Why Did Pope Francis Meet with Kim Davis?

Last updated on: October 2, 2015 at 12:05 pm by Nancy French

Why Did Pope Francis Meet with Kim Davis? 2015-10-02T12:05:34-05:00 Nancy French

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On his high-profile tour of America, Pope Francis made time in his jam packed schedule to meet with Kim Davis, the Kentucky clerk who went to jail for not issuing marriage license to same-sex couple.

David French at National Review has more:

The reports are true. The Left’s favorite pope met with the Left’s most-hated county clerk. The world’s most powerful and influential religious leader met with Rowan County clerk Kim Davis, reportedly thanking her for her courage and telling her to “stay strong.” In so doing he rebuked two narratives that have sadly taken hold amongst many orthodox Christians. First, that Kim Davis was fundamentally out of line when she defied a lawless judiciary and refused to issue same-sex marriage licenses. And second, that Davis herself — a rural Kentuckian with a checkered past — is the wrong messenger at the wrong time.

Many people, including Christians have, claimed that Kim Davis should have simply resigned her position. But David asks if there are times when people should “choose to resist the lawless acts of his superiors?”

He answers:

Protestant Christian tradition certainly says yes. Catholic tradition certainly says yes. American tradition says yes. Just ask the public officials who ignored the Supreme Court’s odious Dred Scott decision. Resign or comply with Japanese internment? Resign or comply with abortion-on-demand? Even in the marriage debate itself, the Left celebrated numerous public officials who disregarded their legal duties and resisted what they believed to be lawless bans on same-sex marriage.

Since “resign or comply” is unsustainable as an absolutist moral framework, the more meaningful debate is whether the principles at stake in Davis’s case are important enough to resist to the point of civil disobedience. Let’s have that argument instead of simply declaring, “Do your job.” But if protesting judicial supremacy and defending rights of conscience aren’t worth a small act of defiance that didn’t actually deprive a single American of a marriage license, then we hold those values cheaply indeed. Pope Francis, however, has sent a powerful message — religious freedom is worth going to prison to defend.

And what about those who say that because of Kim Davis’ rocky past she shouldn’t be the one to fight this issue?

Further, by meeting with Davis, the pope implicitly rejects the argument that she is the wrong woman for this fight. As a pastor, the pope understands redemption, and he knows that our past sins can’t and shouldn’t cripple our present moral resolve. Christian history is full of examples of men and women who were lost in their own sin and depravity yet emerged — by the grace of God — to offer a powerful witness. Just ask the Apostle Paul. He was an accessory to murder. Just ask Augustine, whose Confessions is littered with examples of his own egregious sins.

Read more of David’s thoughts in his full article.

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