A New York town clerk has decided to use her official (and lowly) government position to impose her religious belief on other Americans and deny them their right to marriage. Rose Marie Belforti, the owner of a dairy farm in a town called Ledyard, is refusing to sign the marriage certificate of a lesbian couple because she believes it's immoral. She apparently has no qualms about breaking her oath to "faithfully discharge the duties of the office of town clerk". I'd be a little surprised if that oath wasn't made over a bible.
When New York first allowed gay marriage, Belforti told the town board that a clerk must be hired to sign marriage licenses for gay couples because she would not do it. While it's legal for a clerk to delegate duties to a clerk, the town didn't have one. With only six local government offices, a clerk was never needed. Simply hiring a clerk may seem like a fair compromise, but this will draw tax money away from other areas to pay for this new position. Sure, one new employee won't break the bank, but why should the burden fall on tax-payers? I wouldn't want one cent of my taxes to pay for someone else to fulfill duties that this woman is perfectly capable of performing herself. Not to mention the fact that she is legally obligated to do so and that refusal to grant a license to an eligible applicant is a crime.
In an attempt to placate those who are justly angered about this fiasco, Belforti is now refusing to sign marriage licenses for anyone. I guess the logic is that if she screws over everyone, then it isn't discrimination.
I don't know where this lady gets the balls to take the law into her own hands, but people like her shouldn't be given any kind of authority that might affect other peoples' lives. Christians claim that American religious freedom grants her the right to not perform duties that go against her faith. Well you should've thought of that before you took a legally binding oath to uphold laws that (technically) have no basis in religion and therefore could come into conflict with religious beliefs. Imagine how those defending this criminal would feel if the town clerk was a muslim who refused to sign a marriage license because alcohol is consumed at weddings.
As of Saturday, September 17th, the U.S. Constitution is 224 years old. But we still can't seem to accept that this nation was not founded on any kind of religious belief. And next time someone tells you that those incorruptible and infallible Founding Fathers endowed this nation with traditional Christian values, remind them of this excerpt from the 1796 Treaty of Tripoli: "the Government of the United States of America is not, in any sense, founded on the Christian religion".
It is funny to think of how people would react if the person was a Muslim. They'd probably throw a big fit.
ReplyDelete