Republican presidential candidate John
Kasich said Sunday that Kentucky clerk Kim Davis should follow the
law.
Kasich, the governor of Ohio, weighed
in on the controversy surrounding Davis during an appearance on ABC's
This Week.
Davis, the elected clerk of Rowan
County, was jailed on Thursday after a judge found her in contempt
for failing to comply with his ruling ordering her to issue marriage
licenses to all qualified couples. Davis, an Apostolic Christian,
has said that issuing marriage licenses to gay and lesbian couples
would be a violation of her conscience.
The day after Davis was jailed, deputy
clerks at her office began issuing marriage licenses to gay couples.
“She's not running a church,”
Kasich
said. “I wouldn't force this on a church, but in terms of her
responsibility, I think she has to comply.”
He said that while he disagrees with
her jailing, Davis “should follow the law.”
“When we see these kind of battles
going on, I get a little bit afraid that it turns people off to the
idea of faith in God,” Kasich added. “I think we need to talk a
lot about the dues, about humility, about helping our neighbor, about
the need to live a life bigger than ourselves.”
Kasich's position stands in stark
contrast to at least six of his rivals for the GOP presidential
nomination. Texas Senator Ted Cruz, former Arkansas Governor Mike
Huckabee and former Pennsylvania Senator Rick
Santorum have been the most outspoken. Cruz
said that he stood by Davis “unequivocally,” Santorum
called her actions “heroic,” and Huckabee
is scheduled to lead a rally Tuesday in support of Davis.