Jailed for Her Beliefs?

Kim Davis. Does the name sound familiar? Perhaps, you know her better as the Kentucky clerk who was defied the Supreme Court by refusing to issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples. According to her lawyers, issuing a marriage license to a same-sex couple “…irreparably and irreversibly violates her conscience…” A federal judge disagreed with her lawyers and sent her to jail. Apparently clerks in more than a dozen other counties are—or were—taking a similar stand. We've also seen Davis’ pre-Christian character publicly crucified. Such is the world in which we live. To be honest, I don’t exactly know how I would have handled being in her situation. This controversy, however, is causing me to think about boundaries and the lines drawn in our lives. We at times despise boundaries, but our world would be a disaster without them. Something as simple as a car crossing a yellow line can result in traumatic injuries. In the garden of Eden, God drew only one protective boundary: Don’t eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Despising the almost unlimited freedom given by God, Adam and Eve chose to ignore the one line that limited their actions. If we were to use the word free to describe the aftermath, it would have to be in the form of free fall. What a mess has resulted! Humanity’s attempt to erase our God-given boundaries has now resulted in many more constrictions. From tax laws to building codes to various restrictions of all sorts, we’re all feeling squeezed by out-of-control human rules and regulations. Our rebellion has also compelled God to establish boundaries with matters that were non-issues in the garden of Eden—wearing clothing, for example. The reality is that the more we attempt to erase boundaries given by God, the more constricted and chaotic our lives become. Still, we don’t seem to learn from our past mistakes. Officials from Hillsboro High School in Missouri recently agreed to allow a 17-year-old transgender male who identifies as a female to use the girls’ locker and restroom facilities instead of an alternate bathroom. According, to the Washington Post, “That simple act set off a firestorm of controversy.” That simple act? Is this really how far we’ve fallen? We're talking about a young man using a women's locker room! I’m having trouble even believing that this is even an issue, but once again, popular culture is attempting to rid itself of boundaries drawn for our protection. This is a situation in which no one wins. Not the female students of the school. Not the confused 17-year-old. Not our nation. No one wins. No one. Perhaps, in connecting the dots between the Supreme Court ruling and situations such as that in Hillsboro, Kim Davis is trying to play her part in challenging our humanistic attempts to cast off all God-given boundaries. Perhaps. Regardless of what we think about Kim Davis and the stand she’s taken, I think we’re beginning to understand that the idea of playing ostrich by burying our Christian heads in the proverbial sand is no more than a myth. Like the shy pubescent girl in Hillsboro High School who, while putting on her gym clothes, suddenly finds a 17-year-old male in her locker room, cultural shifts are coming to us whether we want to face them or not. Consequently, I can’t help but ask, where will you draw your lines? http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/morning-mix/wp/2015/09/02/a-transgender-teen-used-the-girls-locker-room-now-her-community-is-up-in-arms/   photo credit: DSCF0077 via photopin(license)