Make sure your desk is cleaned out, turn in your parking pass and your office key

[bluestateguy]

What? You were expecting an office goodbye party?

http://theadvocate.com/news/12794202-123/for-one-justice-of-the

For one justice of the peace, Supreme Court ruling on same-sex marriage sparks resignation

by mark ballard| [e-mail]

July 01, 2015
8 Comments

While a lot of justices of the peace across the state are wondering just what their obligations are under the high court ruling allowing same-sex marriages, one filed her paperwork and quit Tuesday rather than perform a wedding ceremony for a gay couple.

“It was pretty black and white for me. I wasn’t going to wait for the states to sort it out,” Patricia Gunter, of Pollock, said in an interview Tuesday. She resigned as justice of the peace for District D in Grant Parish, which is in central Louisiana.

Wife of the First Baptist Church’s pastor, Gunter described herself as a conservative Christian who believes the Bible defines marriage as being between a man and woman.

“I can’t uphold the oath that I swore, which states that I will uphold the laws of this state and of the country,” Gunter said.

more

[napkinz]

1. as Betty Bowers says, "if your religion stops you from doing your job ..."

[Ilsa]

12. Brilliant! Thanks! nt

[hollysmom]

2. actually, that is an honest choice,if you won't do your job

quit.

[ejbr]

14. + 1

Don't respect her views, but respect her decision based on those views. I wish her well finding another job as at least she respects the rule of law.

[exboyfil]

24. Yes but I bet she was issuing marriage licenses

to divorcees and Christians to non-Christians. Both proscribed in the Bible.

[yardwork]

25. That's what annoys me. The hypocrisy.

[lonestarnot]

26. No doubt she ground up atheists for the compost pile on her off hours.

[Art_from_Ark]

28. The Bible's actually kind of ambiguous about divorce:

According to Deuteronomy 24, divorce is acceptable.

1 When a man hath taken a wife, and married her, and it come to pass that she find no favour in his eyes, because he hath found some uncleanness in her: then let him write her a bill of divorcement, and give it in her hand, and send her out of his house.

2 And when she is departed out of his house, she may go and be another man's wife.

[exboyfil]

34. So only if the man asks for it

based upon some "uncleanness".

Reinforces another complaint about the Old Testament - it devalues the personhood of women (and this is a less extreme example).

[CanonRay]

42. It appears the Bible is ambiguous about just about everything n/t

[calimary]

3. Well, fair enough, I suppose. If you feel you simply can't do the job then you should resign.

I'd say the same thing to pharmacists who wish to practice medicine without a license when they refuse on their own personal grounds to do their job - of filling prescriptions for, say, contraceptives. That's part of the job. If you can't do the job because your own morality won't allow it, then maybe you need to change jobs.

[napkinz]

4. exactly!

[brer cat]

36. Pharmacists invoking their values

and practicing medicine make me livid. They need to resign or be removed.

[Rhiannon12866]

5. I just called up a thread in Good Reads that expresses my feeling about this:

[pacalo]

44. Excellent!

That's exactly how I feel.

[Rhiannon12866]

45. I thought that summed things up quite nicely.

Awhile ago, a friend who was new to politics asked me what was the difference between liberals and conservatives. He was having trouble remembering which "we" were, LOL. I tried to think of something simple to tell him, so I said that the conservatives are the ones who want to tell everyone else what to do. *sigh*

I got that photo from the link on this thread, some pretty good ones here as well as funny ones:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/1016125730

[Long Drive]

6. Hey Gunter WalMart is hiring

Good luck on minimum wage and no benefits!

[rpannier]

9. Her husband is a minister

He probably has a g/f or b/f on the side and/or is raking in from the till
What until we see his name in some sort of criminal enterprise

[Indydem]

19. What an uneducated, bigoted statement.

Keep your nasty opinions about Christians and / or ministers to yourself.

[rpannier]

20. Feel free to put me on ignore

Because that's the only way you'll be protected from my opinions

[Indydem]

23. I don't have anyone on ignore.

But no one should be subjected to such bigotry. You would never make such generalizations about any other group. Stop with the hate.

[exboyfil]

35. Agree with another poster

I have known many ministers who are very moral. To make such a blanket statement regarding an entire group of individuals is not worthy of this board.

[brer cat]

39. Do you consider bigotry an acceptable liberal or progressive value?

What do you think about burning churches? Is that ok because they are part of "some sort of criminal enterprise"?

[rpannier]

7. Good

That makes 2 I know of that have resigned
If you can't or won't do your job, find another one

[TheCount_]

8. Nice gem from the article:

"Gov. Bobby Jindal and his legal team, however, are advising officials, including justices of the peace, that they don’t have to perform ceremonies or issue licenses or do other work they feel compromises their religious faith."

Good god already, do your job and quit whining. Or I guess it's actually better what people suggested about them quitting. I think a lot of them in Louisiana are just pouting though!

[SoapBox]

10. Buh-Bye!

Nobody needs your type.

[Ex Lurker]

11. Wow, this isn't too far from me

Pollock is about as remote as it gets. I'd be surprised if she performs more than one or two weddings a year of any kind. She could probably just ride it out and take the chance that no gay people in search of a wedding officiant would find their way to her little corner of the world. It shows a kind of integrity to go ahead and resign, I guess.

[Ilsa]

13. Or she was ready to quit anyway, and

now she can blame Gays and the SCOTUS.

[yardwork]

27. It shows a desire to call attention to herself.

National publicity with a nice side of martyrdom. Possibly a GoFundMe account. Lots of attention from the right wing machine.

[dixiegrrrrl]

43. They DO act as if they will be over run with gay applicants, don't they?

[JHB]

15. "...Bible defines marriage as being between a man and woman. "

A man and how many women? If her answer is "one", then her opinion is not as "Bible-based" as she likes to think.

[jaxind]

16. What's this lady's address?

I would love to write this lady a letter and ask her when she served as justice of the peace, before she married the couples, did she ask the couples if they were virgins? Did she ask them if they had ever been divorced before? Did she ask them if they had ever commited adultery? Aren't all of these things against her precious bible?

[RKP5637]

18. She has selective religion. Use what you want and/or make up what you need, then say it's

god's will and/or the bible told me. In my book these individuals are total losers.

[Roland99]

21. She needs this:

[RKP5637]

22. Definitely!!! n/t

[RKP5637]

17. That was easy, if one can't hack the job, then quit, all done, finished. Easy answer! n/t

[dumbcat]

29. I think we have discussed this before

about reasonable accommodation for religious beliefs.

Muslim staff can discriminate based on their religious beliefs.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/10024212947

[Nye Bevan]

30. Surely if a supermarket worker does not want to sell pork for religious reasons,

the thing to do would be to resign?

[exboyfil]

37. That should be between him/her and his/her employer

The employer should have every right to terminate for lack of performance of the job. My wife who was not a party animal so was available for Sunday work was scheduled virtually every Sunday until she quit her job. It was unfair but her union was useless in resolving the situation. A reasonable accommodation would have been to rotate the work between the various staff. Her employer's loss.

[Renew Deal]

31. Quitting is the second best thing to do

"Upholding her oath" is the bet thing to do. She's not choosing that option.

[merrily]

32. She should be ashamed of herself.

Among many other things, she's a pastor's wife who is making up crap about the Bible and then using the crap she made up to justify her bigoted, ugly behavior.

Wife of the First Baptist Church’s pastor, Gunter described herself as a conservative Christian who believes the Bible defines marriage as being between a man and woman

.

First, There is no such thing as believing the Bible defines marriage a certain way. Either the Bible contains a definition of marriage or it doesn't.

Second, It doesn't. Nowhere in the Bible is there a definition of marriage, let alone one that says marriage has to be between A man and A woman.


http://election.democraticunderground.com/10026923675

[Nye Bevan]

33. Her position is the same as President Obama's was in 2008.

It would be good if she could evolve in the same way that he has.

[merrily]

38. Which was not the same as Obama's position in 1994, but that is irrelevant to what I posted.

Which part of my post did you actually agree or disagree with?

BTW, in that video, Obama did not say that he believed that the Bible defined marriage as being between a man and a woman.

[Nye Bevan]

40. "I believe that marriage is between a man and a woman.... for me as a Christian, it is also a sacred

union.... God is in the mix".

I guess you are right, he did not mention the Bible.

[merrily]

41. More to the point, he did not mention a definition in the Bible that does not exist.

As a pastor's wife, I assume she's read the Bible and knows it contains no such definition. Also, her wording is such that I believe she knows it does not. IOW, I think she's lying intentionally.