An Open Letter to Kim Davis

Dear Ms. Davis:

As you occupy your jail cell, contemplating your next move, let's set the record straight: you are a public official, paid by taxpayers and therefore your personal religious beliefs are completely irrelevant and insignificant as relating to issuing marriage licenses to same-sex couples. America's Founding Fathers took great pains to ensure that America would be governed under the rule of law, not by the authority of God.

You have no inalienable rights here under the United States Constitution. In fact, the Constitution protects the very people you are discriminating against, not you. The Supreme Court has affirmed that fact, despite your ignorance, intolerance and ill-advised protestations.

We have laws in America which we all must abide by. We can't arbitrarily decide which laws to follow and which ones to ignore. That's called chaos. Let me ask you this, Kim: in a country founded on the principle of separation of church and state and religious pluralism, would any of the following situations be acceptable to you?:

-can an Orthodox Jew refuse to issue marriage licenses to reform and conservative Jews because, according to his religious belief, these are not "real Jews?"

-can a radical Mormon insist on issuing licenses to polygamists?

-can a devout Catholic county clerk refuse to issue you a marriage license after your next (4th) divorce because he believes that marriage is sacred and considers you a sinner? 

-can an Atheist refuse to issue licenses to Christians because her religious belief is that organized religion is the root of all evil?

These situations are as absurdly unconstitutional as your attempt to deny gays their legal right to marry because of your personal religious beliefs. The irony is, as a thrice divorced "traditional marriage" proponent, you have degraded this institution more than any gay couple likely ever will. No one's stood in the way of your choice to marry four times. How dare you prevent others from marrying?

To be sure, we will never allow people like you to ram your extremist dogma down our throats or deny us our inalienable rights. So if that's unacceptable to you...if you feel you can't perform your job because of your devout religious beliefs... then quit and find another job. Or, as U.S. District Court Judge David L. Bunning ordered Thursday, you can defiantly rot in jail in contempt.