John Corvino: "Religious Liberty Is Not A 'Get Out Of Your Job Free' Card"

John Corvino pens a guest op-ed for the Detroit Free Press on the current mess Kentucky County Clerk Kim Davis has created for herself.

Some highlights:

As a gay-rights advocate — and a gay man myself — I support her right to live in accordance with her religious convictions, even if that means not issuing marriage licenses to same-sex couples.

What I don't support is allowing her to continue collecting paychecks for an $80,000 a year state job which she declines to perform. If her conscience renders her unable to issue marriage licenses to those legally qualified, then the right thing for her to do is resign.

[snip]

In asking the court to grant Davis a religious exemption, her attorneys compared her to a conscientious objector being forced to go to war, for example, or an opponent of capital punishment being forced to participate in executions.

But these analogies fall flat. Unlike the conscientious objector, Davis is not being drafted into service against her will. She has chosen a job that requires her to grant licenses in accordance with civil law. She is no longer willing to do that.

[snip]

Private citizens are free to express their religious views about homosexuality — however hypocritically and inconsistently — and to practice their faith as they see fit. But religious liberty is not a "get out of your job free" card.