To every self righteous sanctimonious hypocritical county or court clerk that refuses to do their job and issue marriage licenses, pursuant to the Constitution, to gay and lesbian couples, that should be the message.
You either do your job, or you’re fired.
That is finally what Democratic Governor Steve Beshear did in Kentucky. From Raw Story:
According to WHAS-TV, Beshear issued a statement on Thursday addressing the concerns of County Clerk Casey Davis, but ordering all state employees to honor the court ruling.
“This morning, I advised Mr. Davis that I respect his right to his own personal beliefs regarding same-sex marriages. However, when he was elected, he took a constitutional oath to uphold the United States Constitution,” Beshear said in his statement.
The statement continued by saying that Beshear would not grant a special legislative session to discuss the matter as requested in a letter signed by 60 of the state’s county clerks:
According to the United States Supreme Court, the Constitution now requires that governmental officials in Kentucky and elsewhere must recognize same-sex marriages as valid and allow them to take place. One of Mr. Davis’ duties as county court clerk is to issue marriage licenses, and the Supreme Court now says that the United States Constitution requires those marriage licenses to be issued regardless of gender. Mr. Davis’ own county attorney has advised him that his oath requires him to do so.
While there are two or three county court clerks still refusing to perform their duties, the rest of the county court clerks are complying with the law regardless of their personal beliefs. The courts and the voters will deal appropriately with the rest.
I will not be calling any special session on this topic and costing the taxpayers hundreds of thousands of dollars doing so. Any proposal about the process of issuing marriage licenses that meets the standards of the Supreme Court ruling should be carefully thought out and could be considered in the regular session in 2016.
I would still fire Mr. Davis and any other county or court clerk refusing to do their job. In states where county clerks do not have a law abiding Governor cracking the whip, the injured parties should sue these county clerks personally and destroy their lives. It boggles my mind: if you believe THAT strongly in your religious beliefs that you refuse to perform part of your job, why not quit? Herb Titus gives us the answer, an answer that reveals why Evangelical “Christians” entered politics:
Titus warned that if conservative Christians give up on trying to shape government to biblical specifications, they will end up like the Amish, with special protections for their religion but “no influence in the greater society”
“God didn’t call us to just be in a closed-off, religious community, God called us to exercise dominion,” he said.
He repeated that public officials who disagree with marriage equality should defy the law and “make people remove us from office, if that’s what it’s going to take you, ‘you can remove me, but I’m not going to just ask you to give me a special privilege, or resign and will no longer function in a civil capacity.’ What that does, I think, is basically sounds the bugle of retreat.”
Well this is where this non gun owner and gun control advocate takes up arms. Exercise dominion over me? Go fuck yourself. Civil War II here we come. Evangelical “Christians” will accept equality for all (yes including the gays, yes including other religions) and the separation of church and state under our Constitution, or they can die in whatever revolt they wish to stage. Or they can pursue the third option: become the Amish. Or a fourth: self deportation to a theocratic state more fitting to their “dominion.” Like Iran.