This afternoon, I went with my fiancé — yes, that’s with one “e” — to apply for a marriage license. The process was quick and easy. We filled out a few forms. The town clerk, Sue, reviewed the forms to make sure we had completed them correctly. After collecting a $10 check, she told us our license would be ready by Friday. (We’re getting married in Massachusetts, which has a three-day waiting period before the license can issue.)

The process couldn’t have been easier. We thanked our lucky stars that we’re not trying to get married in Hood County, Texas, where a gay couple had to file a federal lawsuit to get their license. Or Rowan County, Kentucky, where marriage licenses are still on hold, for gay and straight couples alike:

U.S. District Judge David Bunning denied Rowan County Clerk Kim Davis’s request to delay his ruling from last week ordering her to issue marriage licenses to gay and lesbian couples. That ruling followed the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision in June legalizing same-sex marriage nationwide. But Bunning then delayed his own decision, effectively granting Davis’ request while also denying it…. Bunning acknowledged that “emotions are running high on both sides of this debate” and said he would delay his ruling while Davis appeals to the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals…. What is clear is that Davis will continue refusing to issue marriage licenses to anyone in this county of about 23,000 people, home to Morehead State University in the Appalachian foothills of eastern Kentucky. Until the case is resolved, no new wedding can be legally recognized in Rowan County unless the couple obtain a marriage license somewhere else. “This is not something I decided because of this decision that came down,” Davis testified in federal court last month. “It was thought-out and, you know, I sought God on it.”

So Kim Davis doesn’t want to issue licenses to gay couples because she believes it violates her religious beliefs. Judge Bunning does not agree:

Bunning says no, arguing that Davis is “free to believe that marriage is a union between one man and one woman, as many Americans do.” “However, her religious convictions cannot excuse her from performing the duties that she took an oath to perform as Rowan County Clerk,” he wrote last week.

Exactly. As my colleague Kathryn Rubino previously wrote, “The Obergefell decision requires recognition of gay couples’ secular, civil right to get married. The Supreme Court does not and cannot change anyone’s religious views on the institution of marriage.”

Davis can believe that (religious) marriage is between one man and one woman. Davis can share that view with anyone who will listen. Davis can write op-eds and otherwise exercise her First Amendment freedoms against gay marriage, by working to pass a constitutional marriage enshrining in civic marriage her view of religious marriage. But as a clerk in charge of issuing civil marriage licenses, Davis needs to do her job. As my colleague Elie Mystal put it, “Jesus was all about giving to Caesar what was Caesar’s. Jesus would probably tell [former county clerk Linda] Summers to push her little stacks of paper… or have the stones to QUIT and give away all her stuff so she could pass through God’s needle-sized airport.”

I say all this as someone with fairly moderate views overall on the issue of gay marriage and religious accommodations. Unlike many of my gay friends, I don’t like to call believers in traditional marriage “bigots”; if they are, then I have several “bigots” among my own friends and family. I question the wisdom of using public-accommodations laws to force wedding vendors to serve gay couples; this engenders resentment and is unnecessary, especially when so many wonderful vendors are delighted to work with gay couples.

But town and county clerks, government workers who are paid from taxpayer dollars to administer the laws fairly to all comers, are very different from private business owners who might already turn away clients for all sorts of reasons (see, e.g., the baker who won’t make Halloween cakes as well as gay-wedding cakes). If clerks can’t do their jobs in good conscience, then they should quit. As I tweeted last night, I deeply respect resignation on principle.

Most if not all of the objecting clerks profess to be Christian. As my fiancé recently reminded me, Christianity is all about suffering for your beliefs — not filing lawsuits over them. Look at Jesus himself. He died for our sins; he didn’t sue the Romans for wrongful imprisonment.

(And heck, objecting clerks might not even have to suffer if they don’t want to. I wouldn’t be surprised to see clerks like Linda Barnette, who resigned in dramatic fashion over her opposition to gay marriage, get showered with job offers or even cash from the religious right. Cf. the Indiana pizzeria that raised more than $840,000 after declaring it wouldn’t cater a gay wedding.)

I asked Sue, the town clerk who helped me and my fiancé today, for her thoughts on the controversy over clerks not issuing licenses to gay couples.

“The clerks aren’t the ones getting married,” Sue said to us. “These people need to do their jobs.”

“I know that judges are ordering them to do their jobs,” she added. “I think judges should be ordering them to get new jobs.”

P.S. As noted, I’m more moderate than many gay people on this issue. I’d be okay with objecting clerks keeping their jobs as long as gay couples can still get marriage licenses from the exact same office without any major inconvenience. If there are two or more clerks on hand at all times to process license requests, then it’s fine for one clerk to not deal with the gay couples. Alas, this isn’t how many small municipal offices are staffed; there’s often just one clerk, and that clerk might even be a part-time employee. (We tried going to a different clerk’s office before we went to Sue, but nobody was there — at 2 p.m. on a Tuesday.)

Gay Couples Win, but Still Lose After Kentucky Judge’s Order [ABC News]

Earlier: The Bigoted County Clerk Lawsuit We’ve All Been Waiting For

‘Hero’ Bigot Resigns Rather Than Waste Everyone’s Time With Bulls**t

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