"Religious freedom" and "religious liberty" are code for discrimination

First off this is not an attack on Christians or Christianity. Why should I attack my own faith? That makes no sense now does it? All that aside, this is a subject I can no longer ignore. It involves gay rights, marriage, religion, marriage licenses and a civil servant in Kentucky. And something what I call backdoor discrimination.

I’m pretty sure you all have been seeing and reading stories about Kim Davis, city clerk for Rowan County, Kentucky. How she has been refusing to issue marriage licenses to gay couples. Heck she has refused to issue licenses to anyone – gay or straight – for some time now. The crux of it is her religious conviction that gay marriage is against her steadfast faith and so she won't issue the licenses to gay couples.

This comes after the U.S. Supreme Court’s ruling in June legalizing same sex marriage nationwide, a hard-won civil right that was long overdue.

But not in Davis’ view, who cited her “religious liberty” as reason for withholding the license to William Smith Jr. and James Yates and other gay couples. This term and another similar to it, “religious freedom,” have been bandied about ever since that Supreme Court ruling. It is in reality a code cover for discrimination. A tactic and false justification that has been used before in the past by politicians and some government officials. And just as it was in the past, dead wrong.

It was used against interracial couples in the south during the civil rights era. It was used in defense of the ban against them. That was overthrown by a ruling of the Supreme Court in 1967. They were used to defend the vile segregation policies of the late 19th and mid 20th centuries that was part of life in most of America of that era. It was even used in chapter and verse to justify the most vile and evil of human practice on this earth, one that would keep entire generations under its heavy yoke for centuries of our nation’s history. I'm talking of human slavery. That blight that has been a source of much of America’s pain and blood growing up. Some of those voices in support of this vilest evil of humanity were our founding fathers. Not all of them mind you, just a few in powerful places. A sad but true fact in our history.

It would take a long, bloody war to bring things to a head but not quite the end. That was the Civil War at a cost of over 675,000 lives lost. Freedom from that heavy burden was first granted in 1863 with the signing of the Emancipation Proclamation by President Lincoln. Later slavery would be abolished forever under the 13th Amendment of the U.S. Constitution on December 6, 1865. It would take a little longer to achieve true equality, like well into the 20th century; for gay rights, the last of the great civil rights issues, it’s taken into the first decades of the 21st century.

We have come a long way since those days, growing up into national maturity with true respect for equal and civil rights for Americans no matter of race, religion, gender and lastly sexual orientation. It’s a road paved with pot holes, bumps and ruts to be sure, but well worth the effort for equality and freedom.

Now it is back again as citizens and politicians angered by that Supreme Court ruling are taking matters into their own hands, citing “religious liberty” as a means to discriminate with a clear but misguided conscience. It is a thorny issue because we do value our religious rights and freedoms deeply. These values are also backed by the Constitution. Some of the more religiously oriented politicians are counting on it. They’re turning this into a political circus, making it difficult dealing with it when it pops up without appearing to infringe on the freedoms of religion and the rights of the individual beliefs versus the civil rights of a person. In this case a county clerk with deeply held religious convictions vs. members of the LGBT community. Where does one draw the line?

In this case Kim Davis is an elected civil servant sworn to uphold the law both federal and state while administering her office as clerk. Her religious views should have never come into play since our state and federal government is secular in design and not a theocracy (a government based on a religion). But they have, and that is the heart of the matter as she refused to obey the law and the courts and now she is languishing in a jail cell for contempt of court.

She can not be fired from her position, which an elected office. There only two means of removing her from her job: resignation or impeachment. The way things are going I’d say she is going for the impeachment process in a full court press so to speak.

If this should be the case, then I find it all to be something of an irony that one woman’s stand against a court ruling may have her fate resolved by another. Yet in fact it may have to boil down to just that. This may well define a hard line between church and state in dealing with issues like LGBT rights, marriage and matters of faith. It could finally define and resolve the questions of religious freedom or discrimination under the veil of religion. Civil rights vs. religious rights: how do we decide who is in the right?

My own opinion is that Kim Davis was wrong in refusing to issue a marriage license to a gay couple. I do admire her tenacity in holding out against the odds. But I feel it is a misguided belief in the end. My own Christian faith has no problems with anyone who is gay, or to same sex marriage for that matter. Nor do I use it to judge people. Yet others claim her to be a hero including some of the more conservative candidates for President. Some people are holding rallies in her name and cause. Those politicians mentioned are using her for their own means. My guess is it will have to be decided in the courts of law and not the court of public opinion. Whether or not she will abide by their eventual decision is up to Davis herself. Just where does she draw the line is anyone’s guess.

Daniel D. Grota is a retired U.S. Army veteran with over 21 years in service. He is also a Tuesday morning co-host on KVRF 89.5 FM, Radio Free Palmer. Write to him at news@frontiersman.com.