Reverend Franklin Graham is thrilled that Rowan County Clerk Kim Davis has just been freed after spending five days in a detention facility in Kentucky for her adamant refusal to sign and issue marriage certificates to same-sex couples.
Graham said Davis has shown to the world how true Christians should stand up for their convictions.
"I'm thankful to God for the release of Kim Davis and for all those who have prayed and stood with her as she was jailed... I appreciate the fact that she stood firmly by her strong, heartfelt convictions," he wrote on his Facebook page. "In a day when hardened criminals convicted of violent crimes are too often quickly released from jail, it is a real miscarriage of justice for someone like Kim Davis to be locked up because of her religious beliefs."
Despite this legal victory, Graham believes that Christians in America need to show courage and vigilance in fighting for their religious liberty more than ever. The evangelist said religious discrimination "is in no way over." Davis might have won this round, but other Christians face their own moral battles and need help and prayers.
At the same time, Graham cannot help but shake his head at Republican presidential hopeful Donald J. Trump, who called on Davis to just follow "the law of the land."
"He should know that just because something is made into a law, doesn't make it right," said Graham. "His Scottish Presbyterian ancestors may have been among those who had their heads cut off because they refused to recognise the King of England as head of the church. They believed that Jesus Christ was the head of the church, not the King of England; and they stood for—and died for—those sincerely held religious beliefs."
Americans' freedom of religion came at a great cost, he added, and that was intended for citizens to live out their faith in their daily lives—at home and at work.
