The wider issues cascading out of the Kim Davis event in the United States are probably going to occupy our attention for a stretch. Whilst the particularities of this situation will fade, the fundamental principles at stake are, well, fundamental and so require Christians to think about them seriously.
OK, for those who have just joined us, the essential "facts of the matter" are these:
1. Kim Davis had been jailed for contempt of court for refusing to grant marriage licenses to homosexual "couples". She had refused on the grounds of Christian law and doctrine. In taking this action she has set herself and her office against the "command" of the US Supreme Court.
2. Davis has been "elected as Rowan County [Kentucky] clerk in November to replace her mother, who retired. As an elected official, Kim Davis cannot be fired, but the state Legislature can impeach her. That's unlikely in a state where many lawmakers agree with her position and won't meet in regular legislative session until January." [USA Today]
Some are asking, why does she just not resign? Here is where the matter gets more complicated--and it is the complication which is the really important part. All Christians should listen up and and take notice.
Imagine you were employed by company that required you to entertain out-of- town clients at the local brothel. You, being a faithful Christian, said you would not carry out such a "placement" because your religious faith prohibited being a party to, or a facilitator of, fornication and adultery of all kinds. Your manager threatened to fire you on the grounds that your were failing to fulfil the duties of your position. Faced with the reality that you were about to lose your job, you resign. [Incidentally, for those of our readers who do not know the business world, this kind of circumstance is not uncommon in some industries. Piece of advice: declare your Christian oaths and loyalties early on--in the employment interview, for example.]
Most Christians would commend your faithfulness, your courage, and would stand with you. They would also want to see some redress come down upon the perverted company for which you formerly worked. But that aside, you would have acted as a faithful Christian and that's the end of the matter.
But now let's extend the analogy a bit. Imagine if the company for which you worked was a branch office. The owner of the company (your ultimate employer) had published a company code-of-conduct, part of which required that no employees, on behalf of the company or by the company's behest, must engage in any publicly shameful behaviour. In that case should you have resigned, or should you have had a fight with your manager--which necessarily would have included a whistle-blowing appeal to the company's owner?
Again, most Christians would answer, no, you ought not to have resigned. You should resist, and be a whistle-blower. You had a overlocking duty to your ultimate employer and to your God. Who knows if God had not appointed you to be in such a position for just such a time.
It is the second part of the analogy that corresponds most closely to Kim Davis's situation. She is (and still is) an officer appointed by the state legislature to carry out its will, policies, and laws. She understands and apparently believes that she must do as her employer requires; she also believes that the higher law of Christ requires that she not be a party to evil. Therefore, she should be supported by Christians, in the same way that most Christians would support an appeal by the grieved employee to the final authority--the ultimate owner of the company.
Of course it is perfectly possible that the state legislature, upon considering the matter, may decide that its will is that Davis indeed certify homosexual "marriages" on their behalf. In such a case, Davis ought to resign her position. She would have engaged in lawful resistance; her conscience is clear and her duty has been done. Maybe she should then throw her efforts into ensuring that a more ethical and faithful state legislature be elected.
Swirling around these issues are the dark matter of suppressed premises, drawing upon the wider ethical and religious matters. For example, do Christians have a duty to engage in lawful resistance against ungodly government and tyrannical powers? We will turn to these matters in ensuing posts. However, in the meantime, we ought to meditate upon a clear message coming to us from our Lord out of the book of Daniel. Here believers--our forebears in the faith and the Covenant--were serving in the pagan governments of Babylon and the Medo-Persians.
When ordered to do something that was wrong--and in direct rebellion against our God--they refused. They lawfully rebelled and resisted an ungodly act by pagan tyrants, even though they were employed by the same as his servants and officials. Nebuchadnezzar ordered all his officials to fall down and worship a golden image he had set up, on pain of being immolated alive if they refused. Three believers in the Lord God refused, and lawfully resisted the king:
Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego answered and said to the king, “O Nebuchadnezzar, we have no need to answer you in this matter. If this be so, our God whom we serve is able to deliver us from the burning fiery furnace, and he will deliver us out of your hand, O king. But if not, be it known to you, O king, that we will not serve your gods or worship the golden image that you have set up.” [Daniel 3: 16-18 Emphasis, ours.]And, again, Daniel was later caught in a similar cleft:
Then these presidents and satraps came by agreement to the king and said to him, “O King Darius, live for ever! All the presidents of the kingdom, the prefects and the satraps, the counsellors and the governors are agreed that the king should establish an ordinance and enforce an injunction, that whoever makes petition to any god or man for thirty days, except to you, O king, shall be cast into the den of lions. Now, O king, establish the injunction and sign the document, so that it cannot be changed, according to the law of the Medes and the Persians, which cannot be revoked.” Therefore King Darius signed the document and injunction.There are a lot of parallels between these incidents and the case of Kim Davis. Those professing Christians who have rapidly distanced themselves from Davis ought to tread carefully lest they be found gathered amongst the pagan satraps.
When Daniel knew that the document had been signed, he went to his house where he had windows in his upper chamber open towards Jerusalem. He got down on his knees three times a day and prayed and gave thanks before his God, as he had done previously. Then these men came by agreement and found Daniel making petition and plea before his God. Then they came near and said before the king, concerning the injunction, “O king! Did you not sign an injunction, that anyone who makes petition to any god or man within thirty days except to you, O king, shall be cast into the den of lions?” The king answered and said, “The thing stands fast, according to the law of the Medes and Persians, which cannot be revoked.” Then they answered and said before the king, “Daniel, who is one of the exiles from Judah, pays no attention to you, O king, or the injunction you have signed, but makes his petition three times a day.”
Then the king, when he heard these words, was much distressed and set his mind to deliver Daniel. And he laboured till the sun went down to rescue him. Then these men came by agreement to the king and said to the king, “Know, O king, that it is a law of the Medes and Persians that no injunction or ordinance that the king establishes can be changed.”
Then the king commanded, and Daniel was brought and cast into the den of lions. The king declared to Daniel, “May your God, whom you serve continually, deliver you!” And a stone was brought and laid on the mouth of the den, and the king sealed it with his own signet and with the signet of his lords, that nothing might be changed concerning Daniel. Then the king went to his palace and spent the night fasting; no diversions were brought to him, and sleep fled from him.
Then, at break of day, the king arose and went in haste to the den of lions. As he came near to the den where Daniel was, he cried out in a tone of anguish. The king declared to Daniel, “O Daniel, servant of the living God, has your God, whom you serve continually, been able to deliver you from the lions?” Then Daniel said to the king, “O king, live for ever! My God sent his angel and shut the lions' mouths, and they have not harmed me, because I was found blameless before him; and also before you, O king, I have done no harm.” Then the king was exceedingly glad, and commanded that Daniel be taken up out of the den. So Daniel was taken up out of the den, and no kind of harm was found on him, because he had trusted in his God. And the king commanded, and those men who had maliciously accused Daniel were brought and cast into the den of lions—they, their children, and their wives. And before they reached the bottom of the den, the lions overpowered them and broke all their bones in pieces. [Daniel 6: 6-24]
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