Tennessee Governor Bill Lee Just Signed a Bill Into Law to Protect Public Officials Who Don’t Want to Perform Same-Sex ‘Weddings’

Judges, magistrates, administrators, and clerks in Tennessee who, for religious reasons, want nothing to do with homosexual “marriage” can recuse themselves without facing government retaliation.

Governor Bill Lee of Tennessee has signed a bill into law that protects religious public officials with the authority to issue marriage licenses or officiate weddings.

The Bible teaches that homosexuality is an abomination to God, and that marriage is a union between one man and one woman. For a Bible-believing Christian to perform a “wedding” between two men would violate these beliefs. Lawmakers in Tennessee were determined to protect the conscience or religious beliefs of residents in these jobs. From Liberty Counsel: (emphasis added)

The change in the law does not prohibit “same-sex marriage” or prevent those in same-sex relationships from obtaining a marriage license. Rather, same-sex couples aiming to get married must find an official willing to file the paperwork or officiate the marriage.

Liberty Counsel represents Kim Davis, a former clerk of court in Rowan County, Kentucky. She could have used a law like this. She sought a religious accommodation to issuing marriage licenses to two people of the same sex, but protection for her came too late. Several couples filed lawsuits against her after she declined to issue marriage licenses.

They are still after her for damages.

The U.S. Supreme Court’s ruling in Obergefell v. Hodges (2015) impinged on religious freedom, as Christians knew it would. Five justices came up with the idea that marriage was a fundamental right hidden away in the Fourteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. The court ruled in a similar way in Roe v. Wade in 1973. The founders had no idea that the founding document contained a “right of privacy” for women to kill their unborn babies.

But the Supreme Court eventually overturned Roe.

“No person should have to choose between violating their sincerely held religious beliefs and their livelihood,” Liberty Counsel founder and chairman Mat Staver said. “Kim Davis’ case has the potential to overturn Obergefell v. Hodges and extend the same religious freedom protections to all Americans.”