What we believe about God is not God; why is it a difficult concept to grasp?
The county clerk who obtained four marriage licenses for herself says she is denying marriage licenses to gay couples “under God’s authority.”
If that’s true, Kim Davis, the clerk of Rowan County, Kentucky, is seriously underemployed. Shouldn’t we send her directly to the Middle East?
It’s not true, of course. Davis, who soon might be unemployed for defying a less-than-Almighty judge’s order, is clearly acting under the authority of her own religious beliefs.
Why can’t she see the distinction?
“To issue a marriage license which conflicts with God’s definition of marriage, with my name affixed to the certificate, would violate my conscience,” Davis said in statement released by her attorney.
“I have no animosity toward anyone and harbor no ill will. To me this has never been a gay or lesbian issue. It is about marriage and God’s word.”
Fortunately, in a country founded on religious liberty, we don’t have to take Kim Davis’s word for God’s word.
She isn’t acting on God’s authority. She’s acting on her own particular understanding of God at this moment in her life.
Why is that such a difficult concept to grasp?
What each of us believes about God isn’t God.
What each of us understands about the authority of God or scripture or religious doctrine is just that: Our own understanding.
That understanding might be based on creeds or other formal or informal statements of belief made and shared by others.
It might be based on centuries of theological reflection and scholarship and consensus among others.
It might be based on the personal experiences or reasonings or understandings of others.
But all of that gets filtered through our own hearts, minds and souls. We think we’re right. We could be wrong.
That’s not moral relativism. That’s intellectual honesty and spiritual humility.
The history of religion is a history of people of faith changing their minds, beliefs, affiliations, practices and sanctions.
Laws (state and church) that once justified slavery and spousal abuse, and prohibited interracial marriage and adoption, were based on religious understandings and beliefs.
“Almighty God created the races white, black, yellow, malay and red, and he placed them on separate continents,” a Virginia county judge ruled in 1965.
“The fact that he separated the races shows that he did not intend for the races to mix.”
I wonder what made the judge’s white ancestors think God wanted them to invade the red one and enslave the black one?
It’s a load of racist rubbish, but it’s what Judge Leon Bazile believed when he upheld the conviction of a white man and a black woman for violating the state’s laws against interracial marriage.
Bazile was a lifelong Catholic. His own beliefs about interracial marriage were contrary to his church’s teachings that condemned such views.
Bazile clearly was operating under the authority of his own understanding of God. So is Davis. Our understanding of “God’s word” changes all the time.
Some believe God does not sanction abortion or birth control or divorce or gay marriage or sex outside of marriage. Others disagree.
Some believe God does not sanction the death penalty or war or economic disparity or allowing people to go hungry. Others disagree. Everyone can’t be right. Maybe we all need to carry around a little disclaimer:
“The religious views and opinions I express do not necessarily reflect the official views and opinions of the Almighty.”
Some have suggested that Davis is violating her own oath to God.
“I will not knowingly or willingly commit any malfeasance of office,” she said when she took the oath of her office, “and will faithfully execute the duties of my office without favor, affection or partiality, so help me God.”
At its root, the word ‘malfeasance’ merely means ‘wrongdoing.’ Davis might believe that violating her own conscience would be an act of malfeasance.
If that’s true, she should have the courage of her convictions and resign.
As someone who has been divorced three times and married four, she at least could acknowledge that she might change her mind.