The governor of Alabama, who also serves as a deacon and Sunday school teacher at First Baptist Church Tuscaloosa, says that he will obey the recent federal court ruling striking down the state’s Sanctity of Marriage Act as being unconstitutional.
Gov. Robert Bentley told Politico on Friday while attending a meeting of the National Governor’s Association in Washington, D.C. that he believes he must obey the courts even if he disagrees with them personally.
“[I would] never do anything to disobey a federal court ruling,” he told the outlet when asked about last month’s same-sex “marriage” decision, which Alabama Supreme Court Chief Justice Roy Moore has called on others to fight.
“We are a nation under laws,” Bentley said. “We may not always agree with them, but we obey them.”
The governor, who teaches at First Baptist Church Tuscaloosa under the leadership of Gil McKee, additionally told AlabamaNews that while he and Moore have the same convictions, they differ when it comes to compliance with federal court rulings. He said that he would not punish probate judges who decided to issue same-sex “marriage” licenses, nor those who have refused to do so, but will wait to hear from the U.S. Supreme Court on the issue.
“I don’t want Alabama portrayed in a negative light because when it’s portrayed in a negative light, it doesn’t help me to recruit jobs in Alabama,” he said. “So I’m hurting families when I can’t help people get a job in this state.”
“I want to do everything I can to make sure the people across the country, the people across the world, realize that Alabama is a different state,” Bentley stated. “And I will obey the law and that’s what I’m going to do.”
But Matt Trewhella, pastor of Mercy Seat Christian Church in Milwaukee, Wisc. and author of “The Doctrine of the Lesser Magistrate,” told Christian News Network that Christians should never place man’s decrees above God’s law.
“What must be realized is that the rule of law in Western civilization was built upon the moral law of God as revealed in Scripture,” he said. “The reason homosexuality was illegal throughout Western civilization for nearly 1,500 years was precisely because the moral law of God declared it a crime.”
“So, when you now have law made by men that is contradicting that, men should not recognize it as true law, and men in positions of authority like Bentley should actually oppose such a court ruling,” Trewhella explained.
He said that it is hypocritical for Christians to place “the law of the land” over God, whether it be court opinions affirming homosexuality or the slaughter of millions of innocent babies through abortion.
“This is a huge problem that Christians have in America as they separate their Christianity from their politics,” the pastor and author stated. “It makes it convenient for them to betray Christ, even in office.”
Trewhella said that if Bentley was handling the matter as a biblical Christian, he would join Moore in defending Alabama’s Constitution and resist the ruling.
“[H]e should be doing exactly what Judge Moore is saying, and that is [declaring] that this federal court ruling is immoral and unjust, and we’re not going to recognize it,” he outlined. “He should be defending Alabama’s Constitution from federal tyranny.”
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SOURCE: Christian News Network
Heather Clark
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