As Kim Davis, the Rowan county clerk who had continuously refused to grant marriage licenses to couples, was taken into federal custody on Thursday, Christian public figures have responded with sympathy toward her situation and acknowledged that the situation is complex.
One of the major arguments against Davis' actions is that if she is to remain in her position as an elected county clerk, she ought to "do her job," or resign. Clerks of other counties have chosen to resign since the June 26 Supreme Court ruling. Davis chose to remain in her position because she wants to "continue to perform my duties," she said in a statement.
"I am also requesting what our Founders envisioned -- that conscience and religious freedom would be protected. That is all I am asking."
"I was elected by the people to serve as the County Clerk," she said. "I intend to continue to serve the people of Rowan County, but I cannot violate my conscience."
Albert Mohler, president of the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, said there are multiple complex questions that Davis' situation raises for Christians.
"How would a faithful congregation advise Mrs. Davis to fulfill her Christian commitment?" he posed in an article. "Should she remain in office and refuse to issue marriage licenses? Should she resign her office? Exhausting appeals to a higher court, should she now obey Judge Bunning's order? Should she defy that order and go to jail?"
"There is no automatically right answer to these questions," he continued. "Each can be rooted in Christian moral argument, and any one of these options might be argued as right under the circumstances."
Indeed, Mohler was not quick to simply condone Davis for her disobedience, but he said the major dilemma in the situation culminates in the question, "When is the Christian to obey and when must the Christian not obey government?"
"The Bible clearly commands that Christians respect the rightful authority of civil governments, understanding that the institution of human government is itself a part of God's design," he continued. "At the same time, the rightful power of government is not absolute. The Apostle Paul tells us to obey the government but Daniel and his friends were right to refuse to bow the knee to King Nebuchadnezzar."
Some argued that accommodations should be made for those with religious objections to same-sex marriages.
"There are better solutions available than the one in Kentucky that needlessly pits the rule of law against freedom of conscience," Russell Moore, the president of the Southern Baptist Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission, told the Baptist Press. "The governor and legislature of Kentucky could act to accommodate county clerks whose consciences object to issuing same-sex marriage licenses while still maintaining the rule of law."
Bethany Jenkins, director of a ministry of the Gospel Coalition called Every Square Inch, said not allowing such accommodations and simply expecting all such clerks with religious objections to resign may cause that vocation to seem "off-limits" to certain people.
"In a pluralistic society, entire professions can't be off-limits to people of particular faiths," she wrote in an article. "That's religious discrimination, and that's what the law protects against."
