With Kim Davis and all her supporters screaming about being oppressed, there is a nice little quiz that they should consider taking. It first appeared a few years ago in the Huff Po, but has not remained static and has been updated.
Here is a sample of the first few questions …
2. My religious liberty is at risk because:
A) I am not allowed to marry the person I love legally, even though my religious community blesses my marriage.
B) Some states refuse to enforce my own particular religious beliefs on marriage on those two guys in line down at the courthouse.
3. My religious liberty is at risk because:
A) I am being forced to use birth control.
B) I am unable to force others to not use birth control.
4. My religious liberty is at risk because:
A) I am not allowed to pray privately.
B) I am not allowed to force others to pray the prayers of my faith publicly.
Hint: If you are answering B to anything in that quiz, then the problem is not your religious liberty being at risk, it is you.
It is all rather simple, it truly is …
- Freedom means that you are free to believe whatever you wish to believe, even if nobody else believes it
- What it does not mean, and has never meant, is that you can impose your beliefs on anybody else … ever.
Kim Davies is indeed quite free to believe that being an obnoxious homophobic bigot is the high moral ground, and she is also well within her rights to refuse to personally issue a marriage license. Where she gets it totally wrong is that she has refused to step aside and permit a colleague to fulfil the request for a license and has instead dictated that none of her staff may do so. The net effect is that her personal beliefs suddenly become official state policy within her specific office, and that is wholly wrong, both legally and also ethically.