Get Down Off That Cross, Somebody Else Needs The Wood

By Rob Watson For GaySAtarNews:

On the highway to LGBTI civil rights, there are many collisions. Willful ignorance runs headlong into justice.

Few are as fascinating as the wreck in Rowan County Kentucky. We, the American public, cannot stop ourselves from rubber necking as a cold hearted group, led by a county clerk, rudely deny a polite gay couple their marriage license.
The ‘good guys’ are two Davids – Moore and Ermold, who want to get married.
It is their legal right.
The ‘villain’ is Kim Davis who refuses to issue them a marriage license. She had also denied a second couple, James Yates and William Smith Jr.
The state governor has told her to comply, as has a federal judge.
Her representation, the right wing Liberty Counsel, has told her to refuse. She calls her homophobia ‘religious freedom’, the Liberty Counsel may call it a number of things, but what it really is to them is profit.
Davis’s behavior bothers me. I look at the messages not just to me, but to my kids and their counterparts in LGBTI families across the nation.
First is her attempt to disparage families such as mine and declare us invalid. Kids in LGBTI families, and kids who are LGBTI should not hear a government official would rather they didn’t exist.
Second is her behavior. I am teaching my kids principles of responsibility and citizenship. Davis violates that principle at every turn.
I have written her a letter.
Dear Ms Davis,
I understand you are angry the fight for marriage equality did not go the way you had hoped. I will not be able to persuade you into liking the Supreme Court’s decision, but as a public servant, I do expect you to respect it.
Respect is the key. You are demanding respect for your beliefs far beyond what is reasonable, and the couples are demanding respect for their ability to determine the course of their own lives. Their demands are not just reasonable; they are the way things should be.
As a Christian I do not understand the religious system you claim to have. Nowhere in the Bible does it demand you impede the family of a same-sex couple. It does not imply you should. Christ’s great commandment to ‘love your neighbor as yourself’ is counter to your current behavior.
Much has been made of the fact you have been married multiple times. There are, theoretically, county clerks who would find your requests for re-marriage counter to Jesus’s directive on divorce.
But I would defend you. I feel Christ has given us the awareness to understand his directive on divorce was to a specific time and place. His purpose was not to saddle people like you into hopeless permanent unions, but to protect women from destitution.
I ask you reconsider your choices. You set a horrendous example for young people, like my sons, who should be learning how to effectively co-exist with others in society.
When my son Jesse is putting his foot down on something he needs to do, but doesn’t want to, he calls in his allies for credibility or support. ‘My friends don’t think that is fair!’ Invariably those he calls upon to do the wrong thing have a vested interest.
Such is your relationship with Liberty Counsel, an organization that gained $3.5 million (€3 million) in donations in 2013.
As the Lexington Herald-Leader observes: ‘Liberty’s attorneys know they can’t win the case in Rowan County. Same-sex marriage is legal since the Supreme Court’s decision and it’s Davis’ job to issue marriage licenses.
‘So, why is Liberty Counsel marching alongside Davis in this losing cause?
‘It takes a lot to keep that marketing machine humming and those executives paid, and the only way to keep those donations coming is to stay in the news. For that purpose a losing cause is just as good as, perhaps better than, a winning one.’
Your ‘friends’, who themselves will reap millions, are telling you to hang out until the end where you will be potentially unemployed, and perceived globally as a selfish intolerant hypocrite who was cruel to her neighbors.
As a ‘Good Samaritan’, I am telling you to do the opposite: do your job, respect people making their own life choices, and trust in God that love will prevail in the end.
If you do, the couples will walk away with the licenses they want and the protections they deserve.
You will walk away with dignity. You will be a woman who changed her mind, evolved and chose the path of compassion.
The Liberty Counsel won’t be able to use you for fund raising. You won’t be their pawn. You will be the real winner.
A few years later, you will be walking down the street of your town. You will see a gloriously happy little girl holding her dad’s hand. She will smile at you. As that warms your heart, you will look to her father and realize you know him. He is one of the men you tried to deny a marriage license. Your eyes will dart back to the little girl who will still be beaming at you.

In that moment, you will know without a doubt that you ultimately did the right thing.