impeaches her, which is unlikely in a deeply conservative state.
Family Research Council president Tony Perkins is calling on the Kentucky governor and legislators to establish statutory accommodations for clerks like Kim Davis.
“Ultimately, this is about more than same-sex marriage licenses in Kentucky. It is about the ability of Christians and other religious people to serve in positions of public trust. If this is not resolved in a manner that accommodates the orthodox religious beliefs of Clerk Davis, this will, in effect, establish a reverse religious test barring those who hold biblical views of marriage from positions of public service. Such a religious test by proclamation or practice is wrong.
“Now a court is jailing someone over this because the governor failed to act. How hard is it to change a simple form to remove her name from it? Isn’t that worth doing to keep someone out of jail because of what they believe? Governor Beshear must call for a special session of the legislature and grant an accommodation to Kim Davis.
“If governors and legislatures thought this threat to religious freedom would go away — the jailing of Kim Davis proves them wrong. The time to protect and accommodate religious liberty is now,” concluded Perkins.
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