It is kind of amazing that defenders of Kim Davis, the Kentucky county clerk who has ordered her office not to issue any marriage licenses in order to avoid abiding by the Supreme Court’s gay marriage ruling, actually think that it is entirely reasonable to force the more than 20,000 residents of the county to accommodate Davis’ personal religious convictions rather than require her to simply do her job.
Like Mat Staver yesterday, Stuart Shepard of Focus on the Family’s Citizenlink insists today that the 23,333 residents of Rowan County, Kentucky, “could easily drive to any neighboring county” in order to obtain a marriage license and should be forced to do so because “an elected official has a right to a reasonable accommodation for her faith.”
The idea that it is reasonable to make tens of thousands of people drive to a different county to obtain a marriage license because their clerk simply refuses to do her job, or even to let her subordinates do theirs, is laughable, as is Shepard’s argument that it is gay rights activists who are trying to force their views on Davis when, in reality, it is Davis who is forcing her views on an entire county by demanding that all residents accommodate her religious convictions. Of course, if the clerks in the surrounding counties likewise refused to follow the law, Religious Right activists would defend them as well.
Predictably, Shepard goes on to claim that the true reason that gay rights activists are waging this fight is because they are in pain and are lashing out.
“My observation is that the activists are sincerely hurting,” he said, “yet their worldview will not allow them to see any connection between the pain they’re feeling and the life they’re living, so they look for someone to blame and the focus right now is on any Christian who would take a stand for God’s timeless design for marriage and relationships.”
