In case you have been so busy clinging to the last days of summer that you haven't turned on a TV or perused the internets, let me briefly fill you in:
Kim Davis is a county clerk in Kentucky (say that five times fast) who has refused to issue marriage licences to gay and lesbian couples seeking one in her fine, fine state. This decision is in direct defiance of the Supreme Court ruling marriage is a benefit that everyone can lawfully take part in. Ms. Davis, however, feels that this decision goes against her personal moral safe zone and will not issue the licences. This decision has landed her in jail for contempt of court. She remains there as of tonight (Sunday the 7th), not willing to back down from her stance but also with no intention of quitting her job.
It is almost too easy to start pointing the finger at her personal choices, the irony in a woman who feels such conviction for the sanctity of marriage having entered in the blessed union four times. Divorce is most certainly frowned upon in the Bible. Having children out of wedlock is, also, another biblical rule that Ms. Davis has tossed aside. There is a saying about glass houses and it did not take very long for the world to take some Windex to the home this woman has built.
My main problem with her is this:
When I was a working woman, in a magical time before I had children, I was a work-a-holic. I often had two jobs and worked seven days a week. I liked my work, but I certainly did not always agree with every decision my superiors made. Some of those decisions hindered my work, made things more difficult in some way, or were down-right dumb. But I wasn't signing the paycheck, I was merely earning it, and the decisions were not mine to make. My job was to perform in the manner that was expected of me. I could think something was dumb but if I wanted to be paid, I sucked it up. There was even a time that I chose to leave a job because I disagreed so strongly with my superiors.
You should always stand up for what you believe in. If you believe that strip clubs objectify women, don't patronize them and, certainly, don't become a stripper. Becoming a fully-clothed stripper who only used the pole to lean on while reading chaste literary classics is not meeting the requirements of the job and will not make you any money. You can have your religious beliefs, and you can have a job. Your boss can't fire you just because you have your beliefs, and you are free to practice them as you will. It is not your privilege to not do you job because of those beliefs. You are not forced to work any particular job, and you are not forced to stay in any job that is not in line with those beliefs. But if you are not in charge, just collecting a paycheck versus signing them, that you are expected to carry out your job duties whether you believe in them or not. Kim Davis is not doing her job, and therefore should be relieved of her duties.
Of course, right now Kim Davis sits in a jail, gaining notoriety and, no doubt, crafting the first chapter of the book she'll
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