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Barack Obama, Billy Graham, Christianity, Civil Disobedience, Conservatism, Constitutional Republic, Everlasting, Experience, Family, Fellowship of the Minds, Freedom, Genealogy, God, Homosexual Marriage, Jesus Christ, Kim Davis, Lessons, Liberty, Life, Obergefel v Hodges, Posterity, Self-Preservation, Teaching, United States, Wisdom
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Perversion is considered a biological abnormality rather than a sin. These things are contrary to the teaching of God’s Word. And God has not changed. His standards have not been lowered. God still calls immorality a sin and the Bible says God is going to judge it.
~ Billy Graham, Till Armageddon, 1981
In my website post on Friday regarding the fallibility of Kentucky Judge David L. Bunning sending Amy Davis to jail erroniously, I mentioned this: Allowing the Supreme Court, which is part of the Judiciary branch of the Constitution, to interpret the Constitution, which creates the Judiciary branch, is akin to allowing a fox to guard the hen house against foxes. The Judiciary creating “case law” is a clear violation of the separation of powers laid forth in the Constitution. The final arbiter of the Constitutionality of law is not the Supreme Court, but We The People, and the people have spoken clearly on this issue time and time and time again. Davis, regardless of her political affiliation (Democrat) is deserving of our support as she is indeed a prisoner of the State for refusing to do something in defiance of her religious beliefs. Pinch yourself: this is the United States we’re talking about here, not some Muslim hellhole where they throw homosexuals off roofs.
Lots of conservative legal experts, including Antonin Scalia, Jon Adler, and Jacob Sullum have come forward to argue that Kim Davis should either do her job and issue same-sex marriage licenses or resign. Douglas Wilson produced an exceptionally eloquent rebuttal in his website Blog & Mablog (link right at the end) and it is this to which we will turn our attention from this point on…
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A HILL WORTH DYING ON
A consensus appears to be developing among otherwise reasonable people that Kim Davis, of Rowan County fame, either needs to start issuing marriage licenses or quit her job.
For those just joining us, a county clerk in Kentucky is refusing to issue marriage licenses against her conscience and is also refusing to resign. Her name, which should be on a bronze plaque on the side of the courthouse, is Kim Davis. A federal judge has ordered her to appear in his courtroom Thursday to explain why Davis should not be held in contempt of court for refusing to issue marriage licenses.
But there is a difference between contempt of court and seeing that the courts have become contemptible…
[Rod Dreher (9/1) wrote of Kim Davis’s stand: In the future, there will surely be hills worth dying on, so to speak, as Christians. This is not one of them.]
I want to begin by making an observation about that hill-to-die-on thing, but then move on to discuss the foundational principle that is at stake here. After that, I want to point out what it would look like if more government officials had the same understanding that Kim Davis is currently displaying — despite being opposed by all the intoleristas and also despite being abandoned by numerous Christians who admire her moxie but who don’t understand her moxie.
First, whenever we get to that elusive and ever-receding “hill to die on,” we will discover, upon our arrival there, that it only looked like a hill to die on from a distance. Up close, when the possible dying is also up close, it kind of looks like every other hill. All of a sudden it looks like a hill to stay alive on, covered over with topsoil that looks suspiciously like common ground.
So it turns out that surrendering hills is not the best way to train for defending the most important ones. Retreat is habit-forming.
The point here is not just private conscience. The right to liberty of conscience is at play with florists, bakers, and so on. But Kim Davis is not just keeping herself from sinning, she is preventing Rowan County from sinning. That is part of her job.
Every Christian elected official should be determining, within the scope of their duties, which lines they will not allow the state to cross. When they come to that line, they should refuse to cross it because “this is against the law of God.” They should do this as part of their official responsibilities. This is part of their job. It is one of the things they swear to do when they take office.
This is nothing less than Calvin’s doctrine of the lesser magistrates (Institutes 4.20.22-32), which I would urge upon all and sundry as relevant reading material. And as Calvin points out, after Daniel — a Babylonian official — disobeyed the king’s impious edict, he denied that he had wronged the king in any way (Dan. 6:22-23).
Now this takes me to my citation of Jefferson (to the right). Some might say that it is a shame that I, a staunch Calvinist, have taken to quoting a Deist on the relationship of righteousness to government. And I say that it is a shame that an 18th century Deist has a better grasp of the relationship of righteousness to government than do two and a half busloads of 21st century Reformed seminary professors. The striking inconsistency might have two possible causes, in other words. (File this under sentiments which seem extreme at the time, but heroic when the danger is over, and you are reading them inscribed on the base of a polished marble memorial).
If just ten governors treated Obergefell the same way Kim Davis is treating it, that entire unrighteous and despotic imposition would collapse and fall to the ground. And if they did so, they would not be sinning against the United States. Rather, they would be preventing the United States from sinning.
The end game here is not armed revolution. The end game is simply a refusal to cooperate with their revolution. Make them fire or impeach faithful officials. Once removed, such faithful officials should run for office again with a promise to continue to defy all forms of unrighteous despotism. As one friend of mine put it, “Lather. Rinse. Repeat.”
Some might ask what the good in that would be. Wouldn’t it just result in no Christians in such positions? Perhaps, but it would be far better to have godless results enforced by the godless than to insist that the godly do it for them. It would be far better to have the “no Christians in power results” when it was actually the case that no Christians were in power. I would rather have non-Christian clerks acting like non-Christian clerks than to have Christian clerks do it for them. I mean, right?
Don’t tell believers to stay engaged so that they can make a difference, and then, when they start making a difference, tell them that this is not a hill to die on. Make the bad guys reveal themselves. Make them crack down on evangelical county clerks, while continuing to wink at sanctuary cities and local defiance of federal pot laws. Why do they apply their “It’s the law! Bow down!” standard so inconsistently? Well, mostly it is because evangelicals are sweet and naive enough to let them get away with it.
So it is ironic that this valiant stand is being taken by a clerk, because those sidling away from her provide a standing example of our real problem — the trahison des clercs (betrayal of the intellectuals)
Read the entire piece here…
Also…
* Must read .. Kim Davis v Hypocrisy of King OBO …
* And this .. Stealth SCOTUS Wreaks Havoc…
* See also .. Same-Sex Marriage Started With Lawbreaking …
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It would be the greatest tragedy if I didn’t tell you that unless you repent of your sins and receive Christ as your Savior, you are going to be lost.
~ Billy Graham, World Aflame, 1965
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Soli Deo Gloria!