CONTACT: J.P. Duffy or Alice Chao, (866) FRC-NEWS or (866)-372-6397
GRAYSON, KY – This afternoon, Family Research Council (FRC) President Tony Perkins met with Kim Davis, the county clerk jailed by a federal judge because she declined to issue same-sex marriage licenses. Davis was just released from jail today. Following the meeting, he addressed the ##ImWithKim rally of supporters outside the jail and made, in part, the following remarks:
“There is a grave misconception that has been recently fostered in this country that religious liberty is simply the freedom to pick the church of your choice. The misconception is that you have the ability to believe as you wish within the four walls of that church and between your two ears, as long as you don’t speak about it in public.
“Think about that for a moment. Do you really think William Bradford and the Pilgrims came just seeking to move their church membership? Were there not any churches a little closer that that would not have resulted in so many of them dying that first winter in Plymouth?
“They came for what Kim Davis is standing for. They came for the ability to live their lives according to their Christian faith. Let me cite for you just a portion of the Mayflower compact, one of our nation’s organic documents.
‘Having undertaken, for the glory of God, and advancement of the Christian faith …. in the presence of God, and one of another, covenant and combine ourselves together into a civil body politic.’
“They didn’t come here to set up a church, they came here to set up a country.
“If you are a Christian, a true follower of Jesus Christ, I want you to hear me today. Scripture tells us we are to submit to those in authority. There should be no better citizens than Christians. But Scripture does not stop there. As the disciples, those closest to Jesus, made clear: when the arbitrary edicts of man conflict with the explicit instructions of God, we cannot, we must not submit, no matter the cost.
“Building upon the legal maxim of Church Father St. Augustine, Martin Luther King, Jr. wrote in his famous letter from a Birmingham Jail: ‘One has not only a legal but a moral responsibility to obey just laws. Conversely, one has a moral responsibility to disobey unjust laws.’
“It is time for Christian leaders who hold positions of public trust to resist the edicts of unelected and virtually unaccountable rulers who issue unjust edicts that conflict with the truth of God.
“Jesus said, blessed are the peacemakers, he did not say blessed are the pacifists. Peace comes through strength and strength comes from standing for the Lord.
“I leave you with what has become the prophetic words spoken by President Ronald Reagan in August of 1984: ‘Without God, there is no virtue, because there's no prompting of the conscience. Without God, we're mired in the material, that flat world that tells us only what the senses perceive. Without God, there is a coarsening of the society. And without God, democracy will not and cannot long endure. If we ever forget that we're one nation under God, then we will be a nation gone under.’
“We must not let that happen on our watch,” concluded Perkins.
Over Labor Day weekend, more than 35,000 signed Family Research Council’s petition calling on Kentucky Governor Steve Beshear “to immediately issue an accommodation to Kim Davis that will free her from jail.”
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