I do solemnly swear.

I was thinking today about the number of times that I raised my hand and repeated the oath of enlistment into The United States Navy.  Four times total I raised my hand and swore the oath

"I, Gary Fowler, do solemnly swear that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic; that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same; and that I will obey the orders of the President of the United States and the orders of the officers appointed over me, according to regulations and the Uniform Code of Military Justice. So help me God."

Each time that I swore this oath I had a deep feeling of patriotic pride.  And never once did I take lightly just exactly what I was doing.  Every man and woman that joins the United States Military must take this oath.  Sometimes, although rarely, after a young man or woman takes this oath and begins their training they come to the realization that their personal convictions are actually very counter to what it is exactly that we may at some point have to do.  While it is true that as a fighting man or woman in the United States Military we all may have our specific job, (the military, just like everything else in life is very specialized now), the simple truth is that when all of our jobs are combined they form into a very well oiled machine, truly a force to be reckoned with.  So once in a great while a young man or young woman will realize that in fact they are what is termed a “conscientious objector”.  Or in other words they cannot fathom taking the life of another person under any circumstance.  These individuals will be examined by numerous psychologists and psychiatrists.  They will interview with military Chaplains.  They will go before a board of multiple senior military officers and be questioned and given numerous scenarios under which they are asked “what would you do if……”.  The “if” here often includes things like what if your mother, or daughter, or wife, or sister were being raped and beaten and you were the first person on sight and could actually end it simply with the shot of a rifle, what would you do?  They are often tricked and possibly confused.  But it is in those moments that the real individual and his true core will be seen.  If he or she is truly a conscientious objector it will be seen.  He or she will be allowed to leave the military still under honorable conditions.  These people are often criticized by others in the military and those that were never in the military.  But me, I actually salute them.  They stand by their convictions.  Which brings me to this county clerk in Ashland, Kentucky.

I understand where she is coming from.  To her, marriage is between one man and one woman.  I get it.  Totally.  Really, I do.  She says that she just can’t issue marriage licenses to gay couples, that it totally goes against her convictions.  I 100% support her right to have those convictions.  But it is there that I draw the line.

She is an elected official.  After she won her position in an open election I am almost certain that she took an oath.  While I do not know the oath that she likely took, I am confident that it was about serving the citizens of and upholding the laws of her county.  She does not get to choose which laws she upholds.  She does not get to force her convictions on the people of that county.  No, she must uphold all of the laws.  She must perform the job to which the people of that county elected her to do.  And I get it that perhaps a large portion of that county prescribes to and supports her convictions regarding this matter.  But that also is not part of the equation.  It is the law of the land.  Period.  She must perform her job.  As witnessed today her options were to perform her job or be held in contempt of court.  She sits in jail now upholding her convictions.  The judge in this matter I suspect will find a way for those licenses to be issued.  He will uphold the law.

I know that some of you may be sitting there shaking your head in disbelief that I could take this position.  My only comment to you is that if you really knew me, you would know that this is exactly the position that I would take.  And my question to you is why do you also not take this position.  Let me tell you the precedence that her actions could set.  Let me explain to you the can of worms that could be opened by allowing her to operate under her convictions versus the law of the land. 

If she is allowed to operate under her convictions what is to prevent a person, any person that holds religious beliefs so counter to our Christian/Judeo belief system that we would find them to be repulsive from seeking and perhaps getting elected to local office.  And then operating that office built on the convictions of their beliefs.  Simply put, would you want a truly deeply convicted Muslim holding office and suddenly operating that office under the guise of Sharia Law?

I suspect not.

I do realize what I just said.  So to my Muslim friends please read the whole of what I said.  I don’t apologize for what I said, but please don’t misquote me on this matter.  If you want to quote me, quote all of me, not just part. 

We do not support Sharia Law.  Sharia Law is not the law of this land.  But if this clerk is allowed to operate under her convictions versus upholding the law of the land this sets the precedence for what I just described to happen.  And then where is your support going to be?  Is this what you want?  Is this the direction that you think our great nation should take?  Again, I suspect not.  Our nation is great because of our constitution.  Yes it is true, or at least I believe it is true, that our nation and our laws were built on the foundation of Judeo / Christian beliefs.  Still, the first amendment to the constitution was written, passed, and ratified to prevent religious tyranny. 

So that I am understood I will repeat again what I have said here once already.  I absolutely, 100% support this county clerks right to hold the convictions that she has.  But she also has an obligation to perform the duties of the office for which she was elected.  I understand that at the time that she was elected same sex marriage was not legal across our land.  But now it is.  She doesn’t have to like it.  YOU do not have to like it.  But it is the law of the land.  If you don’t like it, then get it changed, but do so legally, within the confines of the law, and do it as the Christian that you say you are, which by the way includes that whole Judge not that ye be not judged thing.  It is not my job to pass judgment on anyone for any reason.  I was taught and try to practice love as taught and shown by my Savior, The Lord Jesus Christ.  He sat and ate with the tax collectors.  He showed love and forgiveness to the woman at the well.  He ordered an entire village “He without sin cast the first stone”.  Personally, I do not qualify to cast the first stone.

It is my job to show Christian love.  If judgment is called for that judgment belongs to God the Father.  The clerk in Kentucky simply needs to do her job.  She does have a choice.  She can choose to stand on her convictions.  But if this is what she chooses, she simply needs to resign her position stating that the requirements of the job goes so harshly against her personal convictions that she cannot properly perform the duties of the job.  There is no shame there.  In such a move is seen both humbleness and it boldly proclaims where she stands and to what distance she is willing to go to stand on her convictions.  But refusing to perform the job that she was elected to do.  This is not noble, nor is it right.  It is however illegal, and for that tonight she sits in jail.

I wish her luck.  I pray for her.