In a move sure to highlight the limits of freedom of conscience and religion, one New York town clerk is saying she’ll refuse to sign any documents relating to a same sex marriage.
Something like this is great for your soul but it’s probably bad for your career prospects.
The Politico reports:
New York’s gay weddings victory lap has not extended to all parts of the Empire State, with a rural town clerk determined to not sign any same-sex marriage licenses.
Barbara MacEwen, the town clerk in upstate Volney who is responsible for signing marriage licenses in the town, said she’s morally opposed to same-sex weddings and does not intend to affix her signature to any marriage documents for gay or lesbian couples.
“If there’s any possible way to not do it legally, then yes, I would not want to put my name on any of those certificates or papers,” MacEwen told POLITICO. “That’s their life, they can do it, but I don’t feel I should be forced into something that’s against my morals and my God.”
MacEwen said she’s written her state senator — Republican Patty Ritchie, who voted against legalizing gay weddings — to determine her legal options.
While the legislation Gov. Andrew Cuomo signed late Friday night includes exemptions for religious organizations that disapprove of same-sex couples, it does not extend such protections to public officials.
Cuomo spokesman Josh Vlasto did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
MacEwen, a 75-year-old Republican, said she will be on the ballot this fall for a fifth, full four-year term as clerk of the town of about 6,200 people.
What’ll be interesting is if she wins reelection. Does the Governor forcibly remove her from her job?
Maybe she shouldn’t have the job if she can’t do the job as detailed by today’s laws. Here’s the thing -in America today we’re going to see this all the time. Freedom of conscience is going to match up poorly against the power of the state. All you have to do is look around the world to see how that fight usually ends. Hint- it doesn’t go well for conscience.
The rules that NY legislators put into effect will be meaningless in the future. Somewhere down the road (not that far) some legislators are going to say Catholic schools must accept people who are married to someone of the same sex. And when they don’t the state will toss their tax exempt status. And that’ll start the landslide of taking away tax exempt status from hate groups like…the Catholic Church.
July 5, 2011 at 7:00 pm
Attention: Christians, Muslims and Jews and whoever you are. This is not about religion, religion being man's response to God's gift of Faith, nor is it about conscientious objection to immorality. THIS IS ABOUT UNAUTHORIZED USE OF ANOTHER PERSON’S PREROGATIVE. BARBARA MACEWEN WAS NOT ALLOWED, NOT PERMITTED, WAS DENIED, HER SOVEREIGN RIGHT TO PARTICIPATE IN THE GOVERNING OF THE PEOPLE. Barbara MacEwen's citizenship, her very freedom of speech was stifled at the ballot box. Her sovereign personhood who constitutes our nation was violated, assaulted and battered by those devils in human form, who use assault and battery at every level of human existence to destroy human kind from the face of the earth. The burden of proof is on the usurpers, the arrogant. Let them prove that their unauthorized use of another sovereign person’s suffrage, right to vote, freedom to be heard and participate in the government of the people WAS LEGITIMATE AND CONSTITUTIONAL AND DOES NOT VIOLATE Barbara MacEwen’s citizenship, that Barbara MacEwen has not been objectified and become property of the state, as a tax payer with no voice in government but subject to taxation without representation. THIS IS ABOUT GOVERNMENT OF THE PEOPLE, BY THE PEOPLE AND FOR THE PEOPLE that this nation shall not perish from the face of the earth. LET THE VOICE OF THE PEOPLE BE HEARD AND LISTENED TO. LET THE WILL OF THE PEOPLE FOR THE COMMON GOOD BE FREEDOM FROM TYRANNY.
Here we Americans are fighting for the liberation of oppressed people the world over, that they might be free to vote and participate in the governing of their nation and we are being disallowed to vote in freedom in America. What hypocracy. What waste. What evil in human form. The biggest lie the GREAT LIAR ever tells is that it is all religion and everybody body falls in line. The biggest lie the GREAT LIAR uses to defraud individual of their happiness.
Mary De Voe
July 6, 2011 at 3:32 am
Amendment 14 – Citizenship Rights. Ratified 7/9/1868.
1. All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside. No State shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any State deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.
Barbara MacEwen is disenfrachised and taxed without representation.
Mary De Voe