I’ve been asked many times recently my opinion about Kim Davis, the Kentucky County Clerk who was jailed (but now released) for her refusal to issue marriage licenses for gay couples as ordered by the courts.  She went so far as to refuse to issue any marriage licenses at all, so that she would not appear to be discriminatory.

Let me start by saying that I understand her and agree with much of her stand.  I, too, would not want to issue marriage licenses in that situation.  It would violate my conscience and I would not want to do it. But she is in direct conflict with the courts and with the county’s need, according to Kentucky law, for the county to issue marriage licenses.

So I don’t agree completely with her stand.  Let me explain why.

Fairly consistently, in the past, courts have dealt with religious liberty by insisting that employers have the responsibility to offer reasonable accommodation of religious beliefs.  If it is not overly burdensome or expensive, a company has to do what they can to accommodate a person’s sincerely held religious belief.  It can mean that an employer should expend a reasonable effort to adjust schedules, dress codes, and policies to reflect the beliefs of their employees. According to the courts, they don’t have to go to extreme costs or cause undue hardship for other employees or the public, but they have to make a good faith effort.

Let me give you an example from my own life.  When I was in seminary, I delivered pizza for a living.  In my area, there were a row of “strip joints.”  I didn’t want to deliver pizza there, so I told my boss that it would bother my conscience to go into one of them. He knew I was a Christian and that I was going to school to be a pastor, and he told me that he would do whatever he reasonably could so that I wouldn’t have to go into one of them.  He would send another driver or put me in the kitchen and let someone else deliver if it were all possible.  But, he warned me, that if no one else was available, I would have to go.  Since other drivers openly wanted to go to those establishments, it wasn’t much of a problem.  But one time (and one time only), the issue came up and I had to go–or quit.  With a red face and with my back to the stage, I went and delivered the pizza.  My boss had offered reasonable accommodation to my beliefs and tried to get someone else.  But when there was no other person, I agreed to deliver the pizza.  He respected my beliefs.  And I respected his need to get the pizza delivered within a certain time guarantee.  I had at least two more options:  I could have refused and been fired.  Or I could have quit on the spot.  I chose to do my job and pray that it wouldn’t come up again.  It didn’t.

So what would be reasonable accommodation in the much more serious Kentucky situation?

The clerk, Kim Davis, could have decided not to personally issue marriage certificates, but allow one of her deputy clerks to do so.  (Most of them are on record saying that they would be willing to do so.) That would have been a reasonable accommodation to this situation.  She would not have to personally violate her religious conscience.  But her office would still follow the law and she would be abiding by her oath to follow the law of the land.   (I know that we don’t like the law-of-the-land as it stands, but our constitution calls for the courts to interpret the constitution and our laws.  I disagree with their interpretation.  But it is the law.)

She chose not to allow her deputies to issue the certificates because the certificates would still have her name on them.  You can judge whether that would be a problem for you, but it was for her.  So there is still another option.  She could have redesigned the marriage certificates to have only her title and not her name on them, and then allow her deputies to fill them out.  She wasn’t sure this was legal; it would certainly be a worthwhile question for lawyers and the courts to decide, because her employer (her county) does have a legal right to offer reasonable accommodation to her.  And she has the legal responsibility to offer marriage certificates to legally qualified couples. There should be a way–short of absolute refusal and short of jail time–to offer the needed service to the residents of the county and to respect her religious beliefs.

Of course, there is still another option.  She could resign her position.  (Firing her is not an option, since she is an elected official.  And she probably won’t be impeached or recalled, because she has the support of the majority of people and the State legislature.)

But this is a fight that didn’t need to happen.  I think her county would work with her to offer reasonable accommodation and the courts would insist on it as they have in the past.  There are ways for her to follow her conscience and still do her job as the County Clerk.

To refuse to do her job and to still hold office (and take the salary) is not the right option.

There are times in which Christians are going to have to stand by their rights and then be fired. There are times in which we are going to have to quit.  And there may be times in which we hold our heads up and go to jail.

But, sadly, this is not one of those times. And this is not the way to fight a law we do not like.