A Kentucky Court Clerk and Romans 13

            So, there’s this court clerk in Kentucky who is refusing to issue marriage licenses because she, as a Christian, doesn’t believe she can have her name stamped on a marriage license for a gay couple.  It’s doubtful that this blog is the first that you’ve heard about this.  She’s gone about this the right way, I believe.  She’s made her stand in love for one thing.  No hateful diatribes, no screaming matches with anybody (as far as I’ve read in the news anyways).  She even went out and gave a bottle of water to one of her LGBT opponents sitting in the heat outside.  Speak the truth but in love (Ephesians 4:15).  Also, she’s not discriminating.  The Supreme Court says the government can’t discriminate in handing out marriage licenses.  So she’s stopped handing out any. Gay or straight.

            It’s a losing battle of course. Which is a shame.  Sure, the law is the law, but if she can risk her job and everything that she’s worked for, then so could that judge who jailed her today. And then the politicians could have gotten behind him.  It could have been a snowballing effect of people standing for truth.  But it isn’t and it won’t be.  Ultimately she will stand alone with only you and me to cheer her from the sidelines.  It’s a losing battle, yet she fights.  Why?  Because any battle fought for Christ, even if a losing battle in the temporal short-term, is always a winning battle in the Kingdom of God.  Her reward will be greater than mine for all she’s going through (2 Corinthians 4:17).  Few of us can imagine the stress she’s under.  Personally, I applaud her. 

            But this all raises a very interesting issue, which has been brought out by most media outlets: the tension between being a person of faith, and being a public servant.  This tension is not new in American democracy, although with the secularization of our society the tension has been more visible; more palpable.  One article I read pointed out that Romans 13 commands Christians to be obedient to the laws of civil government.  This, the article claimed, was another example of Christian hypocrisy as we pick and choose which parts of the Bible to follow.  This is a powerful argument against the stand this clerk is taking.  How does it square with the Christian values she has espoused?  How does it square with the sermon from Sunday?

            Well, let’s look at it like this: if we take this passage in Romans like that article claimed we should, and always be completely obedient to civil government, than what of the Boston tea partiers?  Surely they considered themselves devout Christians, even as they protested tea taxes by dumping tea in the harbor.  For that matter what about George Washington, Paul Revere, or any other of the thousands of Christians who rebelled against their civil government during the American Revolution.  How about the many Christian women who defied government in support of women’s suffrage?  Or how about the civil rights movement?  Was Dr. King - himself a minister - violating Scripture when he fought for equal rights?  Do we honestly believe that the African American community should have just silently and obediently suffered oppression indefinitely?  Do we believe that God would have preferred that?  I, for one, do not believe that.  Nor do I believe that any of these past patriots violated Biblical teaching in making their stands against the injustices of their societies and their government.  So how do we square it?  We do so by looking at all of Scripture, not just a single passage.

            We won’t point out everything, since this blog is already getting long and we still have a ways to go yet; so we’ll just point out a few of the more prominent examples.  There’s Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego who refused to worship the golden image and were thrown into the fiery furnace.  Daniel ignored a law not to pray to anyone but the Emperor and was thrown into the lion’s den for it.  Peter and John were told by the religious government to stop preaching in the name of Jesus and were flogged for ignoring it.  All of these examples are held up as examples of Godly behavior and courage.  Every credible commentator understands Paul’s injunction in Romans 13 (Paul was martyred for ignoring Roman laws against Christianity, by the way) as applying only so long as those laws do not conflict with Gods law.  When Government law has been contrary to God’s law, Believers have been expected to stand firm in their opposition. 

           However, the more specific question here is about participating in government.  It’s one thing to be outside government and standing up to it.  It’s another thing to be in government and participating in it by virtue of your job description.  Does a person have to choose between their faith and a job in government?  As freedom loving Americans we are loath to say yes.  Those who think this clerk should “just do her job” should ask just how freedom loving they are.  Unfortunately, the answer may in fact be yes.  Not because I believe it should be that way; but because I believe that that is simply the way it’s become.  For example, while a Muslim who would have to shut down a government office five times a day for prayer would be likely be accommodated, the exact same accommodation would not be given to a Christian without a media firestorm (if Christianity required that, that is).  (It should be noted that many counties are trying to find ways to accommodate the law while allowing objecting clerks to opt out.  But many lawyers say that even this will eventually run up against the legal system).  The plain fact is this:  Christianity is no longer an acceptable religion to our culture or to many in our government.  The time may be fast approaching when Christians can no longer participate in our government through certain government positions, such as a county clerk, or a justice of the peace for example.  And that list is sure to grow.

             But if we don’t participate, then how can we hope to change things?  Well, we still have the vote, for one thing.  But let’s look again at the example of the early church.  Because they were persecuted, and living in a pagan culture with a pagan government, Christians tended to stay out of government almost completely.  There were a few here and there, and maybe more who didn’t admit their faith.  But for the most part you would have been hard pressed to find many Christians in a government job in the first 300 years of the Church.  They simply didn’t feel that such a job was compatible with their faith, and they choose to stay out of them.  And then came Constantine, the first Christian emperor who declared Christianity mainstream.  You know what Christians did to help make that happen? Absolutely nothing.  God did that without our participation and he can do it again here.  (Disclaimer: prayer was undoubtedly involved).  Although, if you believe we are living in the last days then nothing is going to change it. 

            Should she have just resigned?  I’m not sure I have that answer.  Perhaps she should have, but perhaps God has told her to make this stand so as to be a public witness for Him.  You’d be surprised how a Christian standing against long odds for their faith can influence people.  When people see that someone else has found something worth fighting and dying for it makes them curious.  And people’s opinions can be changed when they see someone going through what this clerk is going through.  When they see someone calmly standing up, despite severe opposition.  It’s been noted by historians that people’s feelings about the civil rights movement began to change when they saw marchers being pelted with stones and blasted with fire hoses.  So perhaps God is using this as an opportunity for something.  Perhaps she was going to resign - wants to resign – but God has commanded her otherwise and she is being obedient.

            And we must be obedient.  Obedient to continue in prayer for our nation and its leaders.  For our state and its leaders.  Our city and its leaders.  And we must come together in prayer for this clerk; for the judicial system she’ll be interacting with; for the politicians who have an opportunity to stand behind her.  And (brace yourself) that God would count each of us worthy to suffer for our Lord (Acts 5:41; Philippians 1:29; 3:10).  If we think we’re up to it.