Clerk forcing those who pay her salary to live according to her views

A letter to The Sun-News on Aug. 7 claims people were kinder back in the 50s and 60s. I don’t remember a lot of kindness from the troopers on the Pettus Bridge in Selma.

The crowd screaming at same-sex couples in front of the Rowan County courthouse seems very similar to the crowd screaming at black children on the steps of Little Rock Central High School.

The murderers of Medgar Evers, the little girls in the fiery church, and the freedom riders were certainly no paragons of human kindness. There was a lot of bad in the good old days.

As for that “good Christian woman” in Kentucky, if every person can decide for themselves which laws or court orders they will or will not obey, whatever their reason, where does it end? Chaos.

Citizens have a right to expect officials to perform their duties. They should not have to shop from office to office or county to county to find someone willing to do their job.

If someone has a moral objection to their job requirements, the ethical thing to do is to resign. It is certainly not moral to expect taxpayers to continue paying you while you refuse to do what you were elected or appointed to do.

There is a line between practicing what you believe and forcing others to practice what you believe. In withholding services, Davis was forcing all the citizens of Rowan County to live according to her view of the Bible. No one gets to defend their civil rights by denying civil rights to others.

Anyone has the right to disagree with a law or a court order, but disobedience has consequences. Thoreau found that out. So did King and Parks. Now so has Davis.

The writer lives in Myrtle Beach

This story was originally published September 6, 2015 at 1:27 PM with the headline "Clerk forcing those who pay her salary to live according to her views."