Clerk Who Won't Issue Marriage License to Gay Couples Has Been Married 4 Times

[Errata]

My city wouldn't even let the atheist group buy ads that said "You can be good without G-d." It was deemed an "attack message."

I don't remember where I read it, but I once read that atheists give the most money to charity (US figures), and Jews are second. Roman Catholics were low on the list, and fundamentalist Christians were dead last. Mainline Protestants were in the middle, and I can't remember if they beat Muslims, but they were below Baha'is, and Buddhists. I don't think Satanists were on the list. Probably wasn't a choice, and they were part of the "other."

Of course, I suppose gifts to your own personal church didn't count.

RC's might be a little off, because they tithe (as do others to generally a lesser extent except fundamentalists are about the same), which goes to the church, which doesn't count as a charity. But Catholic Churches have their own charitable organizations within the church, so the money goes to charity, just in an indirect route. And Catholic charities tend to be far more materially useful than Fundamentalist or even Protestant ones. Like Catholics actually feed people. Fundamentalists pay a t.v. host to pray for people to get fed.

There is a Satanic priest on call at one of the local hospitals, because a bunch of people write down "Satanist" under religious preference because they don't want religious types in there and they think that the hospital can't find a satanist. Boy are they surprised. So they volunteer at least. They've also got a Druid, a Viking priest (Asatru godhi), and a Thelemite for the same reason. The Druid has to drive 45 minutes to get there, but he gets there. And then people feel bad for calling him in for nothing, so they just talk to him anyway, which they usually need pretty badly.

I got a call once from my dad's girlfriend at the time in Pastoral services asking "Do you know what a Pastafarian is, and can you get one in here?" Since I believe many things at the same time, and am knowledgeable both in His Noodley Beneficence and in pirates, I went in myself (because who on earth was I going to call). Guy wanted to go out laughing. So I called the Buddhist scholar in, who is also a stand up comic. Guy might have had a few more hours except for the Mitch Hedberg Bigfoot joke. If you gotta go, that's the way to do it.

[GUT]

My city wouldn't even let the atheist group buy ads that said "You can be good without G-d." It was deemed an "attack message."

I don't remember where I read it, but I once read that atheists give the most money to charity (US figures), and Jews are second. Roman Catholics were low on the list, and fundamentalist Christians were dead last. Mainline Protestants were in the middle, and I can't remember if they beat Muslims, but they were below Baha'is, and Buddhists. I don't think Satanists were on the list. Probably wasn't a choice, and they were part of the "other."

Of course, I suppose gifts to your own personal church didn't count.

No mention of Jews.

I know here that as a rule the Jews I know give through the synagogue

[Ginger]

I'm feeling a distinct lack of sympathy towards her. Like all elected officials in the US, she swore an oath to discharge the duties of her office to the best of her ability, in accordance with state and federal laws and the Constitution. A change in the law doesn't absolve her of responsibility to uphold the law.

[GUT]

My city wouldn't even let the atheist group buy ads that said "You can be good without G-d." It was deemed an "attack message."

I don't remember where I read it, but I once read that atheists give the most money to charity (US figures), and Jews are second. Roman Catholics were low on the list, and fundamentalist Christians were dead last. Mainline Protestants were in the middle, and I can't remember if they beat Muslims, but they were below Baha'is, and Buddhists. I don't think Satanists were on the list. Probably wasn't a choice, and they were part of the "other."

Of course, I suppose gifts to your own personal church didn't count.

That's what I would want to know before I'd give it any weight. also like most of these things where did they get the numbers? If off tax returns it will only reflect that giving that is tax deductible (and claimed).

[RivkahChaya]

My city wouldn't even let the atheist group buy ads that said "You can be good without G-d." It was deemed an "attack message."

I don't remember where I read it, but I once read that atheists give the most money to charity (US figures), and Jews are second. Roman Catholics were low on the list, and fundamentalist Christians were dead last. Mainline Protestants were in the middle, and I can't remember if they beat Muslims, but they were below Baha'is, and Buddhists. I don't think Satanists were on the list. Probably wasn't a choice, and they were part of the "other."

Of course, I suppose gifts to your own personal church didn't count.

[c.d.]

You are absolutely right. I remember a couple of years ago at Christmas time when an atheist group put up signs in the Washington, D.C. subway system that said "there might not be a God, so just be good for goodness sake" and some religious groups objected. Good grief. I can just see them saying to their kids "I better not catch you being good just because it is the right thing to do."

c.d.

[RivkahChaya]

Hello GUT,

I have a feeling that this is just the tip of the iceberg. This lady has martyr written all over her. It is very fashionable now for evangelical Christians to say that they are being persecuted.

c.d.

Even if they have to set themselves up. It is so annoying. There was never a war on Christmas. But for a while, people got really "I dare you to knock it off my shoulder" about wishing everyone they met a "Merry Christmas." I started wearing a huge Star of David during November and December, just to ward them off, and it didn't always work.

[c.d.]

Just on the radio here in Aus.

You know I think that this has the potential to become a huge issue over there, freedom of religion v contempt of Court (which is what she has been slotted for). I doubt this is the end of this issue.

Hello GUT,

I have a feeling that this is just the tip of the iceberg. This lady has martyr written all over her. It is very fashionable now for evangelical Christians to say that they are being persecuted.

c.d.

[GUT]

She is now in jail and her deputy clerks have promised the judge that they will issue marriage licenses.

http://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/kentucky-clerks-to-license-marriages-as-their-boss-is-jailed/ar-AAdUq1U

It seems as though she has no problem with still drawing her salary while not performing her job. Isn't that stealing?

c.d.

Just on the radio here in Aus.

You know I think that this has the potential to become a huge issue over there, freedom of religion v contempt of Court (which is what she has been slotted for). I doubt this is the end of this issue.

[c.d.]

She is now in jail and her deputy clerks have promised the judge that they will issue marriage licenses.

http://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/kentucky-clerks-to-license-marriages-as-their-boss-is-jailed/ar-AAdUq1U

It seems as though she has no problem with still drawing her salary while not performing her job. Isn't that stealing?

c.d.

[GUT]

Church ministers should be free to marry or refuse to marry anyone they please. But if she is a government or state employee, and she doesn't want to marry two gays, then she should resign.

Yes and yes.

Same thing would apply if, say, a woman Moslem drama teacher insisted she could teach her subject with her headgear on.

Do you mean would apply or should apply, it seems if your Muslim woman and want to cover your head and face no one says boo. That's descrimination

Re the bakers, it was they who had someone else's opinion imposed on them.

That's right,MIT was their shop if they lost customers or even had to close the business that should have been their choice, hey enough people may have felt the same as them that business may have even increased.

[Robert]

Church ministers should be free to marry or refuse to marry anyone they please. But if she is a government or state employee, and she doesn't want to marry two gays, then she should resign. Same thing would apply if, say, a woman Moslem drama teacher insisted she could teach her subject with her headgear on.

Re the bakers, it was they who had someone else's opinion imposed on them.

[RivkahChaya]

You would think that about pharmacists who don't want to dispense birth control, or the "morning after" pill, too, but nope. Christians think Jesus trumps everything, and that "freedom of religion" means that they should never have to do anything they don't want to.

Issuing marriage licenses to gay people isn't a form of worship of another deity. People of other faiths in the US either compromise or give up things all the time, but it's a concept entirely foreign to Christians.

[Limehouse]

She states that gay marriage 'goes against the teaching of Jesus' but he never, ever expressed such a view about homosexuality.

If she does not wish to issue licences for gay marriages, surely she should find another job?

[barnflatwyngarde]

In some denominations, no one cares if you've been married outside of the denomination-- those marriages, and therefore divorces don't count. If you've been married, but not as a Roman Catholic, you can still get married in the church, I'm pretty sure. If you're Jewish, and married, but it wasn't a Jewish wedding, then you don't need a "get," or Jewish divorce to be remarried as a Jew.

So if this judge has been married only once in her new Christian faith, in her mind, it may be her only real marriage, and in a sense (to her, at any rate), she's only been married once. If she belongs to a fundamentalist denomination in the US, there's no use arguing with her. They make their own rules. I dealt with people who belonged to these denominations when I was a social worker. It can be amazing what they make work in their worlds, but to them it makes perfect sense, and is right with their deity.

I'm sure this woman sees absolutely no contradiction or hypocrisy at all in her remarriages vs. gay marriages, and everyone at her church probably agrees with her. They also probably admire her for taking a stand for Jesus, and support her now that she's being "persecuted"-- something Christians secretly love, if you ask me. There aren't too many ways a Christian can be truly persecuted in the modern day (in the US at any rate), and so Christians don't get many opportunities to persevere in the face of it. They like to make these little crises that allow them their "persecutions," so they can be like the original Christians. That's how we had a war on Christmas.

Another example of the dangers in having an invisible friend!