This happens far too often. I launch into a retelling of an old tale with “A few years ago,” only to realize after a quick mental check of the numbers the event occurred several decades in the past.
It just doesn’t seem all that long ago, for example, several of us commandeered a visiting friend’s rental car and set off down the college campus sidewalks, figuring authorities would trace the plates back to him while we walked away scot free. But now that I think about it, that vehicle ran on fuel pumped through a carburetor.
I guess that puts the date back sometime in the early 1980s.
So I believe it was a full 23 years ago when my intern at the time obliged a carload of Penn State football players by driving them around one December evening to check out the holiday displays. One of the athletes asked if her family put up lights for Christmas. My intern — who happened to be Jewish — responded “think, then ask again.”
A judge correctly ordered Kentucky clerk Kim Davis to jail for disobeying the law by denying marriage licenses to gay couples. She based her refusal on a claim that issuing the documents would violate her religious beliefs. Naturally, a group of supporters have rallied to her cause.
I would ask the people who consider this woman a hero to think, then ask themselves again what is required of an American.
Neither separation of church and state nor legislation defending religious liberty place personal belief above laws established by a democratically elected body. During World War Two, for example, members of recognized religion with a historic opposition to participation in war could claim conscientious objector status. But if called, they still had to serve.
In a nice touch of compromise, the federal government did not require them to fire on the enemy. Many, however, did see plenty of action. One medical corpsman serving with the Marines on Okinawa in 1945 even earned the Congressional Medal of Honor, rushing several times into no man’s land under heavy fire to rescue wounded men.
Simply put, society cannot function if the people can pick and choose laws to follow or ignore, as if from a buffet cart, no matter the grounds.
Let’s say creative interpretation of Biblical passages convinced a sect that slavery is legal and ordained by God. Actually, that’s been done. Maybe that as the earth was created for our use, off-roading through a farmer’s crop was perfectly fine. Or speed limits. Nothing in the Good Book about speed limits.
It’s a large book. I’m certain we can find reason for just about anything we want to pull, if we twist the logic enough. After all, if God’s clear and direct “thou shalt not kill” fails, Jesus’ “give unto Caesar” doesn’t stand a chance.
But I do understand the dilemma. Davis and her supporters hold a narrow view of rights and liberties. Discrimination exists. It occurs not when they deny legal rights to others, but when they are asked to abide by law under a democracy. American democracy is great, but only when the majority bow to their minority vision. Religious liberty is due, but only as it applies to their specific beliefs.
Have any of those protesting on behalf of Davis thrown their support behind Charee Stanley?
Oh — she’s a Muslim flight attendant for ExpressJet … or was, until she refused to serve alcohol based upon long established religious beliefs and was suspended by the airline.
There are, of course, people who took stands against the majority view and suffered jail time (or worse) for their troubles. But the battle for civil rights, say, is not the same as a few misguided zealots digging in their heels against the equal right to a civil function.
As Americans, Davis and her supporters must follow the law. When you think and ask yourself, again, you realize that.
