Love Wins

Right now Kim Davis is sitting in a jail cell in Kentucky. She was charged with contempt of court by judge David Bunning for defying his order to issue marriage licenses to homosexual couples. Since the Supreme Court's decision in Obergefell, Judge Bunning's decision is lawful if not just. As a public servant, Kim Davis has to put her personal beliefs aside and issue marriage licenses to all who legally qualify.

I cannot help but admire and support Kim Davis for her depth of faith, and her willingness to suffer for it. As Antonin Scalia correctly predicted in his Obergefell dissent, the ruling will be used to "vilify Americans who are unwilling to assent to the new orthodoxy."

Rowan County stopped issuing marriage licenses for all couples, gay and straight. That way, they cannot be said to have been discriminating. And it helps bring into question exactly why the government is in the marriage business in the first place.

And when I say "government," I mean the federal government. The constitution doesn't enumerate a specific right to marry. Therefore, the Tenth Amendment specifies that that right is reserved for the states.

If radical progressives can convince people that the sanctified union of man and wife is actually a legally protected right, what else can they convince people of?

When Obamacare was being debated, I kept hearing people say that healthcare is a "right." Today, Obamacare is more or less settled law. And I am convinced that Obamacare is a Trojan Horse for a single-payer health system. Sooner or later, health insurance companies will be so heavily regulated as to be de facto government institutions. Think Fannie May, only with premiums instead of mortgage payments.

Then the government will fully control the health care of every single American. And they will also control the providers. They will hire the doctors and nurses, and set their compensation.

So what happens then? Doctors and nurses will be public servants, just like a DMV clerk issuing driver's licenses. Just like rural county clerks handing out marriage licenses.

Then it will be impossible for any doctor to refuse any treatment. If you are a doctor, and the government tells you to perform abortions at twenty weeks, you better do it, or go to jail for contempt. If the government tells you to perform genital reassignment on a five-year-old, well, you get the picture.

And one last word. Two of the couples who received marriage licenses yesterday were named in the media. April Miller, and her partner Karen Roberts have been together since 2004. James Yates and William Smith Jr. have been together since 2006. These were some of the people spitting the word "bigot" at Kim Davis.

Both couples have been considered married under common law anyway.

The only new thing they have created by pursuing a marriage license is a stronger faith among those who have been tempered by this experience.