The Clerk and the Good Book: What the Bible Says and Doesn’t Say About Gay Marriage
If you listen to the activists on either side of the Kim Davis ordeal, you’d think the United States was taking a page from the Muslim extremist playbook and persecuting (and in this case, prosecuting) Christians based upon their beliefs, or this is a new battle line in the war on marriage equality. It is, of course, neither. Davis is merely one of a very small minority of government workers refusing to honor the law of the land when it comes to gay marriage. She is being punished for that. Maybe she’s simply following the lead of our president, whose disdain for the law will be part of his legacy. But Davis, Kentucky’s Rowan County Clerk, has told us the reason she won’t issue marriage licenses to gay couples: she is a devout Christian, and believes she will go to hell if she has a hand in allowing gays to marry.
To unpack her biblical claims, I’d like to use my own Bible, given to me by my mother (and signed by an Episcopalian Bishop and our own Reverend, Ronald Joseph) upon my own confirmation some 37 years ago. (note: confirmation for Christians is an affirmation of the vows made at birth, and is usually done on or after your 12th birthday.) It is entitled Good News Bible, Today’s English Version. It’s a version of The Bible first published in 1966 by the American Bible Society, and “does not follow the traditional vocabulary and style found in the historic English Bible versions.” In other words, it skips the “thee’s” and the “ye’s,” and is written in plainspoken, modern English.
We must assume Mrs. Davis is basing her act of breaking the law first upon various passages in the Old Testament, or the first part of the Christian Bible, specifically the book of Leviticus. This book of the Bible is an ancient guide or manual of rituals and laws, and gets the most giggles in Sunday school for it’s very specific and graphic outline of intercourse and what it means to be “unclean,” among other things. For Mrs. Davis though — a self-proclaimed Apostolic Christian — Leviticus is deadly serious, and outlines the law of the land. The doctrine of the Apostolic Christian Church “is based on a literal interpretation of the Bible, which is recognized as God-inspired, infallible, and inerrant.” So it is my belief she is looking at certain chapters and verses of Leviticus as her spiritual guide. Look first at Leviticus 18:22:
“No man is to have sexual relations with another man;”
… and then Leviticus 20:13…
“If a man has sexual relations with another man, they have done a disgusting thing, and both shall be put to death.”
Leviticus is strictly talking about the act of intercourse though, not the act of loving someone of the same sex. And many Christians, including the Apostolics, use the Old Testament as counsel, and follow more closely the New Testament — the teachings of Jesus. This is important, because, like Mrs. Davis, Christians must accept Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior to be “saved,” — that is the acceptance of a Godly life and a rejection of a former life of sin.
So what does the New Testament say about homosexuality and marriage? The apostle Paul, in his letter to the Corinthians, 1:6–9, says:
“Surely you know that the wicked will not possess God’s Kingdom. Do not fool yourselves; people who are immoral…. or homosexual perverts… none of these will possess God’s Kingdom.”
Christians like Mrs. Davis point to the Gospel itself as proof that not only God, but Jesus recognized only one type of marriage — that between a man and a woman. From Matthew 19:4–5:
“Haven’t you read the scripture that says than in the beginning the Creator made people male and female? And God said, ‘For this reason a man will leave his father and mother, and united with his wife, and the two will become one.’”
To be clear, Jesus was answering a question from the Pharisees about divorce, not gay marriage.
There are many other Bible verses some Christians cite to uphold their beliefs that both homosexuality and gay marriage are sins. But not just any sins — the kind of sins that will keep them out of Heaven.
I can’t accept that, and for that reason I am quite sure Kim Davis and her supporters believe I am going to Hell along with the gays.
The God I talk with is a kind and merciful God. Jesus tells me in John 12:31–32:
“Now is the time in this world to be judged; now the ruler of this world will be overthrown. When I am lifted up from the earth, I will draw everyone to me.”
Everyone. In Mathew 7:1–2, Jesus says:
“Do not judge others, so that God will not judge you, for God will judge you in the same way you judge others, and he will apply to you the same rules you apply to others.”
And finally, a word about mercy. In James 2:8, and 12–13
“You will be doing the right thing if you obey the law of the Kingdom, which is found in the scripture, ‘Love your neighbor as you love yourself’… Speak and act as people who will be judged by the law that sets us free. For God will not show mercy when he judges the person who has not been merciful; but mercy triumphs over judgement.”
When Pope Francis comes to America, he will speak to this issue of mercy. I don’t know if Kim Davis will be listening from her jail cell, or wherever she may be. Non-Catholics don’t see the Pope as the “Vicar of Christ.” But a holy man’s message of mercy cannot be a bad thing in these times of turmoil.
Some Christians and non-believers alike could accuse me of cherry-picking Bible verses, just like Davis, to prove a point. But — like James — I believe “mercy triumphs over judgement.”
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