Jesus, Caesar, marriage
To the editor:
The conflict between a Kentucky county clerk’s personal beliefs, legislative enactments, as well as court decrees is a case now receiving intense media attention. First, the U.S. Constitution guarantees us freedom of religion.
Without a new amendment, that right can not be abridged. Second, does the clerk realize she has an out?
If she will read the Gospels she will come upon the times when Jesus’ detractors presented him challenges in the hopes that his responses would give them cause to put him onto the cross immediately. A question posed by his detractors was akin to that facing the clerk, and those charged with carrying out Kentucky’s legislative decree.
The question asked Jesus as to whose will a person should follow: God’s, or Caesar’s? Jesus gave a simple answer: to paraphrase, “Render unto Caesar that which is his. Render unto God that which is his.” Very simply put. The clerk may carry out Caesar’s, or the Kentucky Legislature’s decree, because it is not her personal decision to issue a marriage license to same-sex couples. This knowledge fits in very well with her prescribed duties to which she was sworn at the time she took the job.
Within all the uproar her decision is causing, there have been no reports of people pointing out the clerk had an out and did not need to challenge the law to maintain her personal belief.
Dana Allison
Castle Hill
