Kim Davis | Image by Mike Licht via Flickr (http://bit.ly/1IOOU3m_
Kim Davis is a woman whose name you might have heard, if you read the news in America. She is the county clerk of Rowan County, Kentucky, which is the exact shape of a witch’s hat and perhaps best known as the home of Morehead State University.
Davis is in jail now because she refused to issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples. Her job is an elected position, and she took an oath of office to serve the people of Rowan County. (From her website: “As county clerk I am responsible for providing many services to the people of Rowan county.”) Things were going smoothly for Davis until late June, when the Supreme Court decided that gay marriage was constitutional.
Since then, Davis has refused to issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples on the grounds that she answers to God. “I never imagined a day like this would come, where I would be asked to violate a central teaching of Scripture and of Jesus Himself regarding marriage,” she said in a statement. But there she was.
READ: Ky. county clerk invokes God in denying gay marriages
In the Bible, the Pharisees are a group of people who become best known for trying to trap Jesus with their questions. They didn’t like His politics–not that He was too progressive or too conservative, but He was too weird; too different altogether. So in Matthew 22 we read that “the Pharisees went and plotted to entrap [Jesus] in what he said.”
They thought they would ask him about taxes. After all, shouldn’t all of our money be God’s money? What good was it to give a portion to line the wallets of the government? They buttered Jesus up at first, saying they knew how sincere he was and calling him “Teacher.” Then, the gotcha question: “Is it lawful to pay taxes to the emperor, or not?”
Jesus saw through them.
Jesus, aware of their malice, said, “Why are you putting me to the test, you hypocrites? Show me the coin used for the tax.” And they brought him a denarius. Then he said to them, “Whose head is this, and whose title?” They answered, “The emperor’s.” Then he said to them, “Give therefore to the emperor the things that are the emperor’s, and to God the things that are God’s.”
Peter Paul Rubens, “The Tribute Money” | Image via Wikimedia Commons (http://bit.ly/1EFlCt3)
Kim Davis took an oath to work for the emperor. That is not a bad thing, and this is a tricky metaphor, because I do not mean to suggest that Obama is an emperor or the government is always at odds with Christianity. What is true is that she chose to work for the government and, when she did so, she vowed to serve people. In that, her job was not unlike that of a minister or worship leader, who are also tasked with serving.
But when you take an oath for the emperor, you are also swearing to play by the emperor’s rules. (This doesn’t mean that conscientious objection is precluded, but if you genuinely believe there are parallels between what Davis did and what Rosa Parks did, as some conservative folks are suggesting, I have no time for you.) For a time she may have been able, in good conscience, to serve both the government and God, but a soon as she felt that she couldn’t, she ought to have quit her job. It does Christians no favors to have one of our own enforcing her (illegal) bigotry and then being rallied around like a modern-day Joan of Arc. We’ve got enough martyrs already.
