Mat Staver, head of the Christian
conservative Liberty Counsel and the attorney representing Kentucky
clerk Kim Davis, warned Wednesday that marriage equality without
religious accommodations is tantamount to Christians being banned
from public office.
Davis, the elected clerk of Rowan
County, served five days in jail for refusing to comply with a
federal judge's ruling ordering her to issue marriage licenses to all
qualified couples. Davis has said that issuing marriage licenses to
gay and lesbian couples would violate her conscience.
Appearing on FRC President Tony
Perkins' Washington Watch radio program, Staver agreed with
Perkins' criticism of some Republican presidential candidates who say
Davis should either do her job or resign.
“That would establish a reverse
religious test where if you hold an orthodox religious view of
marriage, you would be barred from holding public office,” Perkins
claimed.
“But if what we do is follow the
advice of some of these Republican candidates that say she needs to
resign, well what does that mean?” Staver
rhetorically asked. “That means that Kim Davis and anyone else
who is an elected official … that means you have to check your
faith at the ballot box. And once you're elected, you have to change
your faith, put it aside, transgress it, you cannot have your
conscience accommodated. 'No more Christians need to run for
office,' that's essentially the message. And if you're in office you
need to resign your post immediately. Now what kind of America is
that? It's certainly not the America that the Founders envisioned
and I don't think it's the kind of America that most people want.”