Who is Kim Davis?
Probably, by the time this editorial is read, few will remember Kim Davis. She is (or was) the elected clerk of Rowan County in northeastern Kentucky, along the edge of the Appalachian Mountains. She is a Democrat who was first elected in 2014 with 3,909 votes, or 53% of the vote. The county has 23,655 residents. Though on the job only since January 2015, Davis is hardly new to its demands. Her mother was the county clerk for 37 years, and Davis worked 27 years for her. Davis, 49, has spent her entire life in Rowan County. Davis refused to issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples, defying the U.S. Supreme Court ruling in June 2015 that legalized same-sex marriage. “It is not a light issue for me. It is a heaven or hell decision,” Davis said in a statement, citing her religion, which is Apostolic Pentecostalism. For this refusal, she was briefly thrown into jail for contempt of court, but released when her deputy clerks (including her son) agreed to issue marriage licenses for same sex couples. (There was some early confusion about the denomination she belonged to, as it was initially described as “Christian Apostolic”.) Her notoriety was further enhanced when it was revealed she had met privately with the Pope during his visit to the USA.
So what do Apostolic Pentecostals believe?
- Pentecostalism is a Christian movement that emphasizes a personal experience of God, including the miraculous gifts of the Holy Spirit and speaking in tongues. The movement grew out of the 1906 Azusa Street Revival in California and takes its name from Pentecost, when early Christians first received the gifts of the Holy Spirit, such as the ability to heal and prophesy.
- Apostolic Pentecostals then split from the rest of the movement in 1916 over a disagreement about the nature of the Trinity.
- Apostolic Pentecostals believe “Father,” “Son” and “Holy Spirit” aren’t three distinct persons, but three different titles for one person: Jesus.
- The group also believes you must speak in tongues to be saved, a practice known as glossolalia, which involves uttering a foreign language previously unknown to the speaker.
What does this have to do with Christadelphians?
The position of Christadelphians on same sex marriage, and homosexuality in all its forms, is quite clear: it is against the clear teachings of the Bible, and as such not to be countenanced among us. For example:
“God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them” (Gen 1:27).
“And the Lord God said, It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him an help meet for him… And Adam said, This is now bone of my bones, and flesh of my flesh: she shall be called Woman, because she was taken out of Man” (Gen 2:18,23).
“For we are members of his body, of his flesh, and of his bones. For this cause shall a man leave his father and mother, and shall be joined unto his wife, and they two shall be one flesh” (Eph 5:30-31).
Of course, this is not the first time Christadelphians have been faced with the legal or legislative system recognizing same sex marriage.
Same sex marriage elsewhere
The first legal same-sex marriages were performed in Ontario on January 14, 2001. The legality of the marriages was questioned and they were not registered until after June 10, 2003, when the Court of Appeal for Ontario upheld a lower court ruling which declared that defining marriage in heterosexual-only terms violated the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms. Thus Ontario became the third jurisdiction in the world (after the Netherlands and Belgium) as well as the first jurisdiction in the Americas to legalize same-sex marriage. On July 20, 2005, Canada became the fourth country in the world, and the first country outside Europe, to legalize same-sex marriage nationwide with the enactment of the Civil Marriage Act which provided a gender-neutral marriage definition.
In 2013, the British Parliament passed legislation to the effect that the law regarding “marriage” of same-sex couples will come into effect when the Marriage (Same Sex Couples) Bill and the Marriage and Civil Partnership (Scotland) Bill have passed through their respective Parliaments in England and Scotland and received the Royal Assent, which happened early in 2014. (It is worth noting that in both Canada and the USA it was the legal system that recognized same sex marriage, not the legislature.) However, the legislation did provide protection for those churches which opposed same sex marriage
The British Government proposed what it calls a “quadruple lock” of protective measures to “put this position utterly beyond doubt”, as follows:
- Ensuring that the legislation states explicitly that no religious organization, or individual minister, can be compelled to marry same sex couples, or to permit this to happen on their premises.
- Providing an “opt-in” system for religious organizations who wish to conduct marriages for same-sex couples.
- Amending the Equality Acts 2010 to reflect that no discrimination claims can be brought against religious organizations or individual ministers for refusing to marry a same-sex couple or allowing their premises to be used for this purpose.
- Ensuring that the legislation will not affect the Canon Law of the Church of England or the Church in Wales.
It should be noted that in both the USA and Canada, there is no such explicit protection for the views and beliefs of such churches as ourselves, who find homosexual conduct abhorrent and the very idea of same sex marriage against the explicit commandments of the Bible.
Lessons for us
So why did I start with Kim Davis? Much as you might recognize the strength of her convictions (although it is interesting she has been married four times), the very fact she is an elected official was what put her in the position to have to choose between the law of the land and the commandments of the Bible. In addition, she chose to make such a public stand, when she could simply have resigned her post. I believe this contrasts with our stand on conscientious objection, which says we are not to: “serve in the army, or as police constables, (or) take part in politics”. Not only that, the whole basis of this belief is primarily that we do not serve or bear allegiance to our government, but our allegiance is to our Heavenly Father and His Son.
We should not willingly put ourselves in a position, such as Kim Davis did, where we have to choose between the commandments of Christ and that of men. We are commanded:
“I exhort therefore, that, first of all, supplications, prayers, intercessions, and giving of thanks, be made for all men; For kings, and for all that are in authority; that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and honesty” (1Tim 2:1-2).
Or goal is to live at peace, not to call unnecessary attention to ourselves, but to ensure that we can help the purpose of our Lord “Who will have all men to be saved, and to come unto the knowledge of the truth” (1Tim 2:4). The way to live in peace is not to seek employment in areas we know are likely to call us to decide between serving our God or those who are in authority. Thus we do not willingly swear allegiance to any temporal authority: for example, the legal profession is not a common profession itself among our community (although there are exceptions, and potential within that profession to avoid problems.)
I have considered the topic of suitable occupations for Christadelphians before, at some length (See The Tidings, July 2013). However, I believe the lesson for us in the example of Kim Davis is to ensure we can live in peace in our present society, recognizing that the very recognition by society of such an immoral state as same sex marriage is a sign of the end. Indeed the decrease in God-fearing people and the willingness of our society to tolerate such evil was foreseen by Jesus:
“Because of the increase of wickedness, the love of most will grow cold, but the one who stands firm to the end will be saved” (Matt 24:12-13 NIV).
The Origin of the Organic World – Part One