Most counties in the fifty states of the United States have an official called the Recorder. This job comprises, among other functions, the recording of certain important documents, such as the deed to your house and the issuance and recording of your marriage certificate. It pays fairly well for a government job but it is not something you give much attention to or aspire to do as you grow up. Until a woman with the name of Kim Davis holds that office.

Davis is the Recorder for Rowan County in the State of Kentucky. In or about August, 2015, she started refusing to issue marriage certificates to all newly wed couples – heterosexual and homosexual alike – and was arrested and put in jail for breaking the law while awaiting trial.

Davis had been Deputy Recorder for 24 years, and then elected Recorder in January 2015, and has been signing and giving out marriage licenses all that time. What happened? What made her stop doing it now?

For centuries gay marriages were not recognized in the United States. Then slowly, over the last 10 years or so, individual states started to legalize them. Massachusetts was the first state to do so in 2004. More than half a dozen other states followed. Kentucky was not one of those states. Come June this year, in the case of Obergefell versus Hodges, the US Supreme Court ruled that same-sex marriage was legal because it fell within the fundamental right of a person to marry. It was a close decision; the justices voted 5 to 4. Because it is a federal decision from the US Supreme Court, this ruling applies to all 50 states and the District of Columbia. It also supersedes existing state laws which may contradict it.

Davis is a devout Christian. She believes that God would not have permitted a matrimonial union between two people of the same gender. In her mind, this new federal law directly goes against God’s teaching and against her conscience. She refused to put her name on a document – in this case a marriage certificate – that she absolutely did not approve.

It is not clear why she would not sign the certificates for heterosexual couples either. Perhaps in her mind, she was being “fair”. Regardless, people sued her for not doing her job as the Recorder and for breaking a federal law. The plaintiffs are two heterosexual couples and two gay couples.

At this writing, the judge for her case ordered her released from jail pending trial, probably bowing to tremendous pressure from her supporters around the country, including some grandstanding politicians.

I choose to report this breaking news to you to hail her courage to stand up for what she truly believes in, even at the risk of imprisonment. I am not a Christian. I am a heterosexual person, but I absolutely am not against homosexuality. I have many male and female friends who are gay. Many of them have relationships with their partners longer than my marriage. So if I were in her position, I would just welcome the new law and sign those licenses. No fuss, no buzz.

Although Mrs. Davis and I don’t believe in the same definition of “marriage,” she still is an inspiration to me – that an everyday person would have the courage to voice her objection against something that her heart and conscience cannot accept.

I am no legal pundit. I don’t know what the outcome of her case is going to be. I am afraid that she is going to lose her $80,000-a-year job, go to jail for a few months, and have to pay a fine of a few thousand dollars.

Why does she do it? Because she can, and she’s fearless, I would like to think. I am so proud of her, and so proud of this country. That’s what democracy is about.

 *** The End ***

 

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