Commentary by James Jordan, Sumner Newscow — The Kentucky county clerk who is in jail for contempt of court after refusing to hand out marriage licenses to gay couples is not a victim of religious persecution.

James Jordan

She is an elected official and has sworn to follow the law and uphold the law. She does not like the law that makes gay marriage legal, that’s fair enough. But that is her job.  She was jailed for contempt of court, but offered releases if she would not try to stop others in her office from issuing the licenses. She refused. So now she is in jail by choice.

People on both sides are trying to make this into a big issue, but it just bothers me for her to play the religious persecution card. It also bothers me for politicians to say this means Christians are now under attack.

The Christian thing for her to do – from a Biblical perspective – would be to resign. Maybe then she could say she lost her job for her religious beliefs. As it is, she is just disobeying the law and getting lots of publicity.

Right leaning politicians are saying its religious persecution and praising her for standing up for her beliefs.

Would they do the same for a Quaker who refused to issue concealed carry permits for religious reasons? What if she were refusing marriage licenses to interracial couples? There was a time when people felt this was morally wrong.

The list of possibilities is endless. This is far different than an individual standing up for his or her beliefs. As an elected public official, you have a duty to fulfill your role regardless of your beliefs. You cannot have an orderly society if officials can break the law because of their beliefs.

The second thing, and perhaps more importantly, the whole religious persecution thing bothers me.

This person was offered to be let out of jail. She is there by choice.

We need to realize what real religious persecution is. There are places in the world, if you convert to Christianity, you and your family will be murdered. There are places where Christians are rounded up and shot. There are probably places where that happens to Muslims too, as well as other religions around the world.

For hundreds of years people have been persecuted for their faith, killed for their faith.

In the first hundred years or so of Christianity, people were fed to the lions for their faith. They were crucified, stoned, beaten and all the rest. That is what religious persecution is.

The thing that marked the early Christians is, they did not object. They loved those that persecuted them, and prayed for them, like the Bible says. They suffered gladly.

It is also interesting to note, that the Apostle Paul, who wrote most of the New Testament, was often in jail for his faith. He was there for preaching the gospel. Some of the books of the bible were written by the Apostle Paul as he sat in jail.

He didn’t call attention to his sufferings, but rather said as a result of his being in jail the gospel was being spread to the guards and he praised God for that. He didn’t ask his friends to get him out of jail, but rather asked them to pray for those that jailed him, that they too might come to faith.

There is not much similarity between the Biblical example and those playing the persecution card.

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